Resumo de Astonishing Splashes Of Colour

* Astonishing Splashes is a debut

novel and was short listed for Man Booker Prize in
2003.

One of the high points of this

compelling novel is its strong narrative. The narrator

Kitty Wellington is very perceptive , she draws the
reader

into her world , her own realm , her own emotional
sphere.

Morall with her simple style apparently presents a

disturbing work of fiction. But the narrative tends to
be

least depressing and far from melodramatic with its
matter-

of-fact voice.

The plot starts off with
Kitty

feeling empty within craving for a child and in need of
a

mother. She tries to build a family around herself ,
the

elusive comfort zone. The motif of the novel throughout
its

length is - loss. She is brought up in a motherless
family

of a painter father and four brothers - Adrian , Paul ,

Jake and Martin. These characters are refreshingly
built

with each one of them having his own eccentricities.
This

male dominated family leads to Kitty searching for
herself

and her lost mother. It is apt when she describes
herself

as a pet in the house , some one non functional. As
in ,

some one who exists and has to be taken care of.
period .

Her attempts to voyage into the family?s past are
thwarted.

What she ends up with are bits and pieces of the past.
But

the bombshell is thrown at her when truth arrives right

before her in all its force. The day comes along when
she

is left to cope with not just the loss of her mother
but

with not knowing what the true identity of her mother
is.

Truth skims along in vivid splashes of colour.
Synaesthesia

chases her a wee bit more ardently then , a condition
in

which emotions are seen. Clare Morall?s writing even at

this stage remains simple , the reader must think a
second

thought to notice Kitty?s internal turmoil.

The story comes a circle , it

ends where it all began. It regains its initial
momentum.

So, one might just wonder what the whole point of the
novel

is. But through the length of the story , Morall does a

good job in showing the dynamics of Kitty?s mind and
her

daily life. The way Kitty starts off with her journey

afresh is quietly shaking. The contrast between Kitty?s
and

James? personality is stark. Her cluttered colourful
world

as compared to his spacious black and white world
deserves

a good dekko. On the whole, a moving piece of fiction.

Lakshmi Vishwanathan

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