Notes From An Exhibition - Patrick Gale

When Rachel dies in the attic, the family are distraught. Rachel crippled by mental health, and a mother of four, looses her self in her art. She is an enigma to her family, no one knowing her past or who she really is.  After her death they slowly uncover the truth, as well as finding out about the lives of her children.

Read - Recommendation

An interesting story.  I think it wasn't quite my kind of book, i didn't into it as much as I would have liked but then maybe the style was wrong for my tastes.  I think the idea of the story was very good, its a story thats essentially mental illness but that wasn't the main focus of the plot. Instead we concentrated on her family, each with their own brief snippet of history, we saw her art and also we slowly unravelled her past.

I can't put my finger on why I did not enjoy this book as much as i should - I was gripped enough to read chunks of it at a time.  I think the writing style was maybe a little old fashioned for me or targeted to an older market and therefore I just couldn't get into it much. It was a good plot with interesting segments in it, and was a nice comfortable read.