The Photograph

this is lovely. the writing is excellent - this was my first, but will definitely not be my last, penelope lively - and the character studies are so well drawn. admittedly this is my kind of book: heavy on character and internalities, less so on plot (although there is a definite, concrete one). but there is this beautiful ache that exists with all of these characters, who don't connect with each other at all really, who don't know each other or maybe even allow themselves to be known. there is a loneliness even as they're with each other and together. this book also talks about how something small (or seemingly small) can change your perception of everything. how when that happens, your memories change to reflect this new understanding show more (if understanding is what it is) and how you have to reevaluate everything you thought you knew. so the plot, while thinly written, is quite big and profound, and we learn about it through the characters and how they handle (or don't) this information that comes to them.

beautifully done and written.

this is a book that probably should be read in only a few sittings. i suspect i would have liked it even more had i been able to read it that way; i was unable to give it the time it deserved and took me far too long to read. if i reread it, i expect to rate it even higher next time. show less

Glyn, a historian, is rummaging through a cupboard looking for some old papers when he comes across a photograph of his wife Kath, taken about 20 years earlier. In the photo she is holding hands with another man. Glyn is shaken to the core, but unable to confront Kath because she recently passed away. Seeking the truth, he reaches out to Kath’s sister Elaine, who is also in the photo. Glyn’s discovery ultimately sends shock waves through the family and surfaces long-buried issues. The happy-go-lucky and stunningly attractive Kath’s presence is still very much present; grief is still fresh. As details of Kath’s life are revealed, everyone who loved her is forced to re-examine often seemingly trivial events now infused with new show more meaning.

Penelope Lively is a master at telling a story by showing how the tiniest of details can have a profound effect (for another example of this talent, I recommend How it All Began). No one’s life is as simple as it first appears, least of all Kath’s. I was fascinated by the way Lively gradually revealed connections and entanglements, and the possibility for different outcomes, had other choices been made at various points in time. show less

Amazing book, because none of the characters are particularly likeable and the entire story is based on the dead woman's photo in an envelope directing someone to destroy it without opening it. That alone compels one to read through wondering who on earth is such an idiot. Burn it if it's such a big secret. Excellent writerly craft, to prompt the reader despite the unlovely characters.

More character-driven than plot-driven, this is the sad story of a widower (Glyn) who finds a photograph of his late wife (Kath) surreptitiously holding hands with her sister's (Elaine) husband (Nick), taken by the latter's former business partner (Oliver). Kath's friend Mary is also in the photo, and Glyn proceeds to interrogate all of them to find out if there had been other affairs. The story is told from all these multiple viewpoints, including that of Nick and Elaine's daughter Polly, a favorite of Kath's. We learn a lot about all the narrators (including some of the minutiae of their daily lives - Glyn is a landscape archaeologist and Elaine is a garden designer), but Kath remains an enigma. How she died isn't revealed until near show more the end, but there are indications all along.

The story is set in England, with British vocabulary, so it's only fitting that the audiobook narrators be British. Actor Daniel Gerroll is, but his wife, actress Patricia Kalember (of Thirtysomething and Sisters TV fame), is American. Both do a fine job creating distinct personalities for the various narrators.

The book's title intrigued me, although the audiobook cover art is misleading (an attempt to portray the photo that's so central to the story seems like the better choice to me). All in all, though, I was disappointed. Very little happens in the story, and the characters are so self-absorbed, it's hard to empathize with any of them. It's no wonder they knew so little about Kath. show less

Really enjoyed this. Reminded me a bit of Joanna Trollope but much better writing. The character development is superb and the author very successfully gets you to change your perception of several of the major characters as the story progresses. How well do we really know the person we profess to love? Kath's husband & sister find they didn't know her nearly as well as they thought. I also like the way the author keeps information hidden for quite some time and this results in a much greater impact when it is revealed.

Widowed for many years, an academic historian looks through a jumble of papers in a drawer and discovers a picture of his wife looking into the eyes of her sister's husband. With it is a "remember this day?" note from the man. Both are in an envelope with the note "throw away" written on it in his wife's hand.

Wanting to understand this new information, he begins to contact people from his wife's past, discovering a woman he didn't know. Thinking he would find many affairs, he discovered only this one, of very short duration. Instead, he found a woman who led a very full life in the arts while he worked, traveled, researched, did not notice her. A lonely woman who touched many but befriended few. A beautiful woman, worthy of being show more painted, her portrait commending a high price and revered by a man who never spoke to her.

She was beautiful. Everyone thought so. Her parents, long dead. Her sister, brother-in-law, husband, niece, artist friends, strangers. How could anyone so beautiful be lacking for anything? But she was. She lacked love. She lacked talent. She lacked children. She was lonely, unbearably so. And finally, at the end of his investigation into that photograph, he understood, at long last, who she was and why she killed herself.

A wonderful, but sad, tale that examines what it can be like to be beautiful, but unloved. show less

The Photograph is an unflinching and unforgettable story of the many ways the past intrudes upon the present and the present alters the past. When Glyn, a landscape historian, stumbles upon a photograph of his deceased wife, Kath, holding hands with another man, his understanding of the past is “savagely undermined.” Reading the past, uncovering and deciphering its strata, is his stock in trade, but now it is his own personal landscape, and the history of his marriage, that he must reinterpret. He veers from emotional vertigo to an obsessive need to know what kind of woman his wife really was. Why did she have an affair? Did she have other lovers? Was their whole life together a lie? His search takes him back into his life with show more Kath, and her absence becomes the most powerful presence in his life, rising up before him, speaking to him, leading him to discoveries that reveal much more—and much more disturbing truths—about himself than about his wife. Though dead, she is the novel’s most eloquent character, the still center around which the lives of all the other characters begin to swirl. Who was she, this beautiful woman who seemed to draw and hold the gaze of everyone who saw her, who seemed carefree and clearly happy, a burst of color and uncontainable energy?

And why did she have to die so young?

Lively, P. (n.d.). The Photograph by Penelope Lively - Reading Guide: 9780142004425 - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books. Retrieved from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288128/the-photograph-by-penelope-livel.... show less