📖Review: All the Colour in the World by CS Richardson

Part story and part historical art critique, Richardson’s All the Colour in the World excels in describing the wondrous visualizations of the 20th century from muddy battle fronts to colour-saturated technology. All is intertwined to critique the way colour and depiction has changed through history as well as how colour can inform the journey of a life. 

The story is fascinatingly built into one page chapters marked by a number. The structure of the story is reminiscent of the plaques below museum or gallery displays giving only pertinent details, and often requiring the reader to fill in context and connections. At times the structure seems almost poetic and chaotic, which successfully mimics the art collection described in the initial chapter.

The protagonist's second person perspective is intermingled with historical elements written in third person. The effect is a bit erratic and caused me to question which elements were fact and fiction. This thoughtful intersection between story and research by the protagonist successfully represents the cyclical nature of time and the protagonists experience as an art historian and how it informed his own lived experience.

Overall, I enjoyed reading All the Colour in the World. It is a strong work of literary fiction that gave me a lot to think about in its brief 200 pages. Its Canadian protagonist and the critique of human art and history are a fascinating artwork in its own right.  

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this digital ARC in return for an honest review.