Life Drawing by Robin Black
- Book: Life Drawing
- Location: Pennsylvania
- Author: Robin Black
“The basil I am eyeing with such irritation is rampant. The air smells of it and of lavender. Owen and I are enthusiastic, ignorant gardeners. We are inadequately attentive. We are perpetually amazed. We are innocents to nature, stupefied by its every trick. Even as I am annoyed with myself for letting the basil go to seed. I am also in awe of it. Magic! These beings that continue to grow, that know what to do next, and next, and next.” (Page 7) These are the words of Augusta, the book’s heroine as she introduces the reader to their life in a farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside.
“Built in 1918, it was exactly the kind of lovely we’d been looking for. We saw it first on a breezy day in May when the land shimmered with every leaf imaginable, from ground to sky. I thought we’d stumbled onto the hidden spot in which the universe tested out its most exquisite shades of green. The pond, perfectly round, had a fairy tale look, frog princes poised to set themselves on its edge. I have fallen in love very few times in my life, and once was with those seven acres. Our home, on that day.” (Page 10)
The story revolves around the lives of Owen and Augusta, and Owen’s death. Owen and Augusta are a middle aged, childless couple who have recently relocated to the countryside from urban Philadelphia. He is a writer of well-liked, but seldom read, literary fiction and she is a painter and sometimes teacher, whose affair with a former student’s father precipitated their relocation.
Like the basil Augusta tries (but fails) to tame in the beginning of the story, the roots of this couple’s love, friendship and work spreads, entwining all that surrounds them with their branches and undergrowth. As they live in a remote area, their involvement spreads only as far as their new neighbour–Alison Hemmings–a beautiful British divorcee with a troubled and inquisitive daughter. As their tendrils spread, so do their weeds, and when Augusta begins confiding in Alison about her affair with the student’s father, she does so unaware that Alison’s daughter is also party to her secrets.
Like its title, Life Drawing paints a picture of a life–two lives–encompassing past, present and future in its realistic mural. “Life. It begins and begins and begins. An infinite number of times. It is all beginnings until the end comes. Sometimes we know it and sometimes we do not, but at every moment life begins again.”
The heroine, Augusta, paints landscapes but as the story progresses, she takes up life drawing. On the day the builders renovate their bathroom, she discovers a pile of twisted up old newspapers, once used as a form of insulation. In need of a project, she irons them, revealing faces and stories from decades before. “The ironing process became all about restoration for me. Restoration, clarity. And then, also, loss. War. 1918. World War 1. Crumpled newspaper with body counts. With surges of hope, documented. Defeats. Deaths and more deaths. Homecomings and more deaths.” (Page 15)
She takes her material from the obituaries of young soldiers from World War 1, soldiers so young they were practically children. Through her efforts she tries to understand herself in relation to others, to her art and to the area she now lives in and its place in history. Of course, it’s not all revelation and understanding, there is a good dose of intrigue, mystery and betrayal in this book which will keep you turning pages until you reach the end.
Life Drawing is skilfully written with the eye of a visual artist and the pen of a poet. If you enjoy becoming immersed in your surroundings, the characters and history which inhabit them, then you’ll enjoy reading this book. I know I did.
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