Irish Author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking" - Art and Sadness which Last Forever

The last line of Irish writer Sara Baume's (b UK) entertaining & intellectual melancholy novel "Art and sadness which last forever" resonate throughout this captivating book.  The novel's narrator Frankie speaks directly to the reader and cuts deeply into the human soul.  Frankie is a 25 yr old art school graduate who has been dealing with a deep sorrow since childhood.  Now at 25, she has cut herself off from social interactions except for her always understanding & supportive mother.   Frankie knows she must accept that her want of artistic accomplishment has not led to creative genius and she must stop her perpetual bereavement for lack of talent.  She is also still grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother.  Frankie persuades her mother to allow her to reside in her grandmother's remote home until it can be sold.  This only leads Frankie further down the rabbit hole of isolation & despair.   She has construed a photographic art project of shooting only animals she discovers in their demise.   With impactful encounters or emotions, Frankie tests her knowledge of artists' works that share a significance.  Baume's cleverly construed novel is an interesting foray into the art world as well as into the troubled pscyche of a very disturbed & self-destructive young woman.  Frankie wants to live her life at the basest level of engagement taking up as little space in the world as possible.  Frankie never achieved the notoriety of artist claim she sought but Sara Baum's "A Line Made by Walking" is an arresting, exceptionally impassioned work that delves plea for art's importance in the world; best art achieves is to uncover what is unrecoverable.  And, thoughtfully considers the worth every individual brings into the framework of humanity.  The last painting that Vincent Van Gogh (VVG) completed depicts with excruciating beauty an angry churning sky, tall yellow stalks, a grass green & mud-brown path cutting through the stalks, tapering into the distance, a line made by walking.  The last words spoken by VVG to his brother "The sadness will last forever."