BR: A window across the river (Brian Morton)

Amazon Link: A window across the river.

The back cover reads:

Isaac and Nora haven’t seen each other in five years, yet when Nora phones Isaac late one night, he knows who it is before she speaks. The two rediscover their love, and Nora, a writer, is soon on fire with the best work she has ever done. Absorbed by her writing, she doesn’t realise at first that her story is a fictionalize portrait of Isaac, exposing his frailties and compromises, sure to be viewed by him as a betrayal. The conflict tests the limits of their relationship and raises deeply complex questions about how we remain faithful to our calling if it estranges us from the people we love.

Nora has a gift, though it seems more a curse. She is a writer, a gifted one at that, however her creativity is restricted to portraying those she loves. The more she cares about a person, the more able she is to characterize them (often unfavourably) in her stories. To this end she seems more a biographer with a creative whim, than a writer.

It is a writer’s responsibility to give life to their characters, to make them living, breathing, solid people for a reader to interact with, however a writer’s true worth comes from their ability to synthesis their experiences, interactions, observations, into characters whom are new, unique, whole-souled individuals who exist as though they are real, yet they do not exist anywhere else. They may possess similar traits to living people, to loved ones, or acquaintances, but they should not personify them. If they do, then it’s not fiction, it’s something else, journaling maybe, or a form of real life fan-fiction.

I found it difficult to like Nora. She cared for others, had genuine feelings for others, yet could not prevent herself from betraying them through the written word. The novel cover raises the question of whether we can remain faithful to our calling if it estranges us from the people we love. Though, in this novel’s universe, Nora’s writing was well accepted, even rewarded, I found it hard to accept her as a fiction writer.

I felt closer to Isaac, a long term friend of Nora’s who has always imagined that one day they would live happily ever after together. Isaac is a photographer, in his early forties (whereas Nora is 35), skilled but not blessed with some intangible quality that would make his work magnificent. He feels that failure, and observes younger artists who achieve greatness with comparative ease.

Nora and Isaac are flawed, no more than you or I, and no less than. Nothing startling happens in the story, no great drama, no unraveling of dark secrets, no big mysteries, just two people trying to work out their place in the world, and how their creativity (their art) fits into that. Both characters made generalizations about others in their world – younger and older people, those who were alone and those who were not. Nora, especially, viewed her peers in a harsh light, and often-times she cast that on herself.

It’s an entertaining read, well written, engaging and thought provoking. I couldn’t help but wonder about my own place in the world, my commitment to achieving my dreams, my future and what it might hold.

Rating. ****1/2 (out of five).