I finished the last page last night and I loved this book. It surprised me with some of the turns it took, I wasn't expecting it to end up where it did.
Lindsay told me she'd cried buckets when she read it so I must say I was worried as I'm particularly weak these days when it comes to sad stories. It was heart breaking, but it moved me so much that I couldn't stop reading. The passages about loss were so real to me - perhaps because the character speaking had so much in common with Ella - the way that he spoke, the questions he asked, it was so her it was eerie.
I don't know if it's just my reaction, but I always find it so fascinating when I read a book where the main character or voice is the opposite sex to the author, as was the case here. At the very beginning I find it quite disconcerting and am constantly reminding myself that she is a he or vice versa. Ultimately however, I feel I have so much more admiration for believing the character, for I wonder how a she could become a he - the voice, the everything. I wonder about authors who do this well, about their personality that I imagine to be so very rich.
I also marvelled at the art references in this book. At the very end in the acknowledgements Siri referenced a lot to studies that the character Violet referred to, but not to the art references, which leads me to assume that they were completely fictional. If that's the case, I'm amazed again. If I were at all painterly (is that a word?), I would so want to produce the works that Siri potentially imagined in this book. I personally think they would be the most amazing series of works if they could be brought to life as she wrote them - I was enthralled.
As I think I've mentioned before - I'm a loyal reader, I find an author I like and I devour their works - I'll have to resist to move straight to another of hers.
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