When the writer and sculptor, Sara Baume, first met her, the artist Mollie Douthit was living alone in a cabin in the west of Cork and preparing a series of paintings from her life for an exhibition in Dublin. Sarah had undertaken to write a book about Molly’s life, and she spent the following two years in Molly’s company, recording in minute detail Molly’s way of life.
Opening Night is filled with descriptions of Molly’s paintings as well as reproducing many of them on its pages. I read the book online as an ARC, thanks to NetGalley, but I think a paper copy would be something to treasure, for the paintings.
Sara and Mollie had a lot in common; Sara also lived a rather pared down existence in the west of Cork, although with her partner, Mark, and her beloved dogs; and Molly’s circumstances did change somewhat over time.
Sara records meticulously not only Molly’s paintings, but the clothes she wears and the food she cooks, and to complete the picture Sara describes her own clothes and meals. The two women had much in common, but, Sara wondered: ‘I was her friend of course, but she was also my material. I was beginning to find it difficult to discern whether my attachment to Mollie came from sincere affection and concern, or from the crazed desire to make good art.’
Opening Night is an intense read, with biographer and subject each equally devoted to her own art.
Published by Farrar, Straus and Girraux
