Underpainting is an art technique, and the narrator is an exponent thereof. The story is a first person description of a man's life and inadequacy, set around the Great Lakes in Canada and the US.
The book is very diffuse and fractured, and the reader really needs to pay attention. Gavin didn't like the narrator or the main story (although the sub-plot, a woman's view of the first world was, was enjoyable) and rather suspected this was the author's intention.
"A post-modern novel too far" and "A grim book" which Gavin wouldn't recommend.
Doreen had read the book too, and found it a cold, uninviting read - the
outcome not being worth the effort.
Gavin 13/6/99