A Whiter Shade of Pale (Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Clare Morrall)

Member Name: helencb

Product:	Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Clare Morrall
Date:	17/03/05 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: unputdownable

Disadvantages: in some ways almost too short

Astonishing Splashes of Colour is the first novel by Clare Morrall and was shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize 2003. The book itself is the first published book by its author, and I think it was the Astonishing Splashes of Colour that make up its cover that attracted me towards its purchase in the first place. The title itself is inspired by Peter Pan, “For the Neverland is always more or less an Island with astonishing splashes of colour here and there”.

The book itself is narrated by the fictional character Kitty Wellington, and is set in a familiar part of Birmingham that is Edgbaston in the present time. Kitty herself is the youngest of six adult children, including a runaway elder sister who she does not remember, and four older brothers. Kitty does not remember her Mother either, as she died in a car accident when she was three years old.

For the bulk of the book, Kitty herself speaks of a time as a 30 something married female who is clearly suffering from severe depression, as a result of both a stillborn baby boy, and the fact that she has never had a maternal influence. At the age of 25 she met and subsequently married James, a well paid but perhaps geeky and physically challenged computer programmer who had a flat in the same block. Their relationship is touching yet also so very frail in that they have maintained their separate living accommodations despite having been married several years.

Kitty’s Father, who has raised the children single handedly since the death of their Mother, is a successful painter and artist, and indeed the memories of an older father (45 years older) and a young daughter are so very touching throughout. He also comes across as somewhat of a control freak, particularly when she decides to buy her own flat at the age of 25 without prior consultation.

Although I have to admit not having heard of this term before, the character is also suffering from Synesthesia, a complex cognitive state relating to stimuli and colours. This explains why she could not move in with James her husband, due to the bareness, orderliness and neutral colours of his flat compared to her own and that of the home she was brought up in.

I simply could not put this book down. I completed it in just two or three hours. I enjoyed it for its storytelling style and even for the familiarity that I have with the everyday ground that the character covered living in central Birmingham.

In many ways Kitty seemed to be the glue that bound her family together. Her four brothers, all different but all successful yet none of them would ever give her answers on her missing sister or what her Mother was like, with descriptions so varied, Kitty would be forgiven for thinking they were describing different women.

The style of writing is very straight-forward, and very matter of fact. There isn’t any opportunity for sympathy, but there are plenty of questions and unfortunately fewer answers for Kitty. In many ways although on the face of it the family are close by, as the reader I was often struck by how remote they actually were. Kitty and James could not communicate about their dead child, and indeed neither could the rest of the family who could only ask about medication when Kitty’s behaviour wasn’t always the norm.

There are several twists and turns towards the latter part of the book including a very unexpected ending, and I am positive that I was not anticipating most of them. As the scenes and the history unfold themselves I think it is impossible not to be moved for Kitty’s sake and for the loss she has suffered.

What really struck me was her desperation at not being able to have another child after the death of her own baby boy, and the desperate measures that she went to, all narrated in the most simple matter of fact way, with alarming consequences for the average reader.

But it is not a depressing or sad book, it is simply a book about everyday life, and everyday living, highlighting that we can often be physically close to our families yet emotionally still miles apart.

328 Pages, Published by Tindal Street Press, Birmingham cover price £7.99, and well done to them for their recognition of their local author’s talent.

Highly Recommended.

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