A fascinating look at mental illness and the effects it has. Rachel Kelly is bipolar causing her to be both charming and loveable as well as terrible to those around her. As an artist she finds some of her most creative moments are when she is not on her medication causing her to be inspired but emotionally erratic and we see the effects this has on the family who love her. This is an uplifting and inspired novel.
September 2009 Guest Editor Emily Barr on Notes from an Exhibition by PATRICK GALE
Another Cornish author, Gale portrays Cornwall, and particularly Penzance, in such a vivid way that you almost feel you can step into the story. His lightness of touch in dealing with skeletons in family closets, for example, is done with a skill to which I can only aspire, and the narrative is completely gripping.
Four siblings discover truths about their late mother, a troubled artistand themselvesin this ';uplifting, immensely empathetic novel' (The Guardian). Gifted painter Rachel Kelly lived a life of manic highs and suicidal lows. Her husband, a gentle, devout Quaker, gave her a safe haven where she could create and be herself, but her mental illness still took its toll on her family. Now, after a fatal heart attack, a retrospective of Rachel's work attracts art lovers who marvel at her skill, but her grown children are busy coping with the shattering effects of her deathand her life. Her eldest son has been bequeathed a letter that shakes him to his core. Another son reflects on the years he spent trying not to upset his mother's delicate equilibrium while negotiating his own relationship with his lover. The youngest son was much beloved by Rachel, for reasons not everyone knows. And Rachel's only daughter seems to have inherited her talentbut also her demons. Set against the wild and beautiful landscape of Cornwall, this novel by the acclaimed author of A Place Called Winter and A Perfectly Good Man shifts back and forth in time and place as it moves effortlessly between characters, offering a revealing window into the symbiotic relationship between genius and mental illness and the effects both have on maternal love and the creation of enduring art. In the words of Armistead Maupin, ';few writers have grasped the twisted dynamics of family the way Gale has. There's really no one he can't inhabit, understand, and forgive.'
