Reviewed by Magdalena Ball
Foreign Attachments
By Roslyn McFarland
Ginninderra Press
Paperback, 272 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1740272636, Oct 2024
Roslyn McFarland’s Foreign Attachments is two novels in one. The first is the the story of Neve and Antoine, set between 2015 and 2019. The story opens with with Antoine’s point of view but quickly moves into Neve’s as she’s flying to Paris, leaving behind her art gallery job and overbearing mother for a new life with Antoine. Neve is also writing an historical novel about the artist Stella Bowen, set in the early 20th century. Bowen is a fascinating character and her story reads like a who’s who in the literary and art world, set in a parallel Paris to Neve’s with characters like Ford Madox Ford, Stella’s partner for nine years and the father of their child, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Tolklas, Ezra Pound, Hemingway and Jean Rhys. These two stories remain distinct, presented in solid blocks. Although the only structural connection between the two stories is that Neve is writing Stella’s story, there are many parallels between Stella and Neve, including the fact that both are Australians in France, exploring a new home while harking back to the old:
Then suddenly, the scent of eucalyptus. How can that be? She doesn’t yet know that these gum trees had been introduced to France almost a century ago. But right now, this smell and this light remind her of home. Of what she’s missed. The salty air. The sun. The vast blue sky. A climate that nurtures the soul, that uplifts the spirit and that isn’t demoralising. What a country this is – to offer such mild winters. (118)
One of the most prevalent themes in the book is the way in which the two creative females develop their own art practice against the overbearing needs of their male partner. Time and again, Stella rationalises the way she puts her own needs second to those of the overbearing and needy Ford:
Stella nods. It doesn’t bother her at all. In fact, she’s certain she’ll be able to to get back to some serious painting by the end of the year. Surely by then, the review will be up and running and they’ll be living in their own home and will have found a nanny for Julie as well. (131)
The way in which she has to carefully navigate her own development through Ford’s ego makes for an interesting comparison to the relationship between Neve and Antoine:
As usual she doesn’t complain. Because she knows Ford can be selfish and exasperating but at least life with him is never ever boring. As far as Stella is concerned, such use of her time and energy is a small price to pay. (153)
At one point Rachel’s mother visits Neve and Antoine in Paris and points out how domineering Antoine is:
My darling Neve, I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and it’s been my experience that it’s often quite difficult to recognise controlling, possessive and emotionally manipulative people – especially someone you’re having a relationship with. (115)
Neve brushes this off and later wonders if she hasn’t “re-wired” her own “emotional patterning” through the retelling of her story, but she then rationalises that Antoine is not a narcissist. To say more would be a spoiler, although we get a strong hint in the prologue, but the dramatic irony is that there is still something a bit suspect about Antoine and the similarities with Ford that Neve has noted at various times throughout the text might suggest otherwise:
What astonished me was Antoine’s response to all this attention. He clearly enjoyed being centre stage – even when he was being surrounded by what he called music entrepreneurs, who looked more like sleazy hard-nosed money men to me. So while he basked in the limelight, I sat back int eh shadows thinking about fame and celebrity in general and how success, or lack of it, could distort a person’s ego. (101)
In spite of Neve’s statements to the contrary, her devotion to Antoine does actually mirror Stella’s devotion to Ford, even in the face of his infidelities and the way in which the male “genius” always takes precedence over the female – a collusion that the women can’t help but participate in:
Not that I ever complained. I’d made a promise and was happy to be with him. Besides, these tours for me were a great introduction into his world. By accompanying him that year, I learned two things: Antoine knew an awful lot of people and a lot of women found him very attractive. (107)
Perhaps this slight note of discord is material for a sequel. In the meantime, Foreign Attachments is a very enjoyable read that tracks across many world events. There are the great artistic movements of the early twentieth century coupled with the impact of the second world war, told through the eyes of a female character whose story has not been given enough attention. For the modern day story there is the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015, the November 2015 Paris attacks at the Stade de France, and later the megafires in the Blue Mountains in 2019 that turned into the Black Summer, just on the cusp of the Covid-19 lockdowns hinted at in the book. McFarland handles all of these major events subtly, through the experiences of her characters and the impact that the external world has on the internal, especially through art. We see the way the terrorist attacks are dealt with creatively through Antoine’s compositions, and how, in Neve’s writing, the impact of present day bombings hark back to the historical insecurity of war that impacts on Stella. Foreign Attachments is beautifully written, with a great attention to detail and obvious research that brings the characters to life. Jean Rhys is a particularly interesting and tragic character in this rendition with plenty of intrigue left to the reader’s imagination, though I dare anyone to read Foreign Attachments and not give into the temptation to not only begin looking closer at Stella Bowen’s paintings but also exploring Rhys’ story and the work, not so well read these days, of Ford Madox Ford.