Book Review: Still Life

The Book: Still Life by Sarah Winman

Stars: 4.5

My first book of the year and I've not been disappointed. When a book sits in Dymocks "Book of the Year" table I often worry, or ignore the book as it's not my genre. 

I'm glad I didn't let this one pass. 

This is glorious. Part English Patient, part All the Light We Cannot See, part A Room with a View, with a bit of Tea with Mussolini thrown in for good measure. 

Goodreads describes the story as this: 

"Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades. 

As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot -- a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics -- he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills." 

For those who don't like war stories, the war bits are very limited. 

What this book excels at is deftly drawing out a throng of wondeful charcters and describing, Florence, Tuscany and the East End of London wiht a deftness rarely seen.

Part way through the book I was completely in love with Ulysses, Cressy, Col, Peg, the kid, Evelyn, Massimo and of course, Claude the Parrot. 

The stories which come out over the course of the novel's 40 years are marvellous. It looks at Florence with a lover's gaze - just like EM Forster did in A Room with a View (who appears in cameo in the end of the book). I will also say that A Room with a View was the film which made me want to go to Italy

I really enjoyed this. It's my cup of tea.And even though the author chose not to use quotation marks, and she has a few mor quirks in style, her prose is gorgeous. 

This was a  great way to start the reading year. 

Still Life comes highly recommended. And if you don't like it, your mum will. 

Today's song: