Confusing at first, as this book switches frequently between first and third person narration. But the characters are well drawn, and I soon got caught up in the story. It features Rose, a textile artist who has moved to the island of Uist in the Scottish Highlands, as she recovers from the traumatic breakdown of a relationship a few years previously.

Poetry and art complement each other, and there are some moving, even shocking sections of the book as Rose and her neighbour's brother unravel their difficult past histories and learn to forgive themselves. More bad language than I'm comfortable with - so much it rather lost its effect - but otherwise a very readable and thought-provoking book. ( )

This was a moving story about love and art, strength and weakness, and learning to trust again. I liked the interaction between Rose and Callum and between Rose and her daughter Megan. ( )

This was a tough read. The subject matter that is. Rose is attempting to start fresh after an attempted suicide; a subject that I personally tend to stay away from. It's not a very enticing subject, and not very entertaining for obvious reasons. But sometimes it's not what is being said, but how one says it that matters. I could not have stomached this story if Gillard's writing had been any less beautiful.

It's fitting that it's a story about an artist, as it paints very vivid pictures. I envisioned landscapes and backdrops, in an array of colors and textures as Rose created each piece. I felt and shared Calum's frustration as he struggled to reach Rose, who was still trapped in the place between the death of her old life and the hope of a new one. I loved that their relationship grew through their art, and they found each other in her pictures and his poems.

I also hated Gavin. What a horror of a human being. And while I can't blame him for Rose's actions, those are hers to own and hers alone, I'd rather she tried to off him than herself. By the end of the story I had yet to come to terms with her daughter, Megan, and thinking on her now I'm still not sure that I could forgive her, even if her mother could.

The book takes place on an island off the coast of Scotland and the entire story is steeped in cold and damp, and the struggle to keep it out of the heart. Normally I would be opposed to the idea of two sad saps coming together but Rose and Calum's relationship was not one about healing by relying on another. I would not have been able to tolerate a needy, dependant, damaged love between two damaged people. Rose was adamant that she would be the one to fix Rose, and Calum never once interfered, each of them attending to their own pasts without making the other its keeper. ( )

Months ago I read a wonderful book called Star Gazing. Its author, Linda Gillard, lives on an island off Scotland and I soon became FB friends with her. Recently I learned she had a few copies left of her earlier book, Emotional Geology, so I bought one.

I don't know how many U.S. readers are familiar with Gillard's work, but I would encourage anyone who likes a deep love story (as opposed to what we all call romance) to find either of these books and read them.

Warning though, Emotional Geology is an intense experience. It's the story of Rose Leonard, a woman who has been hospitalized after breaking up with her lover of five years. He has left her for another woman and a less complicated life. Gavin was a mountain climber and Rose remembers how he loved climbing more than her, and how she was left behind to worry herself sick every time he took on another climbing challenge. She has a daughter who was a teenager at the time Gavin lived with them. Megan's point of view is different. She loved Gavin and saw him as her protector and the strong man who took care of her mother. You see, Rose is bipolar which has robbed Megan of her childhood.

Rose moves alone to an island a distance off of Scotland where the weather is harsh but there are no mountains except on a distant island. She is an artist and finds it impossible to work when she takes the dose of medications her doctor has ordered. They make her feel like a zombie. But she can't live without them either, so she tries to live on a smaller dose and pursue her textile art in quiet privacy.

Close neighbors become friends, especially Calum, a man with a past that makes him drink a bit too much. However, he's a poet and he's a successful schoolteacher as well. You can see where this is going. I loved Calum and suffered along with him in his trials and tribulations with Rose's illness. Megan comes for a visit which stirs things up to a boiling point.

The setting is bleak according to Megan, but Rose finds it beautiful. She sees the different colors and textures in the landscape and the sea. Since I'm pretty much of a loner myself, the island and the cottage Rose lives in appealed to me. I did have to put the book aside occasionally; the emotional storm of Rose and Calum's relationship was hard to bear.

In short, I will keep this one and I may even go back to reread it sometime which is something I never, ever do. ( )

Geology, according to the dictionary, is "the science that treats of the origin and structure of the earth, including the physical forces which have shaped it and its physical and organic history..." (Funk & Wagnalls, pg. 268). Geology of a different kind, that of looking at the emotional forces which shape the heart and soul, is the focus of Linda Gillard's novel, Emotional Geology.
Emotional Geology is the story of Rose, a textile artist suffering from bipolar disorder, who is trying to recover from the devastating effects of a broken relationship. Following a hospital stay, she knows within herself that the only way she can possibly heal is to seek solitude, return to her work, and become chemically independent. She finds herself in a cottage on the island of Uist. It is here where she fights to put her past behind her while putting the pieces of her life back into place, not realizing just how much she needs the help and love of others in order to accomplish this. She becomes a collaborator with her neighbor's brother, Calum, who teaches poetry. They decide to put their creative talents together in an exhibition of textile art with companion poetry pieces. The collaboration/friendship seems destined to move in the direction of a new relationship, but both Rose and Calum have private battles to overcome before that is possible. It is through these battles that the emotional geology is forged.
I really enjoyed Emotional Geology. I liked the descriptions of the Scottish islands and their inhabitants. I learned about the thrills and dangers of mountain climbing. I loved exploring the textures of the quilts through their descriptions. But what impressed me the most, though, were the characters. Ms. Gillard allows them to be believeable. In Rose we see an insecure, almost middle-aged woman struggle for her emotional and physical survival. She has difficulty with relationships, even with that of her adult daughter. Not all mother/daughter relationships in real life are those of best friends, and it is refreshing to see this portrayed in fiction. In Calum we see a man who has plenty of emotional struggles of his own, which he tends to drown quietly in alcohol. Rose and Calum are like real people - neither is perfect. Yet their strengths and weaknesses play well off each other.
Emotional Geology is good fiction. It is creative, insightful, and most importantly, believeable. ( )