The Muse by Jessie Burton

3.5 Stars

I found myself a little disappointed, overall, in this book.  Whilst I enjoyed Odelle's story in particular I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with Olive and started to skim read her sections.  I have read a few books centred around the Spanish Civil War and it just seems to be a period of history that is unable to capture my imagination or hold my interest.  It doesn't help that I found Olive to have few redeeming characteristics and, to me, she cam across as completely manipulative, selfish and entitled.  Everything I can see (from the words on the page) that we are not supposed to really be feeling about her; nevertheless that is how she made me feel.

I was far more interested in Odelle's 1960s London.  There was so much left unexplored here that it left me quite frustrated.  She is clearly a person of colour, a post-Windrush immigrant that was in a city that was close to embracing segregation and yet this is barely touched on, there are a couple of nods to it but nods are all they are and yet the prevailing attitudes towards the Irish and Coloured (can we use that word now? I use it here because it is contemporary with the setting of the book and less unpalatable than the other most common name bandied about) immigrants were harsh and would have had a major impact on their lives.  In some ways Odelle is really just a foil to get Jack's painting seen by the gallery and to expose Olive's story.

I also wanted to know much more about the enigmatic, gin swilling, chain smoking Marjorie Quick.  Whilst it is true that towards the end of the book we learn much more about her personal history there is so much left unsaid about how she got where she is.  Information that I found myself wanting to know, to immerse myself in.

Basically, too much time was spent lingering in a parched Spain with Olive, her dissipated mother, distant father, the rebellious Isaac and the disaster zone that was Tere.  These were a cast of characters that, whilst I understand their importance to the tale, I learned far too much about and was forced in to the company of.  All I really wanted was a swinging Sixties London and the glorious Odelle.