I have just finished reading Still Life by Sarah Winman. This has become the second best book I have ever read, the best being Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
We read Still Life as part of the Massey University Book Club and I had no great expectations for the read.
Then POW! it hit me from the very first page. I was enthralled, something which doesn't happen a lot in your late sixties.
The book is set in Florence and the East End of London and has an eclectic group of characters, most of them delightful, only one real rotter in the bunch.
The story starts in the last days of World War II. Ulysses Temper, the main character is the driver for an English officer Captain Darnley. As they have driven up Italy from South to North, Darnley, a well educated man, has been introducing Ulysses to Italian culture and art with Ulysses being a keen learner.
The Germans had been pilfering art works so many of the art treasures of Florence had been hidden out of harms way and were now being rescued and sent back to the owning galleries. Evelyn Skinner, an art historian, meets Ulysses by chance and asks him how she can contact the Army folk responsible for recovering the works of art. She is an older women in her early sixties. Ulysses is 23 at the time. An unlikely friendship arises and this is one of the main threads of the story which actually covers Evelyn's life from the early 1900's when she first visited Florence.
Just before Ulysses returns to England he rescues a suicidal Italian man who is about to jump from above a local restaurant. After the rescue they spend several hours together though Ulysses speaks very little Italian and the Italian man does not speak English. Their conversation is accompanied by wine and food.
Ulysses returns to the East End of London where he works at a public house. His estranged wife, Peg, has had a child fathered by an American soldier while Ulysses was overseas. This daughter, Alys, becomes another major character in the book. Peg asks for a divorce which Ulysses agrees to but he takes responsibility for Alys along with Peg.
The man who Ulysses saved from suicide dies several years after the war ends and leaves Ulysses his pensione, and Ulysses and Alys move to Florence. The pensione has two stories so they start taking in guests and over time many of Ulysses friends visit. An old friend, Cress, also accompanies Ulysses and Alys.
Over the years a number of friendships develop and provide a captivating panorama of life in Florence including the floods in the 1960's which damaged many of the art works and books that had escaped the war.
I was mesmerised by the book and also listened to the audio book which is narrated by Winman herself.
This is a book that will stay with me for life and I have already started my reread!
If you are interested in art, history, Italy, relationships both heteronormative and LGBTQIA+ then this may be the book for you.
Going to Florence is now on my bucket list.
DK
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