Painting Over The Cracks by Sophie Buchaillard

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Painting Over The Cracks by Sophie Buchaillard. What a lovely treat to have a collection of poetry to review. You'll all know I love my crime fiction but you may not know that poetry is my second love, although I don't tend to review it very often. So it was wonderful to have some to look over, and the publisher was kind enough to send me a physical copy together with a gorgeous wee notebook for my thoughts. Thanks also to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part. 

The Blurb

Painting Over the Cracks is novelist Sophie Buchaillard’s poetry debut. Inspired by her life and a series of workshops she ran with survivors of abuse, this collection explores the relationship between unspoken shame and fraying family ties, and the healing power of expression, friendship, and community in overcoming trauma. Split into four chronological sections, the collection travels from the anxieties of a single mother to memories of buried traumas that lurk in corners of the mind, colouring every interaction to articulating the unspoken, strong from new friendships and rediscovered communities.

My Review

The collection is split into four sections - 1. Nuclear. Family., 2. Remembrance, 3. To words we can finally speak and 4. To seeing the other.  There are some big topics covered in these poems - motherhood, love, grief, trauma, illness and identity. I don't know how many were based on the personal experience of the author, and how many were inspired by people she has come across during her life but it feels like a very personal collection. 

Some of the poems touched me more than others, and some I didn't connect with at all. And that's OK. I don't expect to like every poem I read but I do always find them interesting. And I found on my second reading some of the poems spoke to me differently from during the first read through, and I'm sure I'll get more when I pick this book up again. 

Poems that really stood out for me included the opening poem that gives its name to the collection, 'Painting Over The Cracks' which talks about the end of a relationship, and 'Because being a mother is', because I am one, and I haven't always got it right. 'Black and blue (i) & (ii)' hit hard. As a child of aging, ailing parents both 'Residential home, final visit' and 'She brings my grief in her suitcase' moved me. I enjoyed the love letter to Wales in 'Wales' as I've spent many a lovely holiday in its beautiful countryside. As someone who has never moved from her home country, unless you count from England to Scotland, I was very interested to read the content on migration, not belonging, being different, particularly 'The silence of translated lives'. But I think my absolute favourite poem in the collection was 'Trust' - I felt that one! 

Painting Over The Cracks a is a great collection. Not all of it   is an easy read but it is well worth an investment of time and quietness. Lots to enjoy, lots to contemplate. 

The Author

Sophie Buchaillard is a Franco-British novelist, essayist and poet, and the author of Assimilation (Honno), a novel exploring identity, migration and belonging in the 21st century. Her debut novel This Is Not Who We Are (Seren) was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2023 and focused on the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Sophie writes about identity, culture, migration, belonging and our relationship to travel. Her short stories and essays have appeared in a wide range of magazines. She is also a contributor to the travel writing collection An Open Door: New Travel Writing for a Precarious Century, edited by Steven Lovatt (Parthian). She teaches creative writing in university and community settings.