nomadreader

The basics: The Gillespie of the title refers to Ned Gillespie, a Scottish painter whom Harriet, the I of the title, befriended many years before when she visited the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1888. Now in 1933, Harriet is almost 80, and she realizes no one has written a book about Gillespie, so she will tell his story. My thoughts: This book swept me away from the first lines. To this reader of modern fiction, the voice of Harriet, our intrepid and delightful narrator, truly hearkens back to the setting of the novel. Harris combined period authenticity with modern sass, and I adored it: "A preposterous name, and it occurred to me that, perhaps, she had made it up. I went on to ask a few questions about her family, and her reactions continued to be guarded. She told me that her parents were dead. I did manage to get a little more out of her. To my mind, it all sounds like a fairy tale. She claims to have grown up in a tiny cottage beside a well; her father was a s...