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Mark David Gerson
a book bubble about
The Emmeline Papers
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
The Art of The Emmeline Papers
Art plays a key role in all my Sara Stories novels. Three of the main characters in Sara's Year, After Sara's Year and The Emmeline Papers are artists, and in each of the books, one well-known real-life artist is a powerful inspiration to at least one of the protagonists. In Sara's Year, it's Montreal's Anne Savage, herself a character in the story. In After Sara's Year, it's Quebec's Paul-Émile Borduas. And in The Emmeline Papers, it's Holocaust survivor Naomi Blake. In one of the serendipitous acts of synchronicity that occurred so often while writing each of the Sara books, I discovered that "View," the sculpture commissioned from Blake for the Queen's Silver Jubilee, sat in London's Fitzroy Square only after I placed much of Emmeline's action in a house just off the square!
Book Excerpt
The Emmeline Papers
“I don’t like this kind of art,” Sadie said. “Not normally. It’s because I like to know what I’m seeing. The angel across from Fletcher’s Field: That I understand. Or the statue in Philips Square. I look at it and I see Edward VII keeping an eye on The Bay where I used to work. Or the ones in Dominion Square. You’ve got horses. You’ve got men. You’ve got a lion. What could be clearer than that? Then I look into your friends’ gallery in Westmount…” She shrugged. “It’s because I’m afraid I’ll get it wrong, I think. Oh, I know Bernie and Mac say there’s no wrong. Miss Savage told us that all those years ago. I didn’t believe her then. I’m not sure I believe Mac and Bernie now.
“But this.” She pointed to View. “This I think understand.” She winked. “Even if I cheated.”
Erik smiled in spite of himself. “Cheated?”
“I researched her last time I went to the library.” Sadie paused. “She saw so much, this Naomi Blake. She lost so much. As hard as my life has been, I can’t imagine how she could keep going, how she didn’t get all hard and bitter like I got. And my life wasn’t anything as bad as hers.”
Erik kept his eyes trained on the sculpture. “You aren’t very subtle,” he said softly.
“I’m too old to be subtle,” Sadie began, hesitated, then plunged ahead while she still dared.
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