Monica Raszewski\u2019s Crimson Light Polished Wood begins with death and an act of thievery. In a suburban Melbourne street an Englishwoman named Leonora has died and the adult children of her Polish neighbours are left to pack and distribute her belongings. The protagonist, Lydia, has been bequeathed the books and a desk. She secretly \u201cgather[s] the diaries, notebooks and inventories that formed an intimate narrative\u201d of Leonora\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Raszewski is drawn to the fine-grained nuances of lives lived slightly at odds, always searching for sanctuary in other people to still the lonely ache of homesickness. The novel is a chaste, patient study of intergenerational relationships, immigration, and intimacy halted in its tracks. Focusing on these neighbouring households, it moves back across decades to capture their growing but difficult attachment. Lydia is something of a detective, with her memory in one hand, archive in the other.<\/p>\n
Leonora is an enigmatic figure, at first glimpsed in snatches, seen by Lydia through a peephole in a fence. With flaming hair, Leonora tends to the red hot pokers in the yard of the bungalow she shares with her partner, Margaret, and Margaret\u2019s mother, an elderly Scotswoman whose disapproval of their relationship takes the shape of meanness. Leonora arrests the attention of the young family next door with her charisma, her artistry.<\/p>\n
After Margaret\u2019s sudden death, Lydia\u2019s mother, Anna, sends flowers as a gesture of consolation. \u201cReturned to find red carnations on back lawn with a scrawled note, \u2018I think I love you,\u2019\u2009\u201d writes Leonora in her diary: \u201cWho?? What bad taste.\u201d She dumps them in her compost and her friendship with Anna begins.<\/p>\n
The peephole is an apt image. The focus of Crimson Light Polished Wood is deceptively narrow, yet these characters are enfolded within a larger, longer history. Lydia returns to scenes that seed later hurts and betrayals. Why does she want to understand Leonora in this way? Her knowledge remains partial. Leonora is eager to remake the lives of others, educate, improve them with introductions to literature, art and music. Her controlling zeal \u2013 impatient, righteously confident \u2013 is one of many defensive gestures.<\/p>\n
Raszewski is a keenly psychological portraitist, her writing is carefully textured, prickly and swift. It finds a relaxed authority in its soft and exploratory rhythms, treading the cusp between secret and revelation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
\n August 9, 2025 as “Crimson Light Polished Wood”.<\/p>\n
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