Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan: A Novel of a Life in Art
Appropriately subtitled ‘A Novel of a Life in Art’, Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan tells the life of 93-year-old artist Violet Swan. She has lived in her house on the Oregon coast for 75 years, marrying Richard and raising a son, Frank, who lives on the lower floor with his wife, Penny. When an earthquake injures Frank and causes other minor damage, life shakes loose in such a way that Violet is unsure the pieces will ever fit back together properly. Worrying for his family’s safety, grandson Daniel arrives bringing news.
Violet’s story unfolds in a series of vignettes, tucked in between the present, revealing piecemeal why she fled Georgia at age 14, crossing the country alone, walking and hopping trains. For four years she travelled with no money, stealing food and occasional clothing in between short-lived jobs, always seeing Oregon as that distant yet attainable goal. It’s her art and her love of the beauty of the world and the myriad colours and shapes she sees around her which drive her on.
This multi-generational saga is filled with gorgeous imagery and is a graceful, literary work of art. Its title invokes Violet’s scenic, pale, and muted colours, for which she is highly sought after, but she remains reclusive and solitary, allowing the business of her art to be handled by her son and not revealing her history until her dying days. We form a mutual bond with Violet as we learn her story, while her family remains in the dark. And this fractured family is full of secrets, not out of spite or dislike, but a failure to communicate on a compatible level. Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan is beautifully rendered, but has many spoilers, and an ending suffused with new hope. Without divulging more, it comes highly recommended to those who enjoy candid family sagas with very poignant endings.
