The Resistance Painter – An Irresistible Read

Books and theatre are my chocolate. They spike the pleasure receptors in my brain. While theatre offers a two-hour burst of engagement and immersion, books render a more leisurely gratification. Traditionally, I read at bedtime, a few chapters each night, much like nibbling at a square of dark chocolate infused with hot pepper. But occasionally a book comes along that MUST be consumed immediately. Space MUST be made in the day to read, and for me, that experience is rare. The Resistance Painter is one of these books.

Kath Jonathan’s The Resistance Painter is, at its heart, a mystery. The setting intertwines two timelines and two countries, WWII in Warsaw and the current day in Toronto. It’s told with two POVS, both young women: an artist, Irena, who aspires to paint at a Parisian art school, and her granddaughter, Jo, who creates commissioned sculptures for grave sites. The date-stamping of each chapter has two effects. The reader can follow the trajectory of Irena’s war experience as she becomes a resistance leader in the Home Army, and can trace Jo’s efforts to understand her grandmother’s life and the art she created.  

While the story begins with an air raid in the middle of the night, the mystery underlying the tale begins in chapter three when Jo interviews an elderly Polish man who wishes to commission a sculpture. Stephan too survived the war, and in his interviews with Jo he describes himself as having been a resistance fighter in Warsaw, guiding people through the sewers to escape the Nazis. Irena had conducted similar harrowing missions in Warsaw, which plants a question in Jo’s mind: Could Stephan and Irena have known each other? The possibility of an association nags at Jo as she cares for Irena, who has become frail, is recovering from a broken arm and whose cognitive function is not always en pointe. And this is where I will stop. I’ll not recount the plot further than this for fear of dropping a spoiler.  

The author has drawn her characters fully. We know their aspirations, memories, quirks, families, friendships, lovers and horrors. The settings are vivid: wartime Warsaw with its neighbourhoods and sewers, the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Irena’s home studio, and the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Kath Jonathan has done what few current writers of historical fiction accomplish. She has written literary historical fiction anchored in fact. There is no fluff in her writing.

Until The Resistance Painter, there has been only a handful of books that have made me want to reread them within a few weeks of the first reading. These favourites are noted in previous blog posts. I’ll be connecting with THE RESISTANCE PAINTER in a more leisurely manner next time and savour every detail.

Now, dear reader, which books do you return to? And what draws you back? In this age of prolific book production, I’m always curious to know our tethers.

Book ReviewbooksCanadian LiteratureHistorical FictionKath Jonathanliterary fictionPolish ResistancereadingWWII