Astonishing Splashes of Colour

by Clare Morrall

Book Overview

Caught in an over-vivid world, Kitty feels haunted by her child that never was. As children all around become emblems of hope, longing and grief, she begins to understand the reasons for her shaky sense of self.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0954130324
• ISBN13: 9780954130329
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Tindal Street
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Of Identity

There are many books out there which strike resemblance to this one, or so one would think after the first look on it. What could possibly be new about dissfunctional family, loosing of a child, and psychothic women. Everything that had to be said has been sayed. Where is the difference? And then one starts to read. And then He understands. Loosing of a child, excentric painter as a father, brothers who are alienated and whose only bond is Kitty herself, obsessive behaviours, all of them stands for finding the identity. Another author has often wondered: "How do we become what we are?" and this book partly answers that question. In a world where nothing functions as it should, in a world were values have tvisted meanings, and trauma is almost a common thing how can one stand up, and develop onself in a way that society concieves as 'normal'. Surprisingly (at least for me) this isn't a book about position of women in a evil patriarhal world. This is a book about ordinary people and connections that makes them just that - people. Struggle for survival can take up many faces and this book presents maybe the most painful one. Ten chapters you should meditate over.

One of the best books I read in 2004

ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR by Clare Morrall January 9, 2005 A favorite book of mine from 2004, ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a great character study about a woman with Synesthesia who has a hard time coping with the world. She seems to have the mind of a child at times, although she lives in her own place (across the way from her husband), earns a living by writing book reviews for children's books, and seems at first glance to be a very normal and stable adult. However, upon closer look, things look quite differently. Kitty Wellington seems to be on the verge of falling apart. She spends her days looking for her child Henry. She also seems to end up on the bus a lot, going nowhere, sometimes coming home early in the morning. Her need to be awake is sometimes so intense, for she fears her dreams. She also has a deep need to find out more about her mother. Because her mother died when she was only 3 years old, she has very little memory of her, and what she does remember she believes are false memories. Her brothers won't help her, saying it's been too long ago for them to remember a thing. Even her father refuses to help her out. While at first her behavior didn't seem too abnormal, it comes to a point where she begins to do things that are totally irresponsible. When she begins to behave erratically, such as taking a baby that doesn't belong to her, her family realizes that she needs help, fast. ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR was a truly fascinating look at a woman whose mental state is slowly deteriorating. It is difficult to like a character such as this, because often times the reader will not know whether to sympathize with her or be angry with her. What I do feel, though, is that this was a great reading experience and it is a book that I will not forget for a very long time. The Ratmammy gives this book 5 stars.

The Colors of a Collapsing World

This first-person novel of a world disintegrating was rightfully short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize. Author Clare Morrall has constructed an unforgettable novel of a woman desperately struggling to make sense of who she is. Kitty sees life in colors - the yellow of motherhood, the pink of her nieces, the blinding white of all colors mixed together in her husband - but these colors, even as they comfort her, remind her constantly that she has lost a child and her ability to have another. Her large family doesn't speak of tragedies and the past, and her husband James is even better at avoidance, as the two live in separate, side-by-side flats. Even though she is loved and protected by her family, she flails through her crisis by herself, with only her therapist to steady her in twenty minute appointments. It becomes apparent from the beginning that Kitty needs a child, and will do or say anything to maintain the illusion that she is a mother. Despite her tottering on the brink of insanity, Kitty's Birmingham, where most of the novel is set, is vivid and alive. Her actions are sometimes chilling and yet they acquire logic through her eyes. Kitty's voice is consistently believable, and it provides the quiet, driving force of Morrall's novel. Here, insanity has the voice of reason. Even when the plot edges toward the melodramatic, Kitty's narration rescues it. The characterizations aren't always as distinct as they might be, with some of Kitty's brothers melting into each other despite the author's attempts at distinguishing them. Morrall writes, "None of them looked alike, but my memory produced a composite brother," and even this early in the book, it comes across as an excuse. Kitty's husband James is skillfully described through his flat, but when interacting with Kitty, he doesn't always have a shape. Still, the portrait of Kitty's father is sharply realized as are most of the women and girls, most notably the little arsonist Kitty befriends. In a head-to-head contest with Vernon God Little, the eventual winner of the 2003 Man Booker, this book easily wins my vote. It probes the mind of an emotionally disturbed woman without being gloomy and suffocating and instead opens her world outward and forward. Highly recommended.

Growing Up Lost

In a weird mood I decided to buy most of the books that were shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize. I read Vernon God Little right after it won, and thought that it was an interesting experiment. Then a couple of days ago I picked up Clare Morrall's Astonishing Splashes of Colour. Is it a better first novel than Vernon God Little? Should it have won the Booker instead? I can't believe how inconsequential the question now seems to me. "DBC Pierre"'s novel was more daring, but it's Clare Morrall's that will remain with me. It's not perfect, but it's astonishingly well written for a first novel (although since Ms Morrall has grown children, according to the blurb, one assumes she has a lifetime of well chosen, deeply embedded reading). There are a couple of plot twists that I should have been anticipating, but frankly I was simply too engrossed with reading the novel to think that far ahead. There are other plot elements toward the end that are not explained at all, although I personally think this may be a strength rather than a weakness: life cannot always be neatly wrapped up in plot denouements. The description in the British paperback I read (with a different, superior cover than the American edition, for what it's worth) describes the novel as a reflection of Morrall's "interest in the dynamics of motherless family life and in synaesthesia -- a condition in which emotions are seen as colours." That makes it all sound very clinical. What it's about is more simply families and children, and the heartbreak you feel when the narrator says four pages from the end, "I don't think I've grown up. I don't feel important enough." If you've ever been a "lost child," or lost a child, or a mother, or a brother, or a sister, read it and respect its hard-earned tears and minor victories.

Nominated for the Booker Prize

I read this book when it first came out in February 2003.I think it's truly wonderful.The novel is longlisted for the BOOKER PRIZE (and I suspect will also be shortlisted).Morrall's novel is well crafted, subtle and humorous. Once you've turned one page you'll be eager to turn them all in just one sitting.A short synosis: Kitty's obsession with babies creates a strange and vivid world for her. There are many questions with no answers. Who is Kitty? What is her real identity? And is everything as it seems?Kitty has a large, unusual family - a father who paints, and 4 brothers. Her husband, a supportive man, lives next door to her. Colour describes emotions (synaesthesia). How else can one describe such terrible feelings?Despite desperation, this novel is lighthearted.We shall certainly be watching out for the Man Booker Short List and expecting Morrall's name to be included. We're all eager for Morrall's next novel as well as looking out for two more Morrall's (her two daughters who have writen novels).This is a book not to be missed.