Book Review
May. 5th, 2008 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Photograph
by Penelope Lively
This novel concerns a man who, a few years after his wife Kath's death, finds a photo that reveals that she had an affair. The discovery causes the widower, his sister-in-law, and several other people who knew Kath to probe deeper into her life and who she was. On the surface, this sounds like the making of a grand melodrama, but Lively's novel couldn't be farther away from soap opera. She has an amazing gift for capturing not only her character's inner lives, but also the way people think, the way they remember things. Reading this book is quite a bit like being able to see or hear what's going on in other people's heads. In this novel, Lively also says a lot about just how little and how much we may understand about those closest to us.
by Penelope Lively
This novel concerns a man who, a few years after his wife Kath's death, finds a photo that reveals that she had an affair. The discovery causes the widower, his sister-in-law, and several other people who knew Kath to probe deeper into her life and who she was. On the surface, this sounds like the making of a grand melodrama, but Lively's novel couldn't be farther away from soap opera. She has an amazing gift for capturing not only her character's inner lives, but also the way people think, the way they remember things. Reading this book is quite a bit like being able to see or hear what's going on in other people's heads. In this novel, Lively also says a lot about just how little and how much we may understand about those closest to us.
