The Underpainter - Softcover

From the perspective of advanced age, Austin Fraser looks back over his life as an artist and his summers spent in the lakeside town of Davenport, Ontario, and in the abandoned mining town of Silver Islet on the north shore of Lake Superior. Fraser's artistic method consists of underpainting a realistic depiction of a scene to which he then applies layer upon layer of obscuring detail. Urquhart uses this technique in reverse to tell her protagonist's story by gradually peeling back layers to reveal truths that lie hidden beneath. An emotionally hollow man, Austin experiences life vicariously through others. When World War I breaks out, he watches from the sidelines as his friend George joins up to fight in Europe. George returns haunted by his experiences and by his attachment to a young nurse shattered by her own wartime losses. Although Fraser never comes fully alive, the stories of his friends are compelling enough to give this quietly affecting novel its forward momentum. An elegantly written addition to collections of literary fiction.