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Notes from an Exhibition

Patrick Gale

Paperback | Pages: 377 pages

Rating: 3.86 | 7444 Users | 518 Reviews

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Original Title:	Notes from an Exhibition
ISBN:	0007254660 (ISBN13: 9780007254668)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Garfield, Morwenna, Hedley, Rachel Kelly, Antony
Setting:	Penzance, England(United Kingdom) Cornwall, England(United Kingdom)
Literary Awards:	British Book Award Nominee (2008), Booksellers Association Independent Booksellers' Prize (2008)

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At first I wondered if this novel was going to be just another telling of a dysfunctional family where the children return home after the death of a parent and make peace with their past and each other . But this was different - it was definitely not predictable. The center of the story is Rachel Kelly, an artist who is bipolar. The narrative moves back and forth in time, not in chronological order, from multiple points of view - Rachel , her husband Anthony, a stoic and devout Quaker , their four children , and others , each beginning with a description of one of her works.

There are poignant moments when her youngest son carries home from the beach stones representing each of the family members and doesn't want to leave any behind even the heavier ones because "it's us." There are sad moments when a traditional birthday celebration with Rachel and each of her children turn out not as happy as we would have hoped . There are learning moments as I knew very little about Quakerism. Their individual stories unfold slowly through their chapters as well as those of their siblings and parents ,and reveal how they have been affected by their mother , their wife and how they were inevitably affected by her mental illness, by her art and creatively. It is just as much their story as it is Rachel's.

There are things we don't know for a while. We know little about Rachel's past and neither does her family until more than halfway through. We don't know until close to the end what happened to Petroc and for most of the book we know little about her daughter Morwenna, who has inherited her mother's talent as well as her illness. This was a compelling read for me because from the beginning I wanted to know these things and to understand these characters. It's not an easy subject matter to portray, but Gale has elegantly done so. This is the first book I have read by Gale and I will almost certainly read more.

Thanks to Open Road Media for making available this previously published novel , which I may not have found if it were not made available on NetGalley.

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Title	:	Notes from an Exhibition
Author	:	Patrick Gale
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 377 pages
Published	:	2008 by Harper Perennial (first published July 2nd 2007)
Categories	:	Fiction. Contemporary. Art. Health. Mental Health

Rating Containing Books Notes from an Exhibition

Ratings: 3.86 From 7444 Users | 518 Reviews

Appraise Containing Books Notes from an Exhibition

Loved the multiple narrators and the visiting of the same characters at different times of their lives to try and build up a picture of a person - much like a work of art that changes based on so many outside factors. Very compelling character study of a novel.

This was a really clever book which drew me on and into the lives of the characters. It starts with an artist's death and then the book is a cleverly constructed look at the lives of all who were intertwined with her. When i say constructed that might give the wrong impression because I didn't feel it was a construct but each chapter is headed by the note from a particular piece of Art in the posthumous showing of Rachel Kelly's work. The first few chapters i found a little frustrating because I

Somewhere between a four and a five (this was beautiful and compelling, but also a little frustrating) this family saga follows Rachel, an artist, and her husband and children - their lives after and before her death. It was a slow reveal, histories teased out in chunks from different times and viewpoints, explanations delivered piecemeal. The writing was delightful, and I thought the characters (mainly) well described and interesting. I just was left a little irritated at the indulgence of

Given high praise from Stephen Fry on the front cover, so I decided to review this one for the student newspaper. It was disappointing.We meet manic-depressive artist Rachel at various stages of her life; as a precocious student, a promiscuous teen and an unloving mother; but never as a likeable character. Her lack of maternal feeling makes it difficult for the reader to have compassion for the tortured artist, who seems nothing more than a vessel for her mental disorder.The novel is written

What can I add to the many reviews here - except perhaps that I have read most of Patrick's work (not in order I hasten to add) and this is one of his best. This author is one of, if not the most consistent current writers who just lives and breathes life, particularly family life with so much fine detail and with such warmth and emotion. Every one of his novels takes you on a journey, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, always with a depth and clarity his fellow novelists don't match. Cornwall is

I really enjoyed this book, Rachel,an artist and suffering bipolar working frenetically when poorly producing some of her best work. The paintings make part of a posthumous exhibition and the notes relating to each one are the prefix of each chapter tenuously linking elements from the chapter to the notes. She was not immediately likeable, seeming selfish, driven and sometimes unkind. Not until the second half of the book did her secrets begin to unravel and provide reasons for her behaviour and

Putdownable: I've nothing against book groups. Discussing one's reading with a friend, like judging someone irrevocably by what they've got in their bookcase (or total absence thereof), is one of life's small pleasures. I dislike the desperate attempts by publishing and media conglomerates to monetise them. Notes From An Exhibition is a tolerable enough book - it trundles along fairly pleasantly with few surprises or revelatory moments - but I kept wondering if it had been written with industry