By Jane Gallagher
“Notes From An Exhibition� begins with the death of brilliant artist Rachel Kelly. But she is much more than that as the story slowly unfolds.
A mother of four, a wife and a woman both blessed and cursed with bipolar disorder. We briefly meet Rachel as she rises from her slumber to answer her artistic calling in the first chapter before her swift demise.
But it is what she leaves behind that provides the narrative force. In the studio where she dies, along with the half-eaten chocolate biscuits where her teethmarks still remain, are a series of startling new work.
The “Notes From An Exhibition� form the chapter headings which chart a posthumous exhibition of her work. Each note relates a scene from Rachel’s past life or throws open the story to the aftermath of her death. Scene by scene the reader pieces together the impact this brilliant but troubled woman has on her husband and four children. It is an achingly beautiful portrait of family life which, despite its subject matter is ultimately uplifting.
A published author for more than 20 years Patrick Gale is the youngest of four children. He was born on 31 January 1962 on the Isle of Wight, where his father was prison governor at Camp Hill.
He was sent to boarding school at eight and after graduating with an English degree from New College, Oxford in 1983 he moved to London where he started writing his first novel while earning a living as a typist, a singing waiter, a designer’s secretary, a ghost-writer for an encyclopedia of the musical and, increasingly, as a book reviewer.
Following the publication of his first two novels in June 1986 he moved to Cornwall where he still lives.
Patrick took a break from writing his latest novel to talk to us.
Jane: What do you think Rachel's story reveals?
Patrick: I hope it reveals that mental illness doesn't always result in suicide and devastation, that some people do withstand it and go on to achieve great things, not least raising a family. I hope, too that it shows there are no shades of black and white in "damaged" families - that there are usually several sides to every story and that one man's neglected childhood will be another's happy memories.
Jane: Apart from Cornwall which you have already explained about whychoose the locations of Toronto and Oxford?
Patrick: Oxford because I know it well (and I'm lazy!). Oxford is also especially miserable when cold and wet and I wanted somewhere that would provide a radical contrast to Penzance, not just in its weather but in the whole flavour of the place. As for Toronto, Rachel had to be Canadian or at least travelling on a Canadian passport so as to have an unlimited length of stay in England and no particular hassle when she married an Englishman. I wanted her to be transatlantic but I also wanted her to have a particular kind of strength and rectitude I've noticed in Canadian women. Quite by chance I was able to draw on the detailed memories of two Canadians, one a fellow novelist, one a fan, for the Toronto chapters which was lucky because it's a place I've never been!
Jane: All of the main characters in the novel have a depth to them that the reader cares about. Could there be a sequel?
Patrick: Absolutely not. I think the book's structure is so very particular and odd that it would be hard to follow with anything that didn't feel somehow weak and diluted by comparison. However I've a weakness for revisiting my characters so don't be surprised if one or another of these ones doesn't pop up in another novel some day.
Jane: When did you first realize that you had to write?
Patrick: It crept up on me. I'd always been a writer (see above) but precisely because it seemed to be something for which I had a natural facility I never thought it would become a job. I thought I was going to be a musician and then that I was going to be an actor. Even when I wrote my first novels, in my early 20s, I didn't take them terribly seriously and would have thrown them aside in a flash if someone had offered me a place at drama school. I think it was when I was writing my third, and took nearly a year's housesitting work in a remote French village, that I really woke up to the fact that this was the job that had claimed me.
Jane: Do you believe writers are born not made?
Patrick: It's certainly not a job everyone can learn to do well, however hard they try, which seems to imply that there's an element of "gift" involved. I certainly think a lot of novelists have rather odd childhoods; something often happens to give them an early habit of observing rather than participating...
Jane: What aspects of your writing career gives you the greatest
satisfaction?
Patrick: I love hearing from (happy) readers that some part of a novel of mine has had an emotional impact on them. I also love the performance side, the reading in public.
Jane: Can you describe a typical working day when you are writing a novel?
Patrick: I think best in the mornings so try to start writing as soon after breakfast as possible. Weather allowing I like to work outside so I can't be interrupted or tempted away so often I'll take the dogs down to a favourite field near the sea and spend the morning there. I write in longhand, hence the mobility! Once a book has really built up a head of steam I find I can work on it all afternoon as well but usually the afternoons are for reading, research or, my favourite displacement activity, gardening.
Jane: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Patrick: Read as much and as widely as you can and keep doing so. Reading is the very best writing tuition and you'll soon get into the habit of analysing why some books work and others don't. Get into the practice of paying especial attention to the interesting failures - what was interesting and why did they fail? Remember, once you've decided you're a novelist, no experience, no job, no relationship, however awful, will be wasted on you.
Jane: What are you working on at the moment?
Patrick: It's a love story about the difficulty of being true to a romantic dream while burdened with being a carer.
Jane: Can you tell us the last three books you read?
Patrick: Yes. A wonderful collection of stories by a Chinese Canadian called Madeleine Thien "Simple Recipes". The Gift of Rain, a gripping account of the Japanese invasion of Malaya by Tan Twan Eng and a quirky account of a gay man's search for the One True Love - "Fifty Ways to Say Goodbye" by Nick Alexander.
For more information about Patrick’s earlier books visit www.galewarning.org
ends
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »