A piece of the world - C. Baker

It’s written in a way that reminds me of poetry - no word is superfluous. Take this description of a falò:

On warm evenings, when Andy has finished for the day, Betsy shows up with a basket and we picnic down by the groove, where Papa built a fire pit long ago and wedged boards between board trunks for seats. Al and I watch Betsy and Andy collect driftwood and twigs to make a fire in the circle of rocks. From the campfire, the fields that separate us from the house in the distance look like sand.

The rocks aren’t described, the trees aren’t described, Betsy’s dress isn’t described. The description of the memories is actually a description of the character of Christine, which is reporting this scene; the only real description is last line, which with one swing creates the whole scene, and it does it in the last sentence of the paragraph. It must not have been easy to learn how to write like this.
One more example of the style:

I go about my morning routine as usual, and as usual Al comes in from the barn for the noonday meal. He doesn’t say a word until he clears his plate, and then he says thank you and heads back outside.

Couldn’t one have just skipped over the fact that he technically did not completely stay silent, since he did thank? But: specifying it has somehow the effect of emphasizing the remaining silence, instad of belittling it. And it says something about Al: no word is wasted.
Enough on the style. I just want the say: I think this book is well written.

I discovered the saying “(bringing) owl to Athens”, and I discovered it has quite an old history. I also liked this remark:

Do our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control? Perhaps these questions are impossible to tease apart because, like a tangle of seaweed on a rock, they are connected at the root.

I wouldn’t say the story is anything special, I was quite surprised to learn it is closely drawn from a real story, on a famous painting. It’s a good read.