This is a tale you can read three ways. The first time through, it’s the story of a woman who takes one glance at conventional early-twentieth-century life, and throws in her lot with art instead.The second time, you might ask yourself if this woman is based on any particular artist of the inter-war period, and you’d be right to wonder – though this is no work of scholarly biography. A line connects the historical to the here-and-now, but it’s feathered and soft.Third time reading, find the point where memoir and imagination connect. Now you can look.