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: 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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Good read
Review: I really enjoyed this book - however was a little disappointed in the end - I expected a bigger surprise for some reason - the only surprise was how she died & then you begin to think about how truly self absorbed Glyn & Elaine really are.
Rating:
Summary: A Good read
Review: I really enjoyed this book - however was a little disappointed in the end - I expected a bigger surprise for some reason - the only surprise was how she died & then you begin to think about how truly self absorbed Glyn & Elaine really are.
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: Oh my goodness, this book was just so slow and awful. I hated the main characters. Glyn was just so boring and you don't wonder why Kath strayed, but you do wonder what she saw in Nick. She seemed the nicest person in the book, even though she's only described in flashbacks, etc.!
I couldn't put this book down - I was too anxious to reach the end; I'd hoped it would pick but it just dragged on and on....my first and last book by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: a book and character that will haunt you
Review: The book begins simply. A husband searching through his old papers comes across a photograph of his wife holding hands with her brother-in-law and understands they must have been lovers. Through each chapter, as he angrily interviews friends and relatives for details of the love affair, a question begins to softly arise. Beneath the accusations, the denials and the love of those he questions, something begins to whisper not so much "What's the truth about what Kath did?" but "Who really was Kath?" Kath who died young, who was such a free spirit, not pulled down by life. But in the end what Kath did or did not do is secondary; it is the truth of who she was, and that all these people talking and fussing and denying and befriending, did not know her. I have looked about me many times since reading "The Photograph" at people I know well, and wonder what they allow me to see. In the end of this remarkable novel, all the busy characters seem to fall away and the spirit of the illusive Kath remains alone gazing at the reader. We wonder how we can assume we know someone so well, and never perhaps even after many years know them at all.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Picture
Review: There's something rather charming and certainly delightful about the English novel. I'm often attracted to those that take place in current times, but when I started this one I was a little put off for some reason. Not sure what it was but since I was already in bed and didn't feel like getting up and searching for something else to read, I continued and thank goodness I did. THE PHOTOGRAPH is so well done. I love a plot that wraps around itself, telling us the story through the eyes of more than one person and doing it in such a way that is both clever and artistic. Penelope Lively accomplished that easily. We never actually meet Kath in life but learn about her in death through the words of her husband, sister, niece, friends, and a somewhat insignificant lover. Perhaps no one knew Kath while she was alive. The secrets she kept from everyone made her life mysterious in a way no one recognized until after she was gone. Her sister Elaine is so wrapped up with her business of designing gardens and her husband Glyn so engrossed in his career that even if she told them, they probably wouldn't have heard her. So it's rather remarkable to watch as Kath changes the lives of these people even after she has died - and maybe for the better. A good read for those who like this type of book - people, problems, solutions, and how life goes on.
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