Opening Night Author: Sara BaumeISBN-13: 9781803513393Publisher: GrantaGuideline Price: £14.99It has been said of some novelists that they write the same book over and over, just in different forms. This isn’t a good thing or a bad thing; it’s just a thing. Perhaps they have a question in mind, and by repeatedly reframing it, they’re getting closer to an answer.This is not, however, something that could be said of Sara Baume, who surprises and intrigues with each new work. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, was an elegantly composed tale of one man and his dog. Her second, A Line Made by Walking, explored how art can provide sustenance for those who prefer isolation, while Seven Steeples was (I assume) inspired by her decision to move to west Cork with her partner, enjoying the many freedoms that come with removing oneself from metropolitan society. It was also one of the novels of recent years I most admired.And now she returns with a memoir, Opening Night, which combines elements from all of these while being a singular work in itself.[ Sara Baume: I was so tired of my laptop, I felt compelled to work with my handsOpens in new window ]It opens with Baume visiting an exhibition in an eco-house where she is struck by a painting by an American artist, Mollie Douthit. So moved is she that she contacts Douthit, and a friendship ensues, punctuated by a joint decision to swim together in the sea at least once a month, regardless of the weather.Although they work in different media, many things connect them. Asked whether the paintings she imagines are the paintings that result, Douthit says that “trying to align these two things is what the whole of painting boils down to”, and Baume admits a similar experience with sentences. The author has a tendency to hypochondria – a bump that appears in the corner of her eye she presumes to be a cancerous tumour – while Douthit suffers with persistent dental pain. They’re both “generally antisocial and solitary”, but have surprised themselves by making room for a man in their lives. Baume humorously refers to her friend as a Serious Artist and herself as a Serious Writer, but they are, in fact, Serious People with a capacity for fun, enjoying trashy Netflix reality shows and gossiping about the antics of the beautiful people cavorting on screen.[ Sara Baume: ‘I’ll never have kids, and I’m lucky to be with a man who feels the same’Opens in new window ]The bond that grows is fascinating, each providing something the other needs. As Baume begins the process of crafting a book from their friendship, she interrogates herself as to her motivations. Realising that Douthit has become her closest friend, she acknowledges that she’s “mining her life, and building a work of literature”. Later, she finds it difficult to discern whether her attachment to Douthit comes “from sincere affection and concern, or from the crazed desire to make good art”. Later still, she tells her that she is more important to her than her nascent book, “though even as I said it, I knew I probably didn’t mean it”. That’s quite the admission.There are no arguments between them. In fact, we read of a friendship where affection is met with kindness. They leave each other small gifts, and Douthit occasionally produces a painting reflecting quotidian moments in their lives, such as a train journey to Dublin.And yet there is also the fear of losing touch. When Douthit connects with a man who lives in Sweden, a relationship begins that might see her leave Ireland, and Baume admits that she has had close female friendships in the past that have weakened through geographical separation. While she doesn’t explicitly state that this might be one of them, she does suggest that their intimacy will be diminished by distance.[ Sara Baume: The time had come to respect my mother’s medieval s**t. So I began to dig into the pastOpens in new window ]There is so much to admire in Opening Night. It’s a beautiful depiction of the great support that can build between artists if they are not competitive, but admiring of each other. Baume describes herself as “an observer, peripheral, invisible, attentive”, and I mean it as a compliment when I say the second and third adjectives are inaccurate because, as much as she might think she’s focused on Douthit, we receive deep insights into her own psyche, her relationship with nature, her partner, her dogs, her art, even her car. And it’s all written so elegantly and with such respect for the creative process that I found it very moving.It’s worth mentioning that the quality of the paper on which Opening Night is published allows the many reproductions of Douthit’s work to be seen in the best possible way outside of a gallery wall. So much so, in fact, that a few minutes after turning the last page, I went online to buy two for my own home. They add extra insight into this extraordinary book, a work that celebrates high art while being a wonderful example of it.John Boyne’s next novel, The Weight of Angels, is to be published this September