Susan Vreeland

Presents a fictional portrait of pioneering artist Emily Carr, whose independence, boldly original artwork, and unconventional approach to life overcame Victorian restrictions to blaze a new path for twentieth-century women artists.

The Forest Lover

Sarah Sammis

Susan Vreeland seems to have made a niche for herself writing historical fiction based around women who were artists. In The Forest Lover, she covers the career of Emily Carr, a Canadian artist who imported the Fauvist style to capture the landscape, people and totems of western Canada.

I enjoyed watching Emily grow as an artist and her drive to learn as much as she could about art and painting while still staying true to her own convictions. I smiled at her frustration at being confused for being an American while traveling and studying abroad as it was a nice follow up to How to be a Canadian.

Unfortunately the book suffers from an abundance of tragedy. For every triumph that Carr has, her friend Sophie must suffer. I am not questioning the real life losses of Sophie Frank but her life in this novel is so intricately tied to Carr's rise to fame that her life becomes an overdone liet motif.

The Forest Lover

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