- Taschenbuch: 336 Seiten
- Verlag: Tindal Street (1. März 2003)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0954130324
- ISBN-13: 978-0954130329
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 19,6 x 12,4 x 2,8 cm
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 266.140 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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Astonishing Splashes of Colour
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From Booklist
Taking its title from a description of Neverland in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Morrall has created an ethereal novel of loss and redemption that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. While Kitty grew up with four much older brothers and an eccentric father, cared for by all five, she never stops asking questions about the mother she can't remember. Each brother answers differently and her father avoids the subject. When she miscarries her own child and cannot have another, her search for her mother intensifies, becoming confused with a search to replace her lost child. As the story is told through Kitty's engagingly intimate voice, the reader is compelled to follow her wanderings, searches, and flights. Characters are brilliantly drawn, the pacing is perfect, and the tone is never maudlin. A finalist for the Man Booker Prize, this is a novel to be savored. Elizabeth Dickie
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Pressestimmen
"An extremely good first novel: deceptively simple, subtly observed. Moving through Kitty's mental landscape feels like snorkeling through a coral reef."
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13 von 13 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Growing Up Lost
29. November 2003
Format:Taschenbuch
In a weird mood I decided to buy most of the books that were shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize. I read Vernon God Little right after it won, and thought that it was an interesting experiment. Then a couple of days ago I picked up Clare Morrall's Astonishing Splashes of Colour. Is it a better first novel than Vernon God Little? Should it have won the Booker instead? I can't believe how inconsequential the question now seems to me. "DBC Pierre"'s novel was more daring, but it's Clare Morrall's that will remain with me. It's not perfect, but it's astonishingly well written for a first novel (although since Ms Morrall has grown children, according to the blurb, one assumes she has a lifetime of well chosen, deeply embedded reading). There are a couple of plot twists that I should have been anticipating, but frankly I was simply too engrossed with reading the novel to think that far ahead. There are other plot elements toward the end that are not explained at all, although I personally think this may be a strength rather than a weakness: life cannot always be neatly wrapped up in plot denouements. The description in the British paperback I read (with a different, superior cover than the American edition, for what it's worth) describes the novel as a reflection of Morrall's "interest in the dynamics of motherless family life and in synaesthesia -- a condition in which emotions are seen as colours." That makes it all sound very clinical. What it's about is more simply families and children, and the heartbreak you feel when the narrator says four pages from the end, "I don't think I've grown up. I don't feel important enough." If you've ever been a "lost child," or lost a child, or a mother, or a brother, or a sister, read it and respect its hard-earned tears and minor victories.
11 von 12 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
The Colors of a Collapsing World
28. September 2004
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
This first-person novel of a world disintegrating was rightfully short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize. Author Clare Morrall has constructed an unforgettable novel of a woman desperately struggling to make sense of who she is. Kitty sees life in colors - the yellow of motherhood, the pink of her nieces, the blinding white of all colors mixed together in her husband - but these colors, even as they comfort her, remind her constantly that she has lost a child and her ability to have another. Her large family doesn't speak of tragedies and the past, and her husband James is even better at avoidance, as the two live in separate, side-by-side flats. Even though she is loved and protected by her family, she flails through her crisis by herself, with only her therapist to steady her in twenty minute appointments. It becomes apparent from the beginning that Kitty needs a child, and will do or say anything to maintain the illusion that she is a mother. Despite her tottering on the brink of insanity, Kitty's Birmingham, where most of the novel is set, is vivid and alive. Her actions are sometimes chilling and yet they acquire logic through her eyes.
Kitty's voice is consistently believable, and it provides the quiet, driving force of Morrall's novel. Here, insanity has the voice of reason. Even when the plot edges toward the melodramatic, Kitty's narration rescues it. The characterizations aren't always as distinct as they might be, with some of Kitty's brothers melting into each other despite the author's attempts at distinguishing them. Morrall writes, "None of them looked alike, but my memory produced a composite brother," and even this early in the book, it comes across as an excuse. Kitty's husband James is skillfully described through his flat, but when interacting with Kitty, he doesn't always have a shape. Still, the portrait of Kitty's father is sharply realized as are most of the women and girls, most notably the little arsonist Kitty befriends.
In a head-to-head contest with Vernon God Little, the eventual winner of the 2003 Man Booker, this book easily wins my vote. It probes the mind of an emotionally disturbed woman without being gloomy and suffocating and instead opens her world outward and forward. Highly recommended.
Kitty's voice is consistently believable, and it provides the quiet, driving force of Morrall's novel. Here, insanity has the voice of reason. Even when the plot edges toward the melodramatic, Kitty's narration rescues it. The characterizations aren't always as distinct as they might be, with some of Kitty's brothers melting into each other despite the author's attempts at distinguishing them. Morrall writes, "None of them looked alike, but my memory produced a composite brother," and even this early in the book, it comes across as an excuse. Kitty's husband James is skillfully described through his flat, but when interacting with Kitty, he doesn't always have a shape. Still, the portrait of Kitty's father is sharply realized as are most of the women and girls, most notably the little arsonist Kitty befriends.
In a head-to-head contest with Vernon God Little, the eventual winner of the 2003 Man Booker, this book easily wins my vote. It probes the mind of an emotionally disturbed woman without being gloomy and suffocating and instead opens her world outward and forward. Highly recommended.
10 von 11 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
One of the best books I read in 2004
10. Januar 2005
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR by Clare Morrall
January 9, 2005
A favorite book of mine from 2004, ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a great character study about a woman with Synesthesia who has a hard time coping with the world. She seems to have the mind of a child at times, although she lives in her own place (across the way from her husband), earns a living by writing book reviews for children's books, and seems at first glance to be a very normal and stable adult.
However, upon closer look, things look quite differently. Kitty Wellington seems to be on the verge of falling apart. She spends her days looking for her child Henry. She also seems to end up on the bus a lot, going nowhere, sometimes coming home early in the morning. Her need to be awake is sometimes so intense, for she fears her dreams.
She also has a deep need to find out more about her mother. Because her mother died when she was only 3 years old, she has very little memory of her, and what she does remember she believes are false memories. Her brothers won't help her, saying it's been too long ago for them to remember a thing. Even her father refuses to help her out.
While at first her behavior didn't seem too abnormal, it comes to a point where she begins to do things that are totally irresponsible. When she begins to behave erratically, such as taking a baby that doesn't belong to her, her family realizes that she needs help, fast.
ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a truly fascinating look at a woman whose mental state is slowly deteriorating. It is difficult to like a character such as this, because often times the reader will not know whether to sympathize with her or be angry with her. What I do feel, though, is that this was a great reading experience and it is a book that I will not forget for a very long time. The Ratmammy gives this book 5 stars.
January 9, 2005
A favorite book of mine from 2004, ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a great character study about a woman with Synesthesia who has a hard time coping with the world. She seems to have the mind of a child at times, although she lives in her own place (across the way from her husband), earns a living by writing book reviews for children's books, and seems at first glance to be a very normal and stable adult.
However, upon closer look, things look quite differently. Kitty Wellington seems to be on the verge of falling apart. She spends her days looking for her child Henry. She also seems to end up on the bus a lot, going nowhere, sometimes coming home early in the morning. Her need to be awake is sometimes so intense, for she fears her dreams.
She also has a deep need to find out more about her mother. Because her mother died when she was only 3 years old, she has very little memory of her, and what she does remember she believes are false memories. Her brothers won't help her, saying it's been too long ago for them to remember a thing. Even her father refuses to help her out.
While at first her behavior didn't seem too abnormal, it comes to a point where she begins to do things that are totally irresponsible. When she begins to behave erratically, such as taking a baby that doesn't belong to her, her family realizes that she needs help, fast.
ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a truly fascinating look at a woman whose mental state is slowly deteriorating. It is difficult to like a character such as this, because often times the reader will not know whether to sympathize with her or be angry with her. What I do feel, though, is that this was a great reading experience and it is a book that I will not forget for a very long time. The Ratmammy gives this book 5 stars.
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