Girl With A Pearl Earring
A novel by Tracy Chevalier
HarperCollins, ISBN 0 00 651320 4

GWAPE appeared a couple of years back. It is a fictional construction based around a portrait of a young girl painted by Vermeer – it is narrated in the first person in a delightful pellucid prose that hides much artfulness. The contents include lots of evocative detail of a 17th century Dutch painter’s domestic and studio circumstances; but is a compelling personal story even if you know nothing and care little for this school of painting. Tracy’s themes include personal worth and social duties, love and aspiration, and the growth of character. She builds the novel, just like Griet’s description of the master’s painting, in a series of increasingly definitive steps that though tiny in themselves, build into a radiant and atmospheric picture that is very satisfying.

’I see you have separated the whites,’ he said, indicating the turnips and the onions. ‘And then the orange and the purple, they do not sit together. Why is that?’ He picked up a shred of cabbage and a piece of carrot and shook them like dice in his hand.
I looked at my mother, who nodded slightly.
‘The colours fight when they are side by side, sir.’
He arched his eyebrows, as if he had not expected such a response. ‘And do you spend much time setting out the vegetables before you make the soup?’
‘Oh no, sir,’ I replied, confused. I did not want him to think I was idle.
From the corner of my eye I saw a movement. My sister, Agnes, was peering round the doorpost and had shaken her head at my response. I did not often lie. I looked down.
The man turned his head slightly and Agnes disappeared. He dropped the pieces of carrot and cabbage into their slices. The cabbage shred fell partly into the onions. I wanted to reach over and tease it into place. I did not, but he knew that I wanted to. He was testing me.


edit 8th Feb 02 brought back into sight re Milum's review