Rating: 
Summary: An Interlocking Puzzle of Characters
Review: "The Photograph" is a brilliant puzzle of deftly created characters. Ms. Lively takes a simple premise of a discovered photograph and then proceeds to carve it apart into the individual people who are depicted plus the husband who finds it and learns of his wife's affair with her sister's husband. The great success of this book is the crisp and clear representation of each person, their thoughts, and their relationships to the others. Though this is a modestly sized book, it is resplendant with large meanings. Beautifully written and wise.
Rating: 
Summary: Nasty people
Review: A very depressing book about an enchanting young woman (deceased) who was never understood or cared for by those closest to her. This is a very cruel view of humanity. Deftly written and very sad. Since it is written by lively, you know that it is better than 95% of the stuff being published, but it was not to my taste.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe I'm missing something ...
Review: but I found this book rather uninteresting and predictable. After all of the buzz about it, my expectation were pretty high and I was rather let down. I kept waiting for the twist or something dramatic and exciting to happen ... but it didn't. I struggled to finish this book.
Rating: 
Summary: What the camera caught
Review: By Carol Herman http://www.washtimes.com/books/
Penelope Lively's "The Photograph," her 16th novel, opens with a startling find. Glyn, a handsome Welsh landscape historian, has just discovered a photograph of Kath, his recently deceased wife. In it, with her back turned to the camera, she is holding hands with another man. The infidelity that the photograph presumably reveals leads Glyn on a series of encounters with those who have information about the affair: Nick the interloper; Elaine, Kath's sister who is also Nick's wife; Oliver, the photographer; Polly, Elaine's daughter and assorted others who have ties to the ethereal Kath.
The stage is thus set for what has become the author's signature minuet in which a world and time are revealed psyche by psyche after individuals from differing perspectives weigh in. The author employed this technique to moving effect in her 1987 Booker prize-winning novel "Moon Tiger," in which Claudia, a character faced with death, seeks to reconstruct her life. Voices of those from her past emerge to create a sense of myriad Claudias, while leading readers to a sorrowful story of lost love during WWII.
Although myriad Kaths emerge from this book, its achievement rests not in the ways we come to know the elfin and elusive young woman at its center, but rather it resides in the vibrant, searching, full-bodied characters who she captivated and, in some cases, abandoned. It is their stories that keep this riveting narrative afloat.
A clue as to the author's technique comes midway through the book when Glyn spies a kestrel hanging in the wind. The bird suggests to him a memory that he recalls this way:
"The kestrel evokes Kath. He came here with her once: another kestrel performed similarly, and Kath remarked on it, 'It stays still,' she had said. 'The wind is rushing past it, and it stays still. How?' He sees today that other bird, and Kath's hair blown across her face, and feels her hand on his arm. 'Look!' she is saying. 'Look!'"
Kath "stays still" because, beyond her death, this is the way memory ' as it is assembled here ' operates. Glyn summons what he calls "episodic memories" of her. There is nothing chronological about when or what he remembers, just pieces here and there. For the others she will appear in much the same way.
Elaine, Nick, Oliver and Pollly, in turn, recall a playful moment shared with Kath ' an outing, an argument, a discussion ' as they move through their lives attempting to understand the love and landscape that she inhabited. The memories are focused and vivid, even as Kath herself remains less so. The book reads like a mystery and each character is touched and put off-balance by it. Watching the plot unfold is much like staring at the shifting parts of a kaleidoscope in which only Kath ' like the kestrel ' is fixed.
Glyn, as Kath's husband and the person who finds the photograph, is the character readers meet first. His anguished ruminations set the tone of the book and propel his inquiry. "I am evidently a dupe, a cuckold. My understanding of the past has been savagely undermined . . . for the foreseeable future this requires all my attention."
When Glyn starts his investigation, the first person he rushes to see and inform is Elaine, now a prosperous garden designer. Prior to the revelations of an affair her marriage to the feckless Nick was burdened by their respective approaches to work and responsibility. Elaine is a businesswoman who fastidiously stays on top of the smallest details. Nick, a dreamer, "runs for cover" whenever something practical is asked of him such as a business plan. Dreams and "schemes" to acquire easy fortunes are what keep him going.
Still the sturdy Elaine and flighty Nick have stayed married for 32 years.
Therefore it comes as more than a little bit of a shock to Elaine when Glyn calls her for a lunch date, ostensibly to fill in gaps about Kath's life, only to have him drop a bombshell. Elaine confronts Nick about the photograph and, when he confesses to a liaison with Kath, Elaine boots him out. To Polly's great dismay her desolate father comes to live with her in the new apartment she has acquired.
In the meantime, Glyn continues to search for as many clues as he can find about Kath and the photograph, starting with the photographer Oliver who has little information to offer. "'Why did you photograph them?' demands Glyn."
"For heaven's sake. 'Look, I didn't see until after I got the prints. I just snapped the whole group, standing there chatting to each other. I hadn't noticed that Kath and Nick were '' He shrugs."
Oliver, like other leads Glyn will chase is wholly innocent of any wrongdoing and yet is aware of the torment Glyn has felt since the photograph's discovery. "He is irritated and also faintly apprehensive. There is something evangelical about Glyn's approach to this, the sinister evangelism of the obsessed."
Without giving too much away, it turns out that yes, there was an affair between Kath and Nick, and there may have been others. But in the world of this book the revelation is only as consequential as the people touched by it imagine it to be. And because these characters are ultimately so finely drawn, the reader ends up caring about all of this as much as they do.
Of all the characters, it is surely Elaine w ho is the most compelling. Her aging, her rivalry with her dead sister, her demanding career are given thoughtful treatment here. And the juxtaposition of her rich, if sometimes unwieldy life, against the unsettlingly truncated life of her younger sister is powerful. This is a book about love, marriage, betrayal and dependency. Part love story, part detective story, it is a tale that is as smart and breezy as the writing itself. It matters little in the end, as one of Elaine's memories of Kath reveals, that "Kath has blown in; soon she will blow away." The lives she has touched are as immediate and endearing as she ever was or might have been.
Rating:
Summary: The secrets one leaves behind.
Review: Eight years after the death of his wife, Kath, Glenn Peters surprisingly finds an envelope marked "Do Not Open-Destroy" that contained a photograph of Kath holding hands with a lover. From this moment in time Glenn embarks on a journey to learn more about the whereabouts and acquaintances of his deceased wife. As the narrative progresses it becomes apparent that Glenn never truly knew or understood the real person that she was.
I listened to THE PHOTOGRAPH while commuting to work and I found it to be an overall enjoyable experience. The plot was not too intricate to warrant special attention of each sentence thus enabling me also pay adequate attention on driving (some plots are just too complex for me to focus on driving and listening at the same time.) The novel was read in London accents that further led an atmospheric feeling and a sense of credibility to the story.
My problem with this book pertains to the plot itself. It was difficult for me to like any of the characters as a majority of them truly annoyed me in their selfishness (Nick and Polly) and coldness (Elaine). Upon finishing I felt the ending was disjointed and out of place. I don't want to reveal any spoilers so I'll just say that the ending was disappointing and just didn't correspond well with the rest of the book. For these reasons I feel obligated to give only a 3-star rating for my mixed reactions.
Rating:
Summary: I don't understand why this book made such a splash
Review: For all the excellent reviews it got, my expectations were very high. I was very disappointed. The book's plot was not overwhelming interesting, nor were its characters. The ending was predictable, and the main character lacked any real depth. Maybe I missed something but I couldn't wait to finish it. All of the characters in the story seemed bland and unemotional. If you are looking for a quick and interesting summer read, try The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have enjoyed many of P Lively's books--The Road to Litchfield in particular. This book was a short story padded and padded into a book. I was so bored w/the beautiful Kath--such a cypher she was. And why on earth would Elaine take back "feckless" Nick--what a jolly household that will be. Aarrrgh. I am not the " music show nut"--- that's my husband.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: I have to say, having read the reviews here, that the reviewers have pretty much ruined the mystery and story-line of this book. Not that that is so especially important, but I'm not sure why reviewers have to regurgitate the entire story. Crankiness about that aside, I really enjoyed this book. It is beautifully written and the characters are very well realized. What I liked most is that this book made me think about the people I know and how much of themselves they have revealed to me, what I have missed, what they have missed about me. Mostly, it makes me want to really get to know the people I love, plumb the depths of their souls so when they are gone, I will have missed nothing.
Rating:
Summary: A bit plodding, but a good ending...
Review: I looked forward with great anticipation to Penelope Lively's The Photograph. Not only was it chosen as a Today's Book Club selection, but most reviews have been very favorable. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed. The Photograph opens with a landscape history professor and widower, Glyn Peters, searching through some old papers. He discovers a photograph of his late wife, Kath, holding hands with her brother-in-law. Kathy was an incredible beauty and a free spirit who seemed to have it all. But this picture shows Glyn that there is a Kath that he doesn't know at all, and it rocks his world. All of a sudden, he's confronted with a host of baffling questions. Was Kath really happy? Was her affair with brother-in-law Nick full blown? Were there other men? Who else knew about this affair? And especially, how does this change Glyn's perception of his marriage? He becomes obsessed with trying to find the answers to these questions, and the book reads a bit like a mystery. Each person Glyn questions (family, friends and acquaintances) is forced to revisit the Kath they knew and the relationship they had with her. And they each learn that this happy-go-lucky free spirit had a very dark side nobody took the time to discover. The concept that one photograph can change the lives of so many people is a tantalizing one. Each chapter is written from the viewpoint of one of the main characters, and Lively has a knack for making her characters very real (although most of them weren't very likable). But on the negative side, I found the plot to be very plodding and deliberate in many spots. With only 40 pages left to read, it took me three nights to finish as fatigue got the better of me before my curiosity did. It also had way too much description in parts, and I got tired of reading about gardens, ponds, flowers, trees, walls and pergolas.
But just when I was feeling very let down, Lively gives us a grand ending that made this book worthwhile. And maybe this little voyage in search of Kath has made each of the characters a little more sympathetic.
Rating: 
Summary: Slim, Stock Characterization, This is No Moon Tiger
Review: I loved Penelope Lively's book, MOON TIGER, so when I came across THE PHOTOGRAPH in a bookstore, I bought it without hesitation. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in it; the quality of the writing and of the story can't begin to approach MOON TIGER.
Another thing, I'm getting a little tired of books that begin with the protagonist finding a long lost photograph. This device is getting to be more than a little trite and I feel like groaning whenever I come across it. After all, if someone doesn't want us to find a photograph, they don't leave it lying around where it can be found.
In THE PHOTOGRAPH, it is widower Glyn Peters who finds the photograph and it is a photograph of his dead wife, Kath holding hands with her brother-in-law, Nick Hammond. Glyn immediately assumes that Kath and Nick must have had an affair. After all, a sister-in-law and brother-in-law couldn't possibly hold hands, in the company of others, to boot, for any other reason could they? It is on this slim premise, that Lively constructs the plot of THE PHOTOGRAPH.
Of course, Glyn proceeds to stir up trouble with his "discovery" and soon the once happy marriage of Elaine (Kath's sister) and Nick is in ruins. I mean, when you feel bad yourself, there's just nothing like making a host of others feel bad right along with you, even if your "evidence" is of the flimsiest variety and even though what you think it's saying turns out to be the truth. Of course, I can't blame Glyn for everything...Elaine didn't have to buy into his obsession. The only person in this book who seems to keep the silly photograph in perspective is the grown Polly, the daughter of Elaine and Nick.
The rest of the book details the relationships the dead Kath had with other people she and Glyn knew. Some of them are quite interesting, but most of them are dull and, yes, trite. All of them are supposed to shed light on Kath and just who and what she was, but sadly, they don't. Oh, along the way, some secrets are revealed, but they aren't anything any astute reader couldn't have guessed for him or herself.
THE PHOTOGRAPH certainly isn't a bad book, but it's no MOON TIGER. In fact, it doesn't even come close. The writing is good, but the characterization is shallow and, in some cases, very stereotypical. Nick is the proverbial cad who goes to pieces, Elaine is the cold, unloving wife, Polly is the bemused daughter, Glyn is the outraged husband and Kath, well, Kath is little more than a ghost...and not of the supernatural variety.
I'm sorry I can't recommend THE PHOTOGRAPH to anyone but rabid Lively fans, and even some of them are going to be disappointed. If you've never read Lively before, please don't start here. Start with MOON TIGER instead. It's a denser, longer read, but one that is far richer and more rewarding.
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