“It was all: it was nothing: it was more than enough.”
The overarching motif in the novel is being both things at once, akin to the title, the book showcases this literally and figuratively. Literally, the novel is divided into two different narratives that end up intertwined similarly to the characters of the stories themselves. Thus, the assertion alludes to the concept of being and not being at the same time. Through Cossa’s artwork, Georgia and the reader too understand the artist’s intent and mindset while conceiving his art. His works harbor the idea of things being both at once. The novel captures Cossa’s childhood experiences that shaped his views while also coming back to life and teaching Georgie about the same notions.
“When you've nothing, at least you've all of it.”
In Georgia’s narrative, she is a grieving girl who just lost her mother and left with this deep guilt in regard to how she behaved towards her mother. Life and death are hence a significant theme considering the first story is about a 15th-century artist who comes from heaven to earth, whilst the second is about a grieving motherless child. While Georgia is trying to move on while contemplating on the idea of life and death, she further understands these concepts through art. This element is also explored in the artist Cossa’s narrative in how he comes back to life in modern-day London to learn and teach. The statement is an encompassment of the novel’s lesson in that the essence of things is beyond what we can see.
“Beauty in its most completeness is never found in a single body but is something shared instead between more than one body.”
The duality of things is explored in the interpretation of Cossa’s works to explicate the experiences of Georgia and also the artist himself. The assertion can be employed to expound on Cossa’s work that portrays falling water blending with rock and becoming both in one. Through the main characters and their intertwined stories, the novel explores how things are complete when they are both. Even how the narrative gender-blends by referring the characters with either gender-specific pronouns showcases the element of being “both’.
