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In Review

22 November 2008 00:58 BST

The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields

Published by Doubleday, out now, hardback, 296 pages, £12.99 .

In a nutshell…

Chilling. Dark. Original. Morbid. Evocative.

What's it all about?

The Crimson Portrait tells the story of Catherine, a young widow whose late husband's wish before dying on the battlefield was that she open up their sprawling country estate as a hospital for other victims of the Great War.

Left alone to mourn her husband's death, Catherine soon finds her home is filled with the ghostly presence of soldiers whose faces have been erased by the violence of war, as her home is turned into a maxillo-facial military hospital.

It is 1915, the war shows no sign of coming to a resolution and the country estate-turned-hospital is rapidly filling up with disillusioned soldiers who are sent there if it is judged that their disfigured faces cannot be made public, unbeknown to them. At the request of Dr McCleary, all mirrors and shiny surfaces are ordered to be removed from the home for fear that the wounded men might look upon their own reflection and lose all hope.

In the midst of the chaos and despair, Catherine, who becomes increasingly delusional, falls in love with one of the faceless soldiers, a young man named Julian. When it is decided that Julian should be fitted with a mask because his facial injuries are so severe, Catherine seizes the opportunity to intervene and have the mask moulded in the shape of her late husband Charles, with sinister consequences.

Who's it by?

The Crimson Portrait is the latest work by former New York Times magazine editor Jody Shields. The New Yorker's debut novel The Fig Eater was an international bestseller and its film rights have recently been bought by Miramax.

Shields has a masters degree in art, with work in the Museum of Modern Art, and is also an accomplished screenplay writer.

As an example…

"Two patients spoke animatedly together, and at the taller man's gesture, her breath stopped as she recognised Charles. No, not Charles himself, but his presence, as he animated this stranger to signal her. He occupied this man like a glove, a suit of armour, a waiting emptiness that he filled. She recognised her husband among these men whose appearance was constantly changing, their identity fluid, impermanent, unstable."

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

The Crimson Portrait would lend itself well to a big screen adaptation, with ample scope for epic wartime cinematography with a dark, sinister love story at the centre. Just like Anthony Minghella's The English Patient, it would have cinemagoers weeping into their popcorn as it spins the yarn of wartime wounds, identity, love and loss.

What the others say

"Highly unusual, eerie… a glorious maze of dead ends and false leads. Sometimes gruesome and highly mysterious, it is an exciting new brand of detective story." – Spectator

"An artful and evocative thriller… rich in the texture of corruption." – Independent

"A gripping psychological thriller… capturing the nervous mood of a city preoccupied, like one of its most famous residents, with sex and death." – New York Times

So is it any good?

There is no question that the contents of The Crimson Portrait are original, telling the story of the forgotten soldiers of the wars who suffered horrific facial disfigurements and the pioneering medical procedures that they had to undergo.

Shields' literary style is poetic and captivating and her descriptions of Catherine's worsening mental state, as well as the loving relationship between Dr McCleary and his patients as he tries to reconstruct their faces and their lives are particularly well done.

It is clear that a significant amount of historical research into the little known practice of maxillo-facial units during the war has gone into the novel. However, there are times when this is made all too clear and it reads much like a history book.

Nevertheless, it is a profound and compelling tale, which throws up questions of identity, of grief, the inability to let go of the past and the wastefulness of war.

7/10

Chine Mbubaegbu