The Muse

It takes some time to see where this inventively plotted novel is heading, or how its two alternating parts – one set in England in 1967 and the other in the South of Spain in 1936 – connect.In England, Odelle Bastien, an immigrant from Trinidad, has a secretarial job at the Skelton Institute for Art. She has fallen for Lawrence Scott, whose late mother had left him a painting that had meant a lot to her. He knows nothing about it and takes it to the Skelton Institute for their opinion. Edmund Reede, the director of the Institute, and Marjorie Quick, Odelle’s enigmatic immediate superior in different ways (and, as we will see, for different reasons) become very excited by the painting. That is the beginning of an elaborate detective story, full of drama which in one or two places is melodrama.Then we switch to Spain, where we meet the Schloss family: Harold, the Jewish father, had been a Viennese art dealer; Sarah, the non-Jewish and neurotic mother has come from a very wealthy English family; and their daughter Olive. As Nazi influence grows in Austria, they leave the country and spend time in England and, now, in a rented finca in the South of Spain. There are two painters in that part of the story: Olive (whose father believes a woman cannot be a real artist and belittles her work) and Isaac Robles, one of a pair of siblings who works for the family.Back in England, a link is made between the two stories – but it is a misleading one. We will find out later why it is misleading: that strange story is the heart of the novel – an astonishing and almost unbelievable tangle of identities. At one stage I guessed I had untangled it, only to find a very few pages from the end that I was wrong.There is a lot more to the book than the story about the painting: reflections on art, authenticity and fame; a couple of love stories (I thought the description of the women’s initial emotions are on the corny, novelettish side); what it is like to be a West Indian in England; Odelle’s literary ambitions; her friendship with a fellow-Trinidadian, Cynthia; the relationship between Odelle and Marjorie Quick; that between Olive, Isaac and his sister Teresa; the run-up to and then the actual Spanish Civil War (with one truly terrible scene).The book makes for compelling reading. If I give it four stars instead of five, it is because for my taste the story is just a little too contorted.

The MuseI found this book quite difficult to get into. The characters did not come alive in the first half and I found the lack of any apparent connection between the two strands to the story irritating as it went on too long. I am still looking for some significance in the fact that Odelle was newly arrived from the Carribean. The character could have been any young typist/aspiring writer and while there was no reason why she should not be black, the fact that she was, her friendship with Cynthia, the bits of dialogue where they adopted a patois suggested that it was in some way relevant to the plot. If it was then I missed it.It did not really get going for me till we got to the Spanish Civil War. I found Olive's attitude to keeping her talent a secret odd. Isaac was a difficult character. He was supposed to hate being the front man for Olive's art but did nothing about it. Had he not died it would have been unsustainable. I do not like irresponsible people who ignore the consequenses of their actions and continue 'ostrich like' on selfish and obviously doomed paths, on paper or in real life. If Sarah was so much more important to him then why did he have an affair with Olive at all? It was bound to 'end in tears' one way or another. I think the whole  book was lacking in 'strong characters'. Even Quick was dithering and fearful of the secret coming out after so long. I quite enjoyed reading the last part, from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil  War, when the pace picked up but overall after two books I will not be seeking out this author again despite the fact that it was well written.Sue Almond Sent from Samsung tablet

3.5 StarsI found myself a little disappointed, overall, in this book. Whilst I enjoyed Odelle's story in particular I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with Olive and started to skim read her sections. I have read a few books centred around the Spanish Civil War and it just seems to be a period of history that is unable to capture my imagination or hold my interest. It doesn't help that I found Olive to have few redeeming characteristics and, to me, she cam across as completely manipulative, selfish and entitled. Everything I can see (from the words on the page) that we are not supposed to really be feeling about her; nevertheless that is how she made me feel.I was far more interested in Odelle's 1960s London. There was so much left unexplored here that it left me quite frustrated. She is clearly a person of colour, a post-Windrush immigrant that was in a city that was close to embracing segregation and yet this is barely touched on, there are a couple of nods to it but nods are all they are and yet the prevailing attitudes towards the Irish and Coloured (can we use that word now? I use it here because it is contemporary with the setting of the book and less unpalatable than the other most common name bandied about) immigrants were harsh and would have had a major impact on their lives. In some ways Odelle is really just a foil to get Jack's painting seen by the gallery and to expose Olive's story.I also wanted to know much more about the enigmatic, gin swilling, chain smoking Marjorie Quick. Whilst it is true that towards the end of the book we learn much more about her personal history there is so much left unsaid about how she got where she is. Information that I found myself wanting to know, to immerse myself in.Basically, too much time was spent lingering in a parched Spain with Olive, her dissipated mother, distant father, the rebellious Isaac and the disaster zone that was Tere. These were a cast of characters that, whilst I understand their importance to the tale, I learned far too much about and was forced in to the company of. All I really wanted was a swinging Sixties London and the glorious Odelle.