Life Drawings- Philip Newey



This is a study of a mix of characters in life's emotional pressure-cooker, the boiling mass of hormones, memories, fears and pains that make us all. We come to know the two main characters very well and to build convincing pictures of many of those around them. We see that we often become far more than we might expect, through the quagmire of interactions we experience with others. Even the meek may learn to kill. Sometimes, we eventually break away from the bonds of our past, to be relatively free agents, and sometimes the past eventually destroys us.
This is a well written look into the emotional turmoil of a group of intimately and sometimes unavoidably knotted together lives. We actually get some way to actually feeling what it is like to be someone else, to be submerged into the books characters. One can ask little more from such a book. We have all experienced some of this and others have lived lives far closer to this particular emotional mix than we may allow ourselves to admit. Most of you may guess the books direction accurately, but that makes it no less intriguing because this knowledge probably means that to some degree you have actually walked some of the steps.
I recommend this book for those that enjoy a book where what happens is seen with all its drivers, rather than with just those dictated by the narrow entertainment of vivid plot. These are drawings in which we see so many crossing character lines rather than an easily analysed photograph. I enjoyed this book very much.

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