Laura Elliot's Blog
August 29, 2014
A Captivating Interview
The Interview is a book that delivers what its title promises. Like all good interviews it probes, analyses, prods, hints, reveals - and leaves the reader with enough information to encourage further exploration of its subject.In The Interview the subject is the talented artist and furniture designer Eileen Gray - but perish the thought that this is a factual pieces of reportage. Think, instead, of finely wrought and lyrical prose that conjures up the sights, aromas and emotions of the bygone and glamourous world that nurtured her creativity.
Time and Destiny, Patricia O’Reilly’s first book about Eileen Gray, introduced us to a gifted artist, who blossomed in 1920’s Paris where she was renowned for her lacquer screens and furniture, her carpet designs and modernist architecture.
Paris is the setting once again for The Interview but it is now 1972 and Eileen Gray is in the winter of her days. Bruce Chatwin is young and will later establish his reputation as a travel writer and novelist. This actual meeting did take place but the interview for The Sunday Times Magazine was never published. This knowledge was the catalyst that inspired Patricia O’Reilly to assume a fly on the wall position and imagine the interaction between them when they met in Eileen Gray’s Parisian apartment. From her vantage point the author brings both characters to life and their stories, particularly that of Eileen Grey, slowly unfold as the interviewer gently probes his interviewee’s past and she reluctantly, at first, but gaining in trust, allows the key moments of her life to unfold.
O’Reilly’s touch is deft and authoritative. Her prose sparkles and her admiration for Eileen Gray, her fascination with the emotional and creative life of the designer is obvious from the beginning. The blending of fact with fiction is subtle, seamless and intriguing. We are offered tantalising glimpses into the private life of the artist, her childhood and the later years when she defied not only the conventions of her time by living the life she chose, but also undertook the demanding art of lacquering, which was certainly not considered a fitting occupation for a young woman from a privileged background.
As these two talented personalities spark off each other, and Bruce Chatwin's subtle questioning breaks down her initial reluctance to speak about her past, the influences in his own life take form and his enigmatic personality gradually emerges from the pages. We will never know why his real-life interview with Eileen Grey was never published. But this omission has created a captivating novel, beautifully written and absorbing. It is a pleasure to read and will add to the canon of information about this multi-talented Irish designer.
Time and Destiny, Patricia O’Reilly’s first book about Eileen Gray, introduced us to a gifted artist, who blossomed in 1920’s Paris where she was renowned for her lacquer screens and furniture, her carpet designs and modernist architecture.
Paris is the setting once again for The Interview but it is now 1972 and Eileen Gray is in the winter of her days. Bruce Chatwin is young and will later establish his reputation as a travel writer and novelist. This actual meeting did take place but the interview for The Sunday Times Magazine was never published. This knowledge was the catalyst that inspired Patricia O’Reilly to assume a fly on the wall position and imagine the interaction between them when they met in Eileen Gray’s Parisian apartment. From her vantage point the author brings both characters to life and their stories, particularly that of Eileen Grey, slowly unfold as the interviewer gently probes his interviewee’s past and she reluctantly, at first, but gaining in trust, allows the key moments of her life to unfold.
O’Reilly’s touch is deft and authoritative. Her prose sparkles and her admiration for Eileen Gray, her fascination with the emotional and creative life of the designer is obvious from the beginning. The blending of fact with fiction is subtle, seamless and intriguing. We are offered tantalising glimpses into the private life of the artist, her childhood and the later years when she defied not only the conventions of her time by living the life she chose, but also undertook the demanding art of lacquering, which was certainly not considered a fitting occupation for a young woman from a privileged background.
As these two talented personalities spark off each other, and Bruce Chatwin's subtle questioning breaks down her initial reluctance to speak about her past, the influences in his own life take form and his enigmatic personality gradually emerges from the pages. We will never know why his real-life interview with Eileen Grey was never published. But this omission has created a captivating novel, beautifully written and absorbing. It is a pleasure to read and will add to the canon of information about this multi-talented Irish designer.
November 4, 2012
From Fact to Fiction
Hello to everyone on Goodreads. I've never blogged on this site until now and I hope this post will be the first of many. I'm relatively new to blogging, although in the past I worked as a journalist, mainly writing features about anything that caught my fancy.I was constantly on the lookout for new ideas or issues that I could turn into a magazine or newspaper feature. My mind was like a butterfly, darting from one subject to the next, finding angles, new perspectives, my views being challenged as I struggled through the why, where, when and how.
Then I started writing fiction. I'd wanted to write a novel for years but there never seemed to be a right time. I had a young family and a steady income and, somehow, the years slipped by while I was still talking up my dream. It was in danger of becoming a pipe dream when I made the decision to start my first book.
Suddenly, my busy world became very still, very silent. Just me, a room, a computer and my imagination. It was an insular world, peopled with fictitious characters who inhabited my thoughts, my working hours, even my dreams.
I loved working on my novels but my eyes seemed incapable of seeing beyond my imaginary worlds, my thoughts unable to stretch beyond the angst of my characters' lives.
That's how it's been for many years and how it probably would have remained if I had not discovered the pleasure of blogging. It's taken time to win me over but now I'm hooked. I'm once again discovering that my world is filled with the ordinary and the extraordinary living cheek by jowl - and just begging for a blog.
Then I started writing fiction. I'd wanted to write a novel for years but there never seemed to be a right time. I had a young family and a steady income and, somehow, the years slipped by while I was still talking up my dream. It was in danger of becoming a pipe dream when I made the decision to start my first book.
Suddenly, my busy world became very still, very silent. Just me, a room, a computer and my imagination. It was an insular world, peopled with fictitious characters who inhabited my thoughts, my working hours, even my dreams.
I loved working on my novels but my eyes seemed incapable of seeing beyond my imaginary worlds, my thoughts unable to stretch beyond the angst of my characters' lives.
That's how it's been for many years and how it probably would have remained if I had not discovered the pleasure of blogging. It's taken time to win me over but now I'm hooked. I'm once again discovering that my world is filled with the ordinary and the extraordinary living cheek by jowl - and just begging for a blog.
Secret Liaison on the South Wall
Sometimes, when I finish a book, when the drafting, correcting and editing are done, and I can write The End in the certain belief that I have given it my best shot, I find it difficult to pinpoint the original idea that acted as my catalyst for beginning my story. This was not the case with my novel, Deceptions. That seed was sown one night when I was commissioned by a daily newspaper to do a series of features on night life in Dublin City. I was working as a journalist at the time and the idea of writing a novel was nothing more than a quiet ambition. One of the features I wrote concerned homeless people. I spent the night on the streets with young men and women who had run away from home for various reasons.
It was an extremely sad experience to meet so many young people with no homes and little hope. I did one interview on the South Wall, an industrial area in Dublin's docklands. It has a nearby pier overlooking Dublin Bay which is a popular place for walkers. On that night it was dark and desolate. When I returned to my car, having interviewed a young man who lived in a make-shift cement shelter, I noticed the dimmed headlights of a car in the car park. A second car arrived. A man emerged from one and a woman from the other, and they embraced before walking into the shadows.
I wisely left them to their own devices but as I drove away I wondered why they had chosen to meet in such an isolated, secret location. I assumed they were having an affair. A story began to form in my mind. A hit-and-run accident as one of them drove off. The victim a homeless person, someone on the edge of society. What would be the consequences? Would anyone really care? And, even if they got away with it, what would it do to their relationship?
This image of a couple embracing formed the spine of Deceptions when I began to write it sometime later. Even though the novel developed its own creative momentum, that sense of intrigue, secrecy and deceit stayed at the forefront of my mind and created a cast of characters who answered those questions for me.
It was an extremely sad experience to meet so many young people with no homes and little hope. I did one interview on the South Wall, an industrial area in Dublin's docklands. It has a nearby pier overlooking Dublin Bay which is a popular place for walkers. On that night it was dark and desolate. When I returned to my car, having interviewed a young man who lived in a make-shift cement shelter, I noticed the dimmed headlights of a car in the car park. A second car arrived. A man emerged from one and a woman from the other, and they embraced before walking into the shadows.
I wisely left them to their own devices but as I drove away I wondered why they had chosen to meet in such an isolated, secret location. I assumed they were having an affair. A story began to form in my mind. A hit-and-run accident as one of them drove off. The victim a homeless person, someone on the edge of society. What would be the consequences? Would anyone really care? And, even if they got away with it, what would it do to their relationship?
This image of a couple embracing formed the spine of Deceptions when I began to write it sometime later. Even though the novel developed its own creative momentum, that sense of intrigue, secrecy and deceit stayed at the forefront of my mind and created a cast of characters who answered those questions for me.
