Thursday, January 19, 2006

The Photograph by Penelope Lively



I have wanted to read a Penelope Lively novel for a while now. After picking up her new "anti-memoir" Making It Up and browsing it, I decided I should read one of her novels first. Since The Photograph has gotten so much popular praise I chose it and I read it in two evenings. What a great experiment in various points of view. The plot begins when a researcher finds an old photograph of his wife, now deceased, and her sister's husband. He suspects there was a relationship in the past and decides the research his wife's past. His investigation causes a chain reaction of hurt feelings and misunderstandings, each narrated by a different person involved in some portion of the story. I loved it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I recently read this book and struggled with it a little bit. The only thing that kept me reading it was wondering how Kath died. I was a little let down, but her writing style was impressive.