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Portrait of Julia: A Novel
In 1920, Julia Robertson is a young, beautiful war widow, aware of the radical new ideas bursting into the settled thinking of post-Victorian Canada. That new thinking, about the human unconscious through Freud and Jung, about sexual frankness, about women as well as skepticism about religion, shaped the emerging 20th century world and infused modern painting, music, and literature.
Julia struggles with her conscience over the man she most trusts when she is passionately infatuated with another, an Englishman. He leads her into the orbit of the young and charming Prince of Wales. Leaving behind the stuffy world of Halifax, she goes to London and Paris and then the South of France where she renews her close friendship with one of the great Canadian painters of the period, J.W. Morrice. She becomes part of Morrice's circle of artists and admirers, among them Henri Matisse, who was Morrice's close friend. Ultimately Julia has to resolve a dilemma that dramatically tests all her progressive ideas.
With this novel Robert MacNeil returns to a character who first appears in his bestselling novel set at the time of the Halifax Explosion, 'Burden of Desire'. "Julia's appetite for life and her bold embrace of the modern world was so vivid to me that I had to follow her life into the postwar world," says MacNeil. The result is a fascinating account of a young woman in the midst of a world in transformation.
Julia struggles with her conscience over the man she most trusts when she is passionately infatuated with another, an Englishman. He leads her into the orbit of the young and charming Prince of Wales. Leaving behind the stuffy world of Halifax, she goes to London and Paris and then the South of France where she renews her close friendship with one of the great Canadian painters of the period, J.W. Morrice. She becomes part of Morrice's circle of artists and admirers, among them Henri Matisse, who was Morrice's close friend. Ultimately Julia has to resolve a dilemma that dramatically tests all her progressive ideas.
With this novel Robert MacNeil returns to a character who first appears in his bestselling novel set at the time of the Halifax Explosion, 'Burden of Desire'. "Julia's appetite for life and her bold embrace of the modern world was so vivid to me that I had to follow her life into the postwar world," says MacNeil. The result is a fascinating account of a young woman in the midst of a world in transformation.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
349 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
63 people want to read
About the author
Robert MacNeil
31 books11 followersRobert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, OC, was a novelist and former television news anchor and journalist who paired with Jim Lehrer to create The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1975. MacNeil wrote several books, many about his career as a journalist, but, since his retirement from NewsHour, MacNeil dabbled in writing novels.
He attended Dalhousie University and later graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955. He began working in the news field at ITV in London, then for Reuters and then for NBC News as a correspondent in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
On November 22, 1963, MacNeil was covering President Kennedy's visit to Dallas for NBC News. After shots rang out in Dealey Plaza MacNeil, who was with the presidential motorcade, followed crowds running onto the Grassy Knoll (he appears in a photo taken just moments after the assassination). He then headed towards the nearest building and encountered a man leaving the Texas School Book Depository. He asked the man where the nearest telephone was and the man pointed and went on his way. MacNeil later learned the man he encountered at about 12:33 p.m. CST may have been Lee Harvey Oswald. This conclusion was made by historian William Manchester in his book The Death of a President (1967), who believed that Oswald, recounting the day's events to the Dallas police, mistook MacNeil as a Secret Service agent because of his suit, blond crew cut, and press badge (which Oswald apparently mistook for government identification). For his part, MacNeil says "it was possible, but I had no way of confirming that either of the young men I had spoken to was Oswald."
Beginning in 1967, MacNeil covered American and European politics for the BBC and has served as the host for the news discussion show Washington Week in Review. MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for PBS, which led to an Emmy Award. This helped lead to his most famous news role, where he worked with Jim Lehrer to create The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975. This was later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. MacNeil retired on October 20, 1995.
On September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he called PBS, asking if he could help them with their coverage of the attacks, as he recalled in his autobiography, Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America. He helped PBS in its coverage of the attacks and the aftermath, interviewing reporters, and giving his thoughts on the attacks. He hosted the PBS television show America at a Crossroads, which ran from April 15-20, 2007.
In the late 1990s, he discussed openly his son's homosexuality, saying it could help other fathers to know how he dealt with the fact in a positive way.
He attended Dalhousie University and later graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955. He began working in the news field at ITV in London, then for Reuters and then for NBC News as a correspondent in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
On November 22, 1963, MacNeil was covering President Kennedy's visit to Dallas for NBC News. After shots rang out in Dealey Plaza MacNeil, who was with the presidential motorcade, followed crowds running onto the Grassy Knoll (he appears in a photo taken just moments after the assassination). He then headed towards the nearest building and encountered a man leaving the Texas School Book Depository. He asked the man where the nearest telephone was and the man pointed and went on his way. MacNeil later learned the man he encountered at about 12:33 p.m. CST may have been Lee Harvey Oswald. This conclusion was made by historian William Manchester in his book The Death of a President (1967), who believed that Oswald, recounting the day's events to the Dallas police, mistook MacNeil as a Secret Service agent because of his suit, blond crew cut, and press badge (which Oswald apparently mistook for government identification). For his part, MacNeil says "it was possible, but I had no way of confirming that either of the young men I had spoken to was Oswald."
Beginning in 1967, MacNeil covered American and European politics for the BBC and has served as the host for the news discussion show Washington Week in Review. MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for PBS, which led to an Emmy Award. This helped lead to his most famous news role, where he worked with Jim Lehrer to create The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975. This was later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. MacNeil retired on October 20, 1995.
On September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he called PBS, asking if he could help them with their coverage of the attacks, as he recalled in his autobiography, Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America. He helped PBS in its coverage of the attacks and the aftermath, interviewing reporters, and giving his thoughts on the attacks. He hosted the PBS television show America at a Crossroads, which ran from April 15-20, 2007.
In the late 1990s, he discussed openly his son's homosexuality, saying it could help other fathers to know how he dealt with the fact in a positive way.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 12, 2016
For those of us who read Robert MacNeil's debut novel, "BURDEN OF DESIRE" (and LOVED it as I did), the young war widow Julia Robertson returns in this novel. The year is 1919. The First World War has ended and Canada has gained from it a greater sense of itself, having sacrificed 67,000 men in battle, or roughly 10% of the total number of Canadians who were mobilized. Julia has largely come to terms with her husband's death 2 years earlier. But she's not quite sure what she wants to do with her life. Living in Halifax (Nova Scotia) with its social code a carryover from Victorian times is stultifying and stifling for her. Julia feels herself a modern woman with wide-ranging interests in the arts, literature, and psychology (in particular, the Jungian and Freudian Schools). She is, at 28, a deeply passionate woman, and has struck up a special friendship with Stewart MacPherson, who was last seen in "Burden of Desire." He is a professor of psychology at Dalhousie University and one of the pioneer exponents of Freudian psychoanalysis in Halifax, offering specialized therapy to returning veterans suffering from shell-shock.
Much as Julia enjoys Stewart's company and the times they have spent together since becoming acquainted in the aftermath of the tragic Halifax Explosion, which devastated a significant part of the city in December 1917, she does not feel what she would consider as love for him. Their relationship, which on the surface is platonic, has also had its hotly passionate moments, which both have taken pains to keep discreet from family and friends. Their relationship undergoes a subtle change when Julia receives in the spring a letter from a British naval officer (Neville Boiscoyne) she had briefly met at a party several weeks after learning of her husband's death. Neville, acting as equerry to the Prince of Wales, would be returning to Canada that August (1919) as part of a tour the Prince was making to various parts of the Empire. Julia finds herself thrilled at the thought of seeing Neville again and becoming better acquainted. There was, she had to admit to herself, a warm and magnetic attraction she felt that also stirred deep, sexual yearnings for him. (And Neville felt the same way about Julia.)
MacNeil also has shifts in time and place to illustrate certain crucial experiences in Julia's life that cause her to make some major life changes. These shifts sometimes take place within a chapter or across different chapters. For instance, there are scenes between Julia and her former sister-in-law Lucy that are really endearing, because from their dialogue, it becomes abundantly clear how well they get along with each other and freely share confidences. (Lucy's husband Harry, in contrast to Julia's, rose to high rank during the war and survived combat without a scratch. His record was so outstanding that he was appointed as an aide to the Canadian Prime Minister during the Paris Peace Conference. Indeed, it was Harry who was able to wrangle invitations for Lucy, Julia, Stewart, the local Anglican priest Peter Wentworth (with whom Julia had an unwanted and embarrassing encounter in "Burden of Desire) and his wife Margery (who craves to be the center of attention) to have dinner with the Prince and Neville aboard the ship HMS Renown.) There are also scenes of the subsequent journey Julia makes to Britain (where she meets Neville's family) and France (where she renews her acquaintance with the painter J.W. Morrice --- a real-life Canadian painter of some distinction living on the Côte d'Azur --- for whom she poses for a painting early in 1920).
There are also a lot of "juicy bits" and surprises that take place in the novel. In fact, the ending came as a complete surprise to me. But I leave it to you, reader of this review, to read "PORTRAIT OF JULIA" for yourself, so that you can savor and enjoy this richly nuanced novel. [However if you're really keen on knowing the particulars about Julia Robertson, read "BURDEN OF DESIRE" first.]
Much as Julia enjoys Stewart's company and the times they have spent together since becoming acquainted in the aftermath of the tragic Halifax Explosion, which devastated a significant part of the city in December 1917, she does not feel what she would consider as love for him. Their relationship, which on the surface is platonic, has also had its hotly passionate moments, which both have taken pains to keep discreet from family and friends. Their relationship undergoes a subtle change when Julia receives in the spring a letter from a British naval officer (Neville Boiscoyne) she had briefly met at a party several weeks after learning of her husband's death. Neville, acting as equerry to the Prince of Wales, would be returning to Canada that August (1919) as part of a tour the Prince was making to various parts of the Empire. Julia finds herself thrilled at the thought of seeing Neville again and becoming better acquainted. There was, she had to admit to herself, a warm and magnetic attraction she felt that also stirred deep, sexual yearnings for him. (And Neville felt the same way about Julia.)
MacNeil also has shifts in time and place to illustrate certain crucial experiences in Julia's life that cause her to make some major life changes. These shifts sometimes take place within a chapter or across different chapters. For instance, there are scenes between Julia and her former sister-in-law Lucy that are really endearing, because from their dialogue, it becomes abundantly clear how well they get along with each other and freely share confidences. (Lucy's husband Harry, in contrast to Julia's, rose to high rank during the war and survived combat without a scratch. His record was so outstanding that he was appointed as an aide to the Canadian Prime Minister during the Paris Peace Conference. Indeed, it was Harry who was able to wrangle invitations for Lucy, Julia, Stewart, the local Anglican priest Peter Wentworth (with whom Julia had an unwanted and embarrassing encounter in "Burden of Desire) and his wife Margery (who craves to be the center of attention) to have dinner with the Prince and Neville aboard the ship HMS Renown.) There are also scenes of the subsequent journey Julia makes to Britain (where she meets Neville's family) and France (where she renews her acquaintance with the painter J.W. Morrice --- a real-life Canadian painter of some distinction living on the Côte d'Azur --- for whom she poses for a painting early in 1920).
There are also a lot of "juicy bits" and surprises that take place in the novel. In fact, the ending came as a complete surprise to me. But I leave it to you, reader of this review, to read "PORTRAIT OF JULIA" for yourself, so that you can savor and enjoy this richly nuanced novel. [However if you're really keen on knowing the particulars about Julia Robertson, read "BURDEN OF DESIRE" first.]
April 25, 2017
I read his first book which was based around the 1917 Halifax Explosion but it's been years since i've read it and I don't really remember the details. This book picks up the life of Julia Robertson, one of the characters from the first book, and continues on. It's post-war, she's a widow and she's come to the south of France to see her godfather, a fairly well known painter.
She's in a predicament that might not be so easy to solve and thinks back across the past 6 or 8 months that brought her to where she is today. She is involved with one man, a nice steady fella but infatuated with another one, a titled Englishman who is in the inner circle of the dashing young Prince of Wales. She is also unsure that her husband really is dead and needs to trace the threads to see if there really was a mix up.
While she is contemplating what to do next, she's relating most of this to her godfather as he paints her. Sometimes she's telling or thinking things that are her own speculation of events, from her imagination, which threw me off a couple of times but then it's what people do, certainly what I do. Her secret is predictable, the outcome is a bit up in the air but hopeful. It's well written and an interesting take on Halifax and Europe in 1920 as lives are being rebuilt and the roaring 20s are just beginning.
She's in a predicament that might not be so easy to solve and thinks back across the past 6 or 8 months that brought her to where she is today. She is involved with one man, a nice steady fella but infatuated with another one, a titled Englishman who is in the inner circle of the dashing young Prince of Wales. She is also unsure that her husband really is dead and needs to trace the threads to see if there really was a mix up.
While she is contemplating what to do next, she's relating most of this to her godfather as he paints her. Sometimes she's telling or thinking things that are her own speculation of events, from her imagination, which threw me off a couple of times but then it's what people do, certainly what I do. Her secret is predictable, the outcome is a bit up in the air but hopeful. It's well written and an interesting take on Halifax and Europe in 1920 as lives are being rebuilt and the roaring 20s are just beginning.
June 29, 2019
It is 1920, and young Halifax war widow Julia (from the author's previous book "Burden of Desire") has gone to visit an old family friend in France while she contemplates a personal problem. That old friend is the real life Canadian artist J.W. Morrice. While Morrice paints a portrait of Julia, she recounts the events of the previous few months that have led to her dilemma. Julia is still struggling to process her husband's death, while also also feeling torn between two new suitors, and has been traveling in England and France. The story is engaging, but also rather predictable. What I did find quite interesting was the glimpses into the post-war challenges and attitudes of the characters. The book is set in Canada, England and France, each with its own post-war experiences, outlook and attitudes. It also provides an interesting glimpse into the artistic community in France, as Morrice rubs shoulders with Henri Matisse and other famous artists.
The author is a very good writer, but I don't feel this book is quite as good stylistically as the previous book. As Julia is telling her story to Morrice, there is a bit too much awkward dialogue in order to explain things so that the reader can understand. The parts told through Julia's memories and dreams are much better. Telling a story retrospectively is difficult, and this novel doesn't quite succeed in doing it smoothly. I also don't feel that the author did as well this time at writing from a female perspective on sexual matters. A lot of research went into this novel, and while I did notice a couple of glaring historical errors, there is also a lot of fascinating detail, and a number of insightful observations. I feel a bit guilty giving this only three stars, but I know that the author is capable of more.
The author is a very good writer, but I don't feel this book is quite as good stylistically as the previous book. As Julia is telling her story to Morrice, there is a bit too much awkward dialogue in order to explain things so that the reader can understand. The parts told through Julia's memories and dreams are much better. Telling a story retrospectively is difficult, and this novel doesn't quite succeed in doing it smoothly. I also don't feel that the author did as well this time at writing from a female perspective on sexual matters. A lot of research went into this novel, and while I did notice a couple of glaring historical errors, there is also a lot of fascinating detail, and a number of insightful observations. I feel a bit guilty giving this only three stars, but I know that the author is capable of more.
September 22, 2018
I was game for reading what happened to Julia after
Burden of Desire
. That book left me wondering where the characters would go from there. And I enjoyed this book, looking forward to it every time I picked it up, and reading it quickly. And yet it's not the story I wanted for Julia. I don't understand her choices at the end. I'm not sure why MacNeil wanted this to be her story.
MacNeil writes Julia's encounters with her new aristocratic British beau and his friend, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson), as an allegory about Canada becoming disillusioned with the mother country and moving on. That's interesting as allegory but weird as drama.
MacNeil writes Julia's encounters with her new aristocratic British beau and his friend, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson), as an allegory about Canada becoming disillusioned with the mother country and moving on. That's interesting as allegory but weird as drama.
February 18, 2017
I loved The Burden of Desire, which Portrait of Julia follows. So I expected to love PoJ, too, but I didn't. It was okay and MacNeil is an excellent writer. I just didn't have the same strong positive response to it that I did to the earlier book.
September 1, 2014
I was pretty psyched to see this sequel to Burden of Desire, one of the best books I have ever read (20 years ago), but this was disappointing. MacNeil WRITES very well, but the story here was quite predictable (I sussed it out about 100 pages in), and his portrayal of Julia, a "modern" women liberated in the 1920's after being widowed in the Great War, was disappointing and unrealistic. She comes off as a whiny, self-entered dreamer. Interesting discussions of the art scene in Paris are a saving grace. Lots of details about attitudes toward "modern" art and portrayals of realities of all kinds. Other than that, a dud.
February 23, 2015
a foolish love story taking place in Halifax, Montreal, France and England after the war. Julia’s husband has been killed two years ago in the war and she meets the Prince of Wales and his friend Neville. She becomes pregnant but unsure who is the father. Amusingly describes Canada as being immature and without taste, a somewhat shallow story all in all.
March 8, 2014
A big disappointment! Predictable and obvious.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews