Review: Still Life by Sarah Winman
by The Borrowers Book Group Kesgrave Library
The Borrowers Book Group at Kesgrave Library share their thoughts on Still Life, written by internationally best-selling British author Sarah Winman.
About Still Life
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.
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Book group review
This is a most enjoyable book, beautifully written with vivid descriptions of setting, particularly in Italy, strong characters and lively exchanges of dialogue.
The book takes us on an interesting journey through four decades starting in Italy in 1944 with the Allied advance. We are introduced to the lovely central character, Ulysses, and also to the recurring themes of the book which are lingering descriptions on food, drink, art and relationships. The next section, set around an East London pub in the post-war years, was very slow with more caustic but witty dialogue. Although harder for some of us to get past this section to the more vital and lively development of the story, we meet the key characters and learn how they depend on each other for support, friendship and love through loss of family, poverty and the deprivations of the war.
Once established in Florence, it is like a whole new book with its glorious setting, flowing writing style, dry humour and the wonderful parrot Claude with some great lines. We enjoyed the history and the powerful writing about the 1966 flood, a dramatic event but absorbed into the smooth writing in an understated way. It is a long book and we felt that the final section was possibly superfluous.
Recommendation: An excellent book to read on holiday, not too taxing, plenty of feel-good factor and very amusing dialogue.
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