Pictures of You
by Caroline Leavitt
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Two women running away from their marriages collide on a foggy highway, killing one of them. The survivor, Isabelle, is left to pick up the pieces, not only of her own life, but of the lives of the devastated husband and fragile son that the other woman, April, has left behind. Together, they try to solve the mystery of where April was running to, and why. As these three lives intersect, the book asks, How well do we really know those we love—and how do we forgive the unforgivable?.
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RochelleJewelShapiro From Publishers Weekly
When book designer Gary Breyer and third-grade teacher Molly Goldman meet at a New Jersey diner, it's love at first sight in Leavitt's (Living Other Lives) latest drama. Gary's parents were killed in a freak accident when he was a baby; Molly's only family is an older sister, Suzanne, who ran away from home at 17 and hasn't been seen since. The sisters' few conversations consist of Suzanne calling to borrow money Molly can't afford to give her; when she finally refuses, Suzanne drops off the radar for good. Gary and Molly wed after a brief courtship, buy a home and are delighted at the birth of their son, Otis at last they feel like members of a "normal" family. But their joy is short-lived: while still in the hospital, Molly becomes gravely ill and falls into a coma, leaving Gary to care for Otis with the help of dour, flaky, live-in nurse Gerta. Then Gary loses his job. Desperate and facing astronomical medical bills, he contacts Suzanne and asks her to return to New Jersey from California to help with the baby. Broke and alone, she accepts. At first her selfishness and utter incompetence strain credibility, but her sudden transformation to conscientious, doting aunt, while inevitable, seems equally implausible. The narrative, told from the shifting perspectives of the three principals, is peppered with bland, disagreeable secondary characters creepy neighbors, an arrogant doctor and Suzanne's ex-boyfriend, Ivan. There's little here to hold readers' interest even the drama of Molly's illness and mounting tensions between Gary and Suzanne lack suspense and the reward for having to endure these people never comes: the unsatisfying ending leaves too many issues unresolved. (Apr.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Gary and Molly's joy at becoming parents comes to a quick and devastating end when Otis's birth leaves Molly with a life-threatening medical condition. To make matters worse, just when he most needs work to pay Molly's astronomical medical bills, Gary is fired from the publishing company in whose art department he works. In desperation, he calls Molly's long-estranged sister, Suzanne, to return to New Jersey and care for the baby while he spends his days at the hospital with the comatose and desperately ill Molly and his nights at his new job as a security guard. When Molly finally awakens and learns the extent of her illness, she realizes that the fragility of existence (with or without a potentially fatal illness) means that it's important to live every moment fully. Leavitt (Living Other Lives) has a talent for creating believable characters whose problems touch the reader's heart. With its tug-at-the-heartstrings plot, this novel sometimes teeters on the brink of melodrama, but Leavitt is a good enough writer to keep it from dissolving into suds. Recommended for all public library fiction collections.DNancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Member Reviews
I had to read this book through tears most of the time. It is so moving, and the characters are so real. I loved how much Charlie adored his wife, and how dedicated he was to his son Sam, even though his grief threatened to engulf him.
The writing is sublime. After April's death, when Charlie is asked about the organ donor card found in his wife's wallet, he thinks, "someone else would touch April's skin. Someone else would see through her eyes." Those lines just killed me, and told you all you needed to know about Charlie's love for April.
Another line that got me was the author's description of Luke's attraction to the much younger Isabelle. "When he smiled at Isabelle, his eyes were full of light. He looked at her like she was the show more most interesting thing he had ever seen." You understand why Isabelle became so smitten with Luke; what woman wouldn't want a man to look at her like that?
Leavitt uses imagery beautifully in this novel. When Isabelle realizes too late that Luke has been cheating on her, she recalls how he had been nice to her after she found earrings the house that weren't hers or smelled perfume, "how he'd taken her out to a fancy dinner, how he reeled her back in so tenderly that she didn't notice the sharpness of the hook." You can just see Isabelle as the poor fish hooked on Luke's line.
Photography plays a big part in the book. Isabelle is a photographer and she teaches Sam how to take photos. It bonds them together, and becomes the one thing that helps Sam overcome his grief and guilt over his mother's death. She tells Sam that photographs sometimes shows things that aren't there, things that you have to look deeper for the hidden meaning. Much of this lovely novel is people realizing they really don't know the ones they love most.
I so enjoy when the ending of a book surprises me, and Leavitt does a brilliant job with the resolution of the story. It takes you to unexpected, but satisfactory, places. She jumps forward in time, and lets the reader know how these characters have fared, but leaves enough questions lingering that allows these wonderful characters to live ons. I will not forget Charlie, Isabelle and Sam, and will think of them fondly for a very long time.
Pictures of You is a moving, heartbreaking novel about the power of healing and forgiveness, with interesting, yet flawed, characters. Fans of good fiction who want to be taken on an emotional journey should read this book! show less
The writing is sublime. After April's death, when Charlie is asked about the organ donor card found in his wife's wallet, he thinks, "someone else would touch April's skin. Someone else would see through her eyes." Those lines just killed me, and told you all you needed to know about Charlie's love for April.
Another line that got me was the author's description of Luke's attraction to the much younger Isabelle. "When he smiled at Isabelle, his eyes were full of light. He looked at her like she was the show more most interesting thing he had ever seen." You understand why Isabelle became so smitten with Luke; what woman wouldn't want a man to look at her like that?
Leavitt uses imagery beautifully in this novel. When Isabelle realizes too late that Luke has been cheating on her, she recalls how he had been nice to her after she found earrings the house that weren't hers or smelled perfume, "how he'd taken her out to a fancy dinner, how he reeled her back in so tenderly that she didn't notice the sharpness of the hook." You can just see Isabelle as the poor fish hooked on Luke's line.
Photography plays a big part in the book. Isabelle is a photographer and she teaches Sam how to take photos. It bonds them together, and becomes the one thing that helps Sam overcome his grief and guilt over his mother's death. She tells Sam that photographs sometimes shows things that aren't there, things that you have to look deeper for the hidden meaning. Much of this lovely novel is people realizing they really don't know the ones they love most.
I so enjoy when the ending of a book surprises me, and Leavitt does a brilliant job with the resolution of the story. It takes you to unexpected, but satisfactory, places. She jumps forward in time, and lets the reader know how these characters have fared, but leaves enough questions lingering that allows these wonderful characters to live ons. I will not forget Charlie, Isabelle and Sam, and will think of them fondly for a very long time.
Pictures of You is a moving, heartbreaking novel about the power of healing and forgiveness, with interesting, yet flawed, characters. Fans of good fiction who want to be taken on an emotional journey should read this book! show less
Caroline Leavitt tells so much vivid and heartfelt emotional truth through most of "Pictures of You" that you don’t anticipate the surprising denouement that’s coming. In fact, the concluding episode of "Pictures of You" happens within so few pages that I felt an abruptness, like the author was rushing through the remaining unresolved issues posed in her narrative. In spite of this tacked-on quality to the ending, what goes before certainly deserves recognition and appreciation: the emotional tone and content is spot-on for the arresting events of the story, and the author also manages great detail and accuracy in capturing a nine year-old boy’s struggle with loss. It shows a highly assured feel for her content.
Sam, just having show more started the fourth grade, witnesses a wrenching and horrific car accident, and later focuses his adulation on the woman responsible. As contrived or unlikely as that sounds, Ms. Leavitt handles it all so gradually and believably, we accept it, even embrace it. These characters find warm homes in our hearts, all to the author’s great credit. I don’t find fault with any of that, but I felt cheated, left in the dark about some of the guiding motivation for some of the most important actions in the story.
Get ready to have your heartstrings tugged when you pick this up. Ms. Leavitt shows excellent skills in the language and the workings of the human heart. But don’t expect your expectations for these characters to be met, either, because as the main female character actually says to the man who loves her, this isn’t a movie. It is, however, a book with high emotional content handled excellently, with some plot machinations that left me nonplussed.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2014/06/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-no... show less
Sam, just having show more started the fourth grade, witnesses a wrenching and horrific car accident, and later focuses his adulation on the woman responsible. As contrived or unlikely as that sounds, Ms. Leavitt handles it all so gradually and believably, we accept it, even embrace it. These characters find warm homes in our hearts, all to the author’s great credit. I don’t find fault with any of that, but I felt cheated, left in the dark about some of the guiding motivation for some of the most important actions in the story.
Get ready to have your heartstrings tugged when you pick this up. Ms. Leavitt shows excellent skills in the language and the workings of the human heart. But don’t expect your expectations for these characters to be met, either, because as the main female character actually says to the man who loves her, this isn’t a movie. It is, however, a book with high emotional content handled excellently, with some plot machinations that left me nonplussed.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2014/06/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-no... show less
Two women disillusioned with their lives, and their husbands, are driving on a fog filled road and in a twist of fate they collide head on and one dies leaving behind a young child. This tragic accident is the framework of Caroline Leavitt’s moving novel Pictures of You. The inside look at both families before and in the aftermath of the accident, is emotionally honest, it is also emotionally messy. Grief takes time. Her survivors relive the tragic moments of their lives, and they ask universal questions over and over about why bad things happen. Can you ever heal from this type heartbreak? Will love break through the fear? From the opening pages, this story pulls you right into an unforgettable journey while unraveling a mystery of show more one woman’s secret life. I couldn’t put down this engaging read. show less
Imagine you are leaving your husband. You could either be leaving because he’s had an affair and gotten another woman pregnant after years of dealing with your own infertility or because the marriage and motherhood is killing your soul. Imagine you’re the first woman driving to New York to start a new life. Imagine you’re the second woman and you’re forced to stop on the road on your way to your destination because your young asthmatic son stowed away in the car unbeknownst to you, messing up your plans entirely. Now imagine an accident involving both women and you are the one to survive. You are that first, childless woman, who has left that sick little boy without a mother. How can you even imagine you’ll survive the guilt show more and remorse that isn’t made any lighter knowing that it all was one horrible accident?
When I first started driver’s training I worried about being involved in a fatal accident. Even if it wasn’t my fault, there’s the guilt. How do you forgot it. Those worries were brought back to the forefront with Pictures of You. That the women were both running away from similar ghosts made the accident all the more poignant. It also brings up something that adults often forget – children don’t always understand what’s happen and live with a damaging guilt all their own. My heart broke equally for Isabelle, Sam and his father Charlie. For April, not so much, though. I can’t pinpoint if it is because of her character or the fact that it’s much easier to leave than to be left behind.
Pictures of You isn’t told in a linear fashion. At the beginning you get a rough snapshot of Isabelle’s experiences before and after the accident. The husband she left did what he could to take care of her, but even in what was among her darkest moments, she knew that the two of them had no future together. The accident even brings the terse relationship with her mother to new lows. She hides herself away in the home she shared with her husband, spurning friends, and somehow trying to deal with the community’s reaction to what happened. She wasn’t portrayed in the greatest light and her refusal to speak to the media. Ultimately, it costs her job and pieces of her sanity.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Sam are living in another sort of hell. Charlie was completely blindsided by the accident. He couldn’t understand why April had excused Sam from school or where she was taking him at the time. Sam, living inside his own guilt-ridden head, isn’t answering questions. The more that Charlie learns about the accident, the more the reader does as well. One thing is certain, he didn’t want Isabelle to have anything to do with Sam, no matter how Sam seeks her out. It isn't until he realizes the power of their connection that he relents. He doesn’t want Sam to get hurt. At the same time, he doesn’t want to be left behind anymore than he already has been.
Pictures of You arrived as an unexpected delight from Algonquin Books. As soon as I picked it up, I knew I had to read it. There was just something about the cover and the synopsis that drew me to it. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down. Carolyn Leavitt is a gorgeous writer and her story illuminates the ongoing trauma caused by both fatal car accidents and broken marriages. First you have to decide that you want to survive, but ultimately that’s not enough. From there, everyday you have to learn how to make it happen. Leavitt doesn't punish her characters, but she makes them work for their lives. I loved every minute of it. show less
When I first started driver’s training I worried about being involved in a fatal accident. Even if it wasn’t my fault, there’s the guilt. How do you forgot it. Those worries were brought back to the forefront with Pictures of You. That the women were both running away from similar ghosts made the accident all the more poignant. It also brings up something that adults often forget – children don’t always understand what’s happen and live with a damaging guilt all their own. My heart broke equally for Isabelle, Sam and his father Charlie. For April, not so much, though. I can’t pinpoint if it is because of her character or the fact that it’s much easier to leave than to be left behind.
Pictures of You isn’t told in a linear fashion. At the beginning you get a rough snapshot of Isabelle’s experiences before and after the accident. The husband she left did what he could to take care of her, but even in what was among her darkest moments, she knew that the two of them had no future together. The accident even brings the terse relationship with her mother to new lows. She hides herself away in the home she shared with her husband, spurning friends, and somehow trying to deal with the community’s reaction to what happened. She wasn’t portrayed in the greatest light and her refusal to speak to the media. Ultimately, it costs her job and pieces of her sanity.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Sam are living in another sort of hell. Charlie was completely blindsided by the accident. He couldn’t understand why April had excused Sam from school or where she was taking him at the time. Sam, living inside his own guilt-ridden head, isn’t answering questions. The more that Charlie learns about the accident, the more the reader does as well. One thing is certain, he didn’t want Isabelle to have anything to do with Sam, no matter how Sam seeks her out. It isn't until he realizes the power of their connection that he relents. He doesn’t want Sam to get hurt. At the same time, he doesn’t want to be left behind anymore than he already has been.
Pictures of You arrived as an unexpected delight from Algonquin Books. As soon as I picked it up, I knew I had to read it. There was just something about the cover and the synopsis that drew me to it. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down. Carolyn Leavitt is a gorgeous writer and her story illuminates the ongoing trauma caused by both fatal car accidents and broken marriages. First you have to decide that you want to survive, but ultimately that’s not enough. From there, everyday you have to learn how to make it happen. Leavitt doesn't punish her characters, but she makes them work for their lives. I loved every minute of it. show less
Grief may be the messiest of all human emotions. We all grieve differently. Pictures of You is an exploration of grief, of how three survivors - a woman driver, a child passenger and his widowered father - grapple with loss following a fatal car accident in Cape Cod. Neither the father, Charlie, nor the woman driver, Isabelle, can go forward unless issues of the past are dealt with. Meanwhile, Charlie's son, Sam, endures one life-threatening asthma attack after another, while keeping vital secrets to himself and clinging to mystical beliefs.
Caroline Leavitt does a great job pulling the reader in and keeping up the suspense. The nuanced characters, despite their better judgment, do things they would not normally do, each grappling to show more find their true center. The simple, restrained prose does not try to teach us how to grieve. It provides an unique portrait of people dealing with the aftermath of unexpected life events, and in Sam and Charlie's case, of ongoing medical challenges as well. Thank you, Caroline. show less
Caroline Leavitt does a great job pulling the reader in and keeping up the suspense. The nuanced characters, despite their better judgment, do things they would not normally do, each grappling to show more find their true center. The simple, restrained prose does not try to teach us how to grieve. It provides an unique portrait of people dealing with the aftermath of unexpected life events, and in Sam and Charlie's case, of ongoing medical challenges as well. Thank you, Caroline. show less
Two women from the same small Cape Cod town collide on a foggy road one morning. Both were leaving their husbands, but only one, Isabelle, survives. Another survivor is the other's severely asthmatic nine-year-old son, also in the accident. He witnesses what he believes to be an angel at the crash-Isabelle. Leavitt tells a compelling story of how the two survivors' lives entwine, partly because of the boy's desire to talk with Isabelle about his mother. Summary BPL
Leavitt's characters behave credibly when it comes to loss and grief. Yet I found the novel as a whole an uneven mix of realistic tragedy and unrealistic romance. Grief can cause people to do crazily uncharacteristic things--but falling in love with the woman who killed show more your wife in a car crash? Um, no.
Plot weakness aside, Ms Leavitt's writing itself reveals a subtle, literary style, drawing the reader into her characters' lives. I am interested in trying another of this author's novels; I would like to know whether Pictures of You was a typical product of Ms Leavitt's pen.
7 out of 10. Recommended to readers of domestic fiction. show less
Leavitt's characters behave credibly when it comes to loss and grief. Yet I found the novel as a whole an uneven mix of realistic tragedy and unrealistic romance. Grief can cause people to do crazily uncharacteristic things--but falling in love with the woman who killed show more your wife in a car crash? Um, no.
Plot weakness aside, Ms Leavitt's writing itself reveals a subtle, literary style, drawing the reader into her characters' lives. I am interested in trying another of this author's novels; I would like to know whether Pictures of You was a typical product of Ms Leavitt's pen.
7 out of 10. Recommended to readers of domestic fiction. show less
Caroline Leavitt captures the effects of a random moment of incredibly bad luck that could happen to any of us – along with the fall-out from it – SO well . There are too many moments to admire in this book to even begin a list. The idea that Sam would see Isabelle as an angel who might connect him to his mother is just brilliant, and so perfectly handled. And the relationship between Isabelle and Charlie ... in less talented hands, this story might have lapsed into smaltzy-ness, but this one ends in such a moving way. Pictures of You is a lovely story of the impossibility of love.
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ThingScore 100
Caroline Leavitt's ninth novel, Pictures of You, drew me into the fractured and lonely lives of two strong women who are about to collide, literally and figuratively, from the first page....Leavitt's formidable skill as a writer is evident from beginning to end as we piece these lives together to find out what brought them to this world-ending moment. It's like a somberly beautiful mystery show more that unfolds like a dark flower until we see the glowing heart. The characters are fully drawn and we immediately feel we know them, perhaps better than the people we spend our everyday lives with....Leavitt tells a haunted yet revelatory tale and resists the urge to end it neatly - instead it has the unmistakable agony and glory of real people living real lives. show less
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Author Information
24+ Works 3,009 Members
Caroline Leavitt has written several books including Girls in Trouble, Coming Back to Me, Living Other Lives, Family, Jealousies, Lifelines and Pictures of You. She won First Prize in Redbook Magazine's Young Writers Contest for her short story, Meeting Rozzy Halfway, which grew into the novel and the 1990 New York Foundation of the Arts Award for show more Fiction for Into Thin Air. Her essays, stories, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including New York magazine, Psychology Today, Parenting, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post. She is a book critic for The Boston Globe and People and a writing instructor at UCLA online. Leavitt is the author of the bestseller, It this Tomorrow. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Pictures of You
- Original publication date
- 2011
- People/Characters
- April Nash; Charlie Nash; Sam Nash
- Important places
- Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
- Dedication
- For Jeff and Max, The loves of my life, for all of my life.
- First words
- There's a hornet in the car.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He held his breath.
- Blurbers
- Chaon, Dan; Dew, Robb Forman; Butler, Robert Olen; Christensen, Kate; Abu-Jaber, Diana; Kirshenbaum, Binnie (show all 10); Shapiro, Dani; Picoult, Jodi; Bohjalian, Chris; Richmond, Michelle
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 564
- Popularity
- 52,195
- Reviews
- 42
- Rating
- (3.55)
- Languages
- English, Estonian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 8
