Review: Review of Life Drawing
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2014
I made a mistake in reading LIFE DRAWING by Robin Black.  The mistake was not in the reading of the book, but the reading of the book after a piece of fluff that had my mind going 100mph.  The first half of LIFE DRAWING had me groaning out of boredom and struggling to calm my racing thoughts, but then.. once I was able to calm down, I began to see just how beautiful the scenery was.Here's the thing about LIFE DRAWING.  It's actually a word-painting of life and the struggles that come, inherent, with any close relationships.  Who do you trust outside of your partner?  What do you trust your partner with?  Can your partner handle if it you decide to go ahead and spill?  If not, what do you do from there?  These are just a few of the questions being addressed in Black's story about a husband and wife and their neighbor next door.August, or Gus, is an artist in her 40's and she and her husband, Owen (a writer), came into some money that, by their standards, is a fortune.  This money enabled them to move away from the city and all of the issues that plagued them there and try to start over in a quaint home that has excellent light for Gus and a perfect barn for Owen to write in.  Their life is not idyllic, but it's comfortable for them.Then everything is disrupted when a woman moves in next door.  The woman, Alison, is also a painter, and with that bit in common with Gus, a friendship is formed.  Gus, who has never had a close friendship with a woman, is left to navigate some tricky waters and trouble starts to brew.August also comes with her own special set of baggage.  I thought I knew where the story was going to take me, but to be honest, I should have known better.  The weaving of the stories becomes so complex that LIFE DRAWING really becomes quite the masterpiece by the end.  Black is extremely patient in her storytelling and paints a very intricate, very detailed picture of the lives of Owen and Gus.  The result was surprising and had me completely floored.  And here I thought the book was going to be boring.