![]() ![]() It’s to the author’s credit that she takes this premise - which, in theory, is vaguely interesting but not, one might think, enough to build an entire novel on - and executes it as well as she does. The Idea of Perfection opens with a quote by Leonardo Da Vinci: "An arch is two weaknesses which together make a strength." Grenville came across this quote while researching bridges for a project she was working on she was, in her own words, "struck by how well it applies to human relationships, where two people, each with his or her own flaws, come together in such a way that one’s weaknesses are absorbed by the other’s strengths." This idea provided Grenville with the seeds of a story that would have a real (timber) bridge at its centre but would also be about metaphorical bridges about the ways in which relationships develop between the unlikeliest of people. ![]() The interview provided nice insights into the genesis of this novel, which, against all expectations, won Britain’s Orange Prize in 2001. I was arm-twisted by my books editor into writing this review on a two-hour deadline, so it was just as well that only hours earlier I had met author Kate Grenville for a profile, during her literary tour to India. The one-hour-20-minute review I was boasting about yesterday: ![]()
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