CURIOUS EARTH

Left after the death of his wife and one of his sons with an empty house and cupboards full of hoarded odds and ends that seem to have nothing to do with him, Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the whole day sitting in his chair in the kitchen. But with admirable determination, he resolutely resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering through London with his bus pass, he is surprised to find in the National Gallery a painting that holds him completely in its spell. Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper turned mistress, Hendrijcke Stoffels, awakens in Aldous the desire for a new life, a new woman, sex and companionship that will lead him to Ostende to stay with his bohemian son, to Flemish evening classes, and through a series of slightly misguided relationships with sympathetic women until eventually he meets his Hendrijcke in an ending of devastating poignancy.