If you are a regular visitor here you'll know that I try to put up a painting every Saturday, and frequently these will on the theme of Girl (or Woman/Man/Boy) Reading. So this book, Katie Ward's first, seemed an obvious choice. But is it a novel or is it a collection of short stories? Well, if you can believe this, I think it is both.
The concept is very clever. Each chapter/story is based on an exisiting painting or photograph, and these are listed at the end, so you can google them (I've put a few together further down this page) -- but oh how I did wish the images could have been included in the book. And of course each is a portrait of a girl or woman with a book. So there's a breathtaking sweep through time here from the early middle ages to the present day -- and then there's the final chapter, of which more in a minute. So, to give just a few examples, the Elinga image tells the story of the girl in the painting, who turns out to be the painter's maid -- the woman in the Kauffman is a portrait of the dead lover of an impoverished female aristocrat in 18th century France -- the woman in the photo is a famous 19th-century medium -- and so on. These are not, though, the real stories behind the paintings -- they are what the novelist has imagined. Are you with me so far?
There are tiny links to be discerned between the first six chapters, but it's the seventh chapter that really pulls the whole thing together in rather a remarkable way. I don't want to give too much away, but this one is set in 2060, a somewhat dystopian, though only too plausible, future in which visual art has been locked away and can only be seen through the sophisticated virtual reality system called 'the mesh', in which most people spend most of their waking hours. The story is about a female artist who has created a mesh-based art work called The Sibyl. This is a figure of a woman which has somehow developed a life of its own, in that it can interpret works of art, but interprets them differently for each viewer. You'd have to read it to get the full implcations of this, but clearly it has something to say not only about the book itself but about art in general and about the roles of the artist, the critic and the viewer. Amazing stuff. The story ends with yet another image, but I must say I was not sure of the implications of the final paragraph and would love to talk to someone else who's read it. So if that's you please email me to tell me what you think it means.
The book comes with a strong endorsement from Hilary Mantel -- 'a debut of rare originality and distinction'. You can see why she liked it as it is beautifully written and wonderfully imagined and observed -- indeed sometimes the prose reminded me of Wolf Hall rather powerfully (present tense historical writing). But don't let that put you off, if it would, as Katie Ward is a pretty special new voice and deserves to be read.
Virago thought I'd like it and I did, so thanks to them.
