Genre
Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Setting and Context
Modern-day England
Narrator and Point of View
Cossa’s perspective is narrated in first-person while Georgie’s perspective is narrated in third-person.
Tone and Mood
Playful, Ardent, Compassionate, Poignant
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists of the novel are George and Francesco del Cossa. The antagonist is the struggle while coping with loss.
Major Conflict
George dwells in the past to summon up the moments shared with her mother before her death. She is coping with loss by having a deeper understanding of the things she told her about life, history, and art. On the other hand, the Italian artist Francesco del Cossa returns from heaven into the present as his world collides with that of George. The girl’s journey in the present resonates with the artist while considering aspects of his childhood and artistry.
Climax
The climax perhaps occurs when Cossa understands the reason for his return in the present as his life and George’s world converge.
Foreshadowing
“Is it happening now or in the past? George says. Is the artist a woman or a man?”
It foreshadows Cossa’s story where he narrates about discerning the past and present while addressing duality and gender identity.
Understatement
George answers his father in an understated tone regarding the concern that she watches the pornographic film too much.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the Italian Renaissance painter Francesco del Cossa and his allegorical frescos in Ferrara.
Imagery
"He examines the fields and fencing and trees, the far houses, the rock formations, the people going about their day and the nothing unusual happening, the boys throwing stones in the river for a dog to chase, the woman tramping the cloth in the barrel, the birds in flight, the clouds going where they’re blown…”
Paradox
George grapples with the paradox of duality or being both, in that her mother can be gone yet not gone because she lives in her thoughts.
Parallelism
The novel alternates between two narratives of the troubled teen George and the Italian Renaissance painter Francesco Cossa. It parallels their understanding of duality with George learning through her mother’s death and the artist through his childhood and art.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Henry and H are engaged in a kind of verbal ping-pong.”
Personification
“The house becomes as blind as a house, as deaf as a house”
