The poetic prose of Steven Herrick: a review of 'How to Paint a Life'
A new title from Steven Herrick always gives me a quiet thrill. A pioneer of the young-adult verse novel, Herrick has such a vivid, lively poet’s sensibility that it comes through even in his prose writing. Each word is considered yet feels effortless, and the stories build in gentle phrases, line after line, sentence after sentence, infused with a distinctly Australian atmosphere.
How To Repaint A Life was just what I have come to expect: an authentic coming-of-age story peopled with nuanced and rich characters and a strong sense of place. As the novel opens, Isaac waits, with a hammer gripped in his hands, for his father to stumble into the room. Far away, in another town entirely, Sophie bends over an art piece she’s carving, trying not to think about the decisions she has to make. Soon, Isaac’s world and Sophie’s will collide as they both teeter on the edge of adulthood and a future filled with questions.
Herrick writes teenagers so well. He’s not afraid to show a gentler side to boys and a tougher side to girls, which I love, and his adult characters and parental figures are not just placeholders; they’re beautifully integral to the story, showing that grown-ups are still figuring things out and making mistakes, too. The feeling I took away from How To Repaint A Life was not simply that it was a novel about Isaac and Sophie, but that it was a novel about a community – of found family, really – and how our stories can bump into and affect the stories of those around us, intertwining to become an entirely new narrative. I finished my reading just in love with every character in the book.
My only tiny complaint is a trope that’s really a staple of YA literature: the idea of the first fumbling sexual encounter as the happy ending (there, I said it) to the story of a budding romance. It is standard fare for young adult stories and meshes with many people’s lived experience, too. But it’s not everyone’s experience, and I find myself thinking that I’d love to see stories where the teens aren’t comfortable with the idea of sex yet, where one or the other may have trauma or past difficulties to overcome, where the characters might have religious or personal convictions against sex, where it’s not the be-all and end-all of what brings teens together.
I do get that it’s more difficult to craft a good story climax (I see what I did there) out of two people slowly realising more and more that they’re travelling the same life path together, that they’re emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually compatible, not just sexually compatible – but I’d love to see it anyway. I’d love to see that representation for young readers who might not be treading the same path. Diversity!
Besides my personal side note there, I adored this story. I realise I haven’t told you too much about the plot and I kind of think it’s better that way: to just float into the story and watch it unfold with all its loveliness and hope. And I already look forward to whenever Steven Herrick next graces us with his beautiful, beautiful words.
How to Repaint a Life
Steven Herrick
Published September 2021
248 pages
