That Just Happened!

Urquhart, Jane.  The Underpainter.  McClelland& Stewart Ltd. (1997).

The Underpainter is a novel of interwoven lives in which the world of art collides with the realm of human emotion. It is the story of Austin Fraser, an American painter now in his later years, who is haunted by memories of those whose lives most deeply touched his own, including a young Canadian soldier and china painter and the beautiful model who becomes Austin’s mistress. Spanning decades, the setting moves from upstate New York to the northern shores of two Great Lakes; from France in World War One to New York City in the ’20s and ’30s. Brilliantly depicting landscape and the geography of the imagination, The Underpainter is Jane Urquhart’s most accomplished novel to date.

From the Back Cover

I really enjoyed this book.  I found myself constantly surprised that this was written by a woman, as the book is written very convincingly from the male perspective.  Perhaps it is just a woman’s interpretation of the male perspective, but being a woman myself, I fail to see the flaws.  However, ignorance is bliss and I thought the book was very well written.

Austin is a stodgy old man who finds himself reliving his past through his paintings and his final painting brings the conclusion of his tale. I found the changes between memory and current era were simple and flowed together to create this story.  Austin is not really a man you grow to like, but find you want him to see the error of his ways and continue to read to see if he does.  He is self-involved and cruel to his friends and mistress, often lacking in social graces. He is unable to see the pain he is causing because he views his actions and reactions through his own filter. 

Urquhart wrote a beautiful novel about a man on a quest to find the truth in life, without knowing he is even on it.  Themes are love, friendship and self-awareness.

I read this book for my GG Literary Award Challenge.