Title: A Piece of the World
Synopsis:
Born into an old seafaring family on a remote farm on the
coast of Maine, Christina Olson grows up surrounded by her grandmother’s
maritime relics and stories of sailing to distant shores with her sea captain
husband. These exotic tales have little to do with Christina’s own reality
though, living in a large bleak house buffeted by the relentless ocean breeze,
trying to make a living from the land. Having been born with an undiagnosed
neurological disorder that makes walking increasingly difficult, Christina’s
world is shrinking daily, and she rarely gets to venture far from home. So how did
this woman become the subject of one of the best known American paintings of
the 20th century, Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World”?
My thoughts:
I remember my initial feelings when first coming across a
print of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World”, the image of a girl in a
pale pink dress lying in a meadow, looking up the hill towards the stark and
bleak facade of a weatherboard farmhouse. To me, the picture depicted both a longing
and a sense of desperation and loneliness I could not quite explain, and I was
curious to find out more about this mysterious woman who can evoke such emotion
in the viewer.
Told in the first person from Christina’s perspective, the
story skips back and forth in time between Christina’s life as an older and
somewhat bitter woman confined to her family homestead and her childhood, from
the first time she suffers the fist debilitating flare up of the neurological
disorder that will ultimately cost her her mobility. With three younger brothers
and an ailing mother, all the household chores fall to Christina, especially
after the death of her formidable grandmother, the only person in the family
who recognises Christina’s tenacious spirit, despite her disability. Unfortunately,
the era she has been born into is very much male-dominated, and after her
father forbids her to take the opportunity to stay on at school to train as a
teacher, Christina’s only hope for a different life is through marriage. But
when her first and only romance with a young Harvard scholar fails, Christina
is condemned to live out her days as a spinster in the old house, further
burdened by her daily struggles with pain and illness. Until Andrew Wyeth
appears on her doorstep, and offers her not only friendship but also true
understanding, and a glimpse into a different world.
In a postscript to her novel, the author Christina Baker
Cline states that she hopes she has done Christina Olson’s story justice – and she has certainly
achieved that. Perhaps it was her extensive research coupled with her own
knowledge of the simple life, close to nature and without the amenities we take
for granted, which gave her such a depth of understanding for Christina. She
manages to recreate life on a wind-beaten farm perfectly, as well as the
restrictions Christina faces on a daily basis, not only due to her disability
but also her gender.
A Piece of the World sheds light on an interesting piece of
American history I knew nothing about. I admired Christina’s tenacity in the
face of adversity and felt an intense sadness as slowly all her hopes and
dreams are eroded by not only her mind-numbing daily routine, but also the
people around her, who do not take the time to see the fiercely intelligent,
independent spirit of the woman trapped inside her inform body. I could not
help wondering how much better her life could have been had she been born a
century later, a time when women have more opportunity to make their own way in
the world, and education is no longer a privilege of the wealthy in our
society. Maybe I sensed this on seeing the menacing presence of the dark house
in the distance in the painting, which ultimately became Christina and her brother
Al’s prison, preventing them from finding love.
He did get one thing right: Sometimes a sanctuary, sometimes a prison, that house on the hill has always been my home. I’ve spent my life yearning toward it, wanting to escape it, paralyzed by its hold on me.
Summary:
For me, this was a melancholy and somewhat bleak read. Even
though I enjoyed the author’s writing, and appreciated the historical detail
and obvious mountain of research backing the story, I found it difficult to
fully engage with Christina during some parts of the story. I guess it is
related to the inevitable miserable fate of Christina becoming a lonely
spinster trapped in a joyless routine, with little hope of escape. Even Andrew
Wyeth’s friendship could not compensate for the loss of her dreams and
ambitions, and a sad taste lingers on long after turning the last page.
Quotes:
I wonder, not for the first time, if shame and pride are
merely two sides of the same coin.
The places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to
do with where our bodies go.
Thank
you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free electronic copy
of this novel and giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
