The Allegra Series

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Barbara Lambert, in her first novel, portrays a year in the life of two
Vancouver artists, Brad Lindhall and Allegra Schliemann. Their artistic
expressions are diverse: Brad draws and paints, inspired by the recent
departure of his artist wife, Mona, and by his new relationship with
Allegra. Allegra flits from art to art: yarn dyeing, weaving, and fabric
design in her workshop, FibreWorks.

The relationship between Brad and Allegra is based on art. She calls on
him to build more windows in her apartment, but instead he constructs
panels of mirrors that reflect the view and the light. Similarly, he
reflects her light, absorbing her fanciful stories of artistic
inspiration and then expressing them in drawings and paintings. At
first, his art is hidden: the focus is on Allegra and her life stories.
Eventually, as she directs their relationship more toward his world and
exploring his life and secrets, his artistic endeavor is exposed and
made famous through the select gallery of Erica DeVere. The successful
gallery showing brings an end to Allegra’s role as Brad’s muse. As
Brad the artist waxes, Allegra the weaver wanes. Mona, Brad’s absent
wife, stages a stunning, climactic scene at the art gallery.

Allegra’s illness (which is unnamed but suggestive of MS in its
symptoms) is contrasted with the strength of her willpower, fed by her
memories and her artistic energy. Although her physical deterioration
seems to inspire Brad to brilliant artistic frenzy, it does not become a
greater issue in her own life. For her, the illness is an interlude,
something that—like her creative spurts and her relationship with
Brad—will pass.

Interspersed throughout the novel are italic passages describing Greek
myths. The themes of these inserts range from art (Greek vases, fabrics,
weaving) to destructive relationships. Presumably a parallel is
intended, but neither Brad nor Allegra is heroic or tragic.

Although the novel is not a first-person narrative, it seems like one.
Whether presented through her own voice or through Brad’s eyes,
Allegra is the centre of the story; Brad remains an enigma, and Mona is
just a colorful swirl at the end.