Astonishing Splashes of Colour
Astonishing Splashes of Colourby Clare Morrall
“When is the right time to tell someone they’re not who they think they are?” Caught in an over-vivid world as a result of synaesthesia (a condition in which emotions are seen as colours), Kitty Wellington is tipped off-centre by the loss of a child. And as children all around become emblems of hope and longing and grief, she’s made shockingly aware of the real reasons for her pervasive sense of her own “non-existence.”What mystery at the heart of Kitty’s family makes her four older brothers so vague about her mother’s life? And why does her artist father splash paint on canvas rather than answer his daughter’s questions? On the edges of her dreams, Kitty glimpses the kaleidoscope hippie van that took her sister Dinah away and wonders how this event may link to the dim corridors of her own childhood, a childhood in which she had no tangible sense of her mother. (goodreads.com)
I bought this book from Monkey's library when I went to visit her last December. In Canada, there's this amazing thing where you can get English books in your library. It's amazing. Wish I had that here in Quebec. Alas. But political snarking aside, there was this little section in the library where you could buy used books! Imagine! For like, no money. So I picked up this book - because it had been sitting on a wishlist for EVER when I saw it and was surprised to see it. It cost me all of $2 or something.I have been interested in this novel for some time because it has to do with synaesthesia and I'm of course fascinated by that because I have a form of it. Now, the story wasn't what I was expecting at all, though to be honest I didn't really know what to expect. There was very little in the way of synaesthesia and a lot in the way of a really messed up family and a protagonist who just tugged at my heart strings.Kitty's family is certainly messed up and she's an odd duck herself. There was sort of a thriller-like feeling throughout the novel, even though it wasn't a thriller. It had a sort of Gillian Flynn Dark Places sort of feel to the story. Certainly a similarly strange family, that's for sure. But it's not a thriller at all, it's just really strong fiction.There was something lulling about this book. As in, I was lulled into some state, not quite a comforting one, but a foggy, dense sort of white noise kind of state. I read the book like I needed to get it finished lest I bust into flames or suffocate or something. I can't explain it really, but it's like I was surrounded by... cotton? This is one of those times I experience a book in terms of sensation and images and not words that I can use. Fitting that a book about synaesthesia would have that reaction. I TOTALLY got when Kitty explained at the start of the story about the Yellow Time. I got it 100%.And, I know this is likely waaaaay off, but for some reason I could not shake off the idea that James, Kitty's husband and neighbour, looked like Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. I don't think he was supposed to be as short as Peter Dinklage but something in a description that I think I mis-read had me thinking of James and Tyrion as the same person. (Pre-scar, of course). So of course, I loved that character dearly because I am a total fangirl for Tyrion!Er..where was I? I totally just distracted myself by reading up on Mr Dinklage on IMDB and then looking to see if he had a twitter account, which lead me to finding twitter accounts for other GoT cast members. *ahem*ADD much?ANYWAYS... Astonishing Splashes of Colour was a rather lovely read and very British and even though it's totally not something I'd normally read, I am very happy that my obsession with synaesthesia made me look twice at this book and then pick it up when I saw it. I am very happy that I read the book and can now add this story and these feelings to my mental memory box.