For fear of suffering my mother’s wrath I finally read Still Life by Sarah Winman.
Still Life – the blurb
1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening.
Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage and relive memories of the time she encountered EM Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view.
Evelyn’s talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses’ mind that will shape the trajectory of his life – and of those who love him – for the next four decades.
Moving from the Tuscan Hills and piazzas of Florence, to the smog of London’s East End, Still Life is a sweeping, joyful novel about beauty, love, family and fate.
Firenze, globes and…..tripe
After my mom read and loved this book she bought it for me for my birthday and has nagged me ever since to read it. Fed up of eye rolling at the nagging I pushed it to the top of the queue and took pleasure in announcing I had started to read it.
Initially I found it slow. Whilst I immediately liked Evelyn (who looked a decade younger due to cold water swimming and cod liver oil) it took time to bed down. I just got used to 1944 Italy before it jumped to London and a whole load of characters beginning with C. Cast assembled however the real story started when Ulysses, Alyc and Cress (and a surprise stowaway) head back to Florence. It is here the book and it’s characters come alive. We watch as they are introduced to Italian food, discover poetry and A Room With A View. I need to read that book now! Yet considering the book is named after an art form you don’t need to be knowledgeable in art to read it. Still Life is a love letter to Florence, to art and to queerness. But it is the bond of it’s characters that makes it. There is love, heartbreak and humor many, many times. And of course the magnificent bird that is Claude.
A number of real life events and people are loosely incorporated. It’s actually the second book I have read recently that has dealt with the flooding in Italy in the 60s. Coupled with this are certain magical elements – a talking tree, uncanny sporting visions. They work really well together with just enough of each to balance out. Winman doesn’t always follow every point through to conclusion which makes it feel more real and you are left to ponder certain questions which I won’t dwell on here for plot spoilers. It’s fair to say the characters will remain with me for a long time and I would like more than anything to pull up a chair at Michele’s and eat spaghetti with them all. Just no tripe please!