An acid-sharp novella of longing and language, in which the past comes
up hard against the present, from Jonathan Gibbs, acclaimed author of
Randall, or The Painted Grape (Galley Beggar, 2014):
'It was not the only painting in the room, but it was the one that drew
the eye. It was a Golden Age interior, the like of which you might see a
dozen times in the Rijksmuseum, Jenny guessed, and once or twice in any
gallery in Europe or America with a half-decent collection. Simple,
domestic: a woman and a man in a room, the striking yellow and black
tiled floor spread in expanding diamonds towards the viewer. There were
paintings on the walls of the room in the painting, and a mirror on the
left wall, tilted, that reflected the tiles, in a masterful flourish of
perspective...'
When Jenny Thursley, a 40-year old linguistics lecturer, returns to
Europe for a conference in Amsterdam, she finds herself pitched back
into the presence of a life she had fled: a once-inspirational mentor
now dying, a former lover again within reach, the flickerings of new
desire. Over little more than twenty-four hours Jenny must write a
keynote conferene speech, face up to her own mortality, and to the
consequences of the bad choices she has made - while finding the nerve
to make new choices that might be no better. Witty, sexy and
provocative, The Large Door is a meditation on life and living, and on
ages - golden and otherwise - that recalls the sparkling mid-century
work of writers such as Muriel Spark and Brigid Brophy.
