Blurb for the back cover:

“Glad that I was forced to read it.”

Do you remember back in high school when you had assigned reading? It was never something I like. The idea of being forced to read a book not because I was interested in it but because the teacher like the book personally seemed like a horrible reason to read a book. My young developing mind shunned all things English class related and instead focused on Math. To this day I can not stand Brave New World but I could help you with your Trigonometry homework if you needed it.

Luckily in college I changed my ways and shunned Math and returned to English which is how I found myself in a class (Philosophy in Literature) where I assigned to read The Photograph by Penelope Lively.

Originally published in 2003, this is the first book I have read for school where the author is still alive. The story revolves around a photograph found in an envelope labeled “DON’T OPEN – DESTROY” that shows Glyn’s former wife Kath holding hands with another man which sets in motion a chain reaction which causes the people who knew Kath to change the way they knew her. The husband goes on an obsessive quest to find out all he can about his wife who he never paid attention while causing her sister Elaine to also reevaluate her. The overall theme of the book is how everything a person knows about another can change in an instant.

I enjoyed this book. It’s not something that I am going to hand to friends and say “You must read this” and if I were in a bookstore just walking around aimlessly like I normally do I probably would have not given it a second glance. The cover is not something particularly eye catching and the title does not draw me in. But the story itself is a compelling one which makes me wonder how many books I am missing out on by judging books by their cover. It’s a short read being only 240 pages long. Perfect for an airline flight or a rainy Saturday. Overall, I am glad that I was forced to read it.

You can find Penelope Lively’s website here and order her book here.

Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 9:58 am.
Filed under: Book Review, Thoughts on Books.