The Photograph
£0.78
DIFFERENT STYLE...... - Having been a fan of Penelope Lively since I read and loved Moon Tiger, I have bought every one of her books, and now, it s with a sense of profound disappointment that I ve finished The Photograph.When you consider how much life was packed into the dying days of the protagonist, Claudia, in Moon Tiger, and how little is reflected upon in the life of Kate in The Photograph, you feel as though you bit into something that turned out to be full of air.There is so much potential in the original idea of the novel, but it just dissolves and you are left feeling So what?If a man sees a photograph of his wife holding hands with a very good friend, or a brother-in-law of his, it seems a tremendous over-reaction to go about sleuthing as Kate s husband does, especially if his wife is now dead.Good grief, live and let live.But the bottom line is the complete lack of depth in the book, it s so sad to see this.
WAS THAT IT? - This is yet another Novel of People s Relationships. My problem with those is that there are just so many of them, and after a while one comes to seem very much like another. However I had known Penelope Lively s books for children when my own were still children a quarter of a century ago, I recalled them as being very superior products of their kind (the books that is), so I started on this story with my hopes high. It all took off in a very promising way, with an intriguing air of mystery around the absent figure of Kath. Unfortunately as the book went on the balloon of mystery slowly deflated.The action of The Photograph begins with the discovery, you will be astounded to learn, of a photograph. Such is the aura of mystery that I had expected some sting in the tale, some disclosure that the photograph was not what it appeared to be. It turns out to be exactly what it appears to be, but I remained in suspense all the same. Why is Kath absent? The first and most obvious guess is that she is dead, and the first and most obvious guess is the right guess. In which case why take so long in confirming this fact? How Kath died is not revealed until near the end, but I had guessed that as well long before I was told, and there is nothing mysterious about it nor even, sad to say, anything very unusual or unexpected. Was this what I had been kept in suspense for? Why Kath died in the way she did is disclosed at the same time, and while I had not worked that bit out it did not startle me in any way when I came to it. This is the whole trouble with this book - the figure of hints, innuendos and tantalising half-glimpses unravels progressively into someone fairly ordinary suffering a melancholy but ever so slightly prosaic fate. Mrs Lively seems to be under some compulsion to make it this way, because even when she is not seeking to be enigmatic and has Kath s widower determinedly rooting out suspected affairs from Kath s past the affairs turn out one by one to have been phantoms of his own suspicions and no affairs at all. This side of the story is all kept completely candid and un-mysterious and is explained as each investigation is carried out and draws a blank, the only mystery from my point of view being what is more arcane about all the rest of it. At the end of the book it left me wondering what the other characters amounted to. It should go without saying that Penelope Lively is a writer of great and sensitive artistry. The other personae are, as one would expect from her, touched in with sympathy, perceptiveness and understanding, but the focus throughout the book has been so strongly on the would-be mystery surrounding Kath that when all that dissipates the others are left as rather a haphazard collection of minor parts that Mrs Lively has not really left herself enough space to develop to any great extent. Their main significance was in their relation to the figure of Kath, and when that loses its interest they have spent their capital, so to speak. The story is, of course, beautifully written, there is a genuinely affecting tone of human compassion and sympathy to it, there are numerous picturesque and even memorable little episodes and vignettes, but by the end I felt that the story had rather run a downhill course most of the way. A pity in many ways, but I was left with just another Novel of Human Relationships, and I m inclined to think there are too many of those.
Skilfully-crafted, engaging and moving - Glyn Peters - academic, landscape historian and sometime television presenter - chances upon an envelope marked DON T OPEN - DESTROY whilst ferreting away in his landing cupboard. He ignores the warning to reveal a photograph, the contents of which propel him, somewhat obsessively, to seek out people directly and indirectly connected with an earlier period in his life and to re-examine his most significant relationship. It would spoil the considerable suspense in The Photograph to reveal more than this skeletal outline of the plot. Suffice it to say that on the fairly simple premise of one unearthed photograph, Lively has crafted a highly plausible, intelligent, absorbing and ultimately very moving account of the interaction between a bubbly, beautiful and unaffected woman and a range of well-developed characters who entered her world. Strongly recommended.
Lost interest - I read this novel for a reading group I attend. If I didn t have to finish this book I probably would ve stopped reading half way through. The characters are either too involved or under-developed. I completely lost interest in the photograph mystery plot and I didn t care about the characters.I would not recommend this unless you need help falling asleep.
Absorbing - A beautifully written, very readable and absorbing study of the nature of relationships, perception and (mis)understanding. I suspect that I was not the first reader Penelope Lively had in mind for this book, but it merits the attention of a wide audience for what it has to say about life and our interpretation of it.