Sarah Winman’s ‘Still Life’ book review

From the battlefields of Europe, Ulysses returns to London’s East End, specifically to a rundown Georgian tavern called Stoat and Parot, inhabited by an unusually intelligent bird. “Ulysses pushed open the door,” Winman wrote, “and the fire to his right gave off a ripe old smell, all sour and burnt. The old ones that were gathering around the fireplace were exactly the same as the ones he had left: the same face with fewer teeth. These are the teenage characters of Ulysses, a web of bartenders, gamblers, and drinkers who care for each other like the whole world depends on it—because it just is. They may not know anything about Florence’s “beautiful art,” but they are both master sculptors of what Winman calls “the haunting aspect of devotion.”