| Title | : | The Photographers Wife |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2014 |
Barbara – a child of the Blitz – has more secrets than she cares to admit.
She has protected her children from many of the harsh realities of life and told them little of the poverty of her childhood, nor of the darker side of her marriage to one of Britain's most famous photographers.
With such an incomplete picture of the past, her youngest, Sophie, has struggled to understand who her parents really are, and in turn, Barbara sometimes worries, to build her own identity.
When Sophie, decides to organise a vast retrospective exhibition of her adored father's work, old photos are pulled from dusty boxes. But with them tumble stories from the past, stories and secrets that will challenge every aspect of how Sophie sees her parents.
The Photographers Wife Reviews
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I really cannot find one negative thing to say about this book.
I've been a fan of Nick Alexander's writing for quite some time now, and have read almost all his published works. Some I have enjoyed more than others, but I would definitely say I am a fan.
This however is, to me, the best piece of writing Nick has done so far. There is a real maturity in the feel of the book. But it's not heavy in any way; it flows so well that I was in real danger of staying up all night to attempt to finish it in one go.
The format tells the story in two separate eras, and gradually you begin to work out the connections as the tension builds. It's clearly done so there is never any confusion about where you are, which I appreciated as I am not much for muddying the literary waters unnecessarily.
There were points where I smiled, or laughed out loud, and there were other chapters where the tears fell as I anguished with a character over what was unfolding.
I hate spoilers so I'm not going to spend ages telling you about a book I think you should be reading!
On the basis of this book Nick deserves to be one heck of a lot better known than he is. I recommend you buy it - and then tell all your friends. -
This really is not a good book. It's a deeply mediocre book at best and I would have given it three stars however the regular inclusion of lazy and irrelevant cliches, and an eye wateringly clumsy metaphor of the protagonist comparing her life to a lasagna enforced me to cut a star.
The final few chapters were just terrible; the sudden inclusion of a major character trait which I assume was meant to ramp up the drama of it all and yet just made the person even more unbelievable, and the completely pointless spelling out of exactly what happened in Wales just left me cringing. Did the author really not think that we had worked out what had happened at about half way through his novel?
Patronising, badly written and dull. -
The Photographer’s Wife is my third outing with Nick Alexander and he is turning out to be an author I really like. This is the story of Barbara and her daughter Sophie. Sophie is trying to persuade her mother to help her with an exhibition of her late father’s photography, something Barbara is reluctant to get involved with and for very good reasons.
The story is told in two time frames, and I particularly loved the parts of the book that told Barbara’s life story. We first meet her as a five year old during the blitz and follow her throughout her life until the present day in a fantastic series of “snapshots” of family life during the second half of the twentieth century. It has a very authentic feel to it and I really liked the author’s attention to detail. During these sections we follow Barbara’s life with Tony and very slowly all the family’s secrets are revealed to us, if not to Sophie herself. They are very subtly brought to the fore as the author takes us almost to the point of reveal and then leads us to draw our own conclusions. Barbara is a fabulous character who really grows throughout the read and I really liked her.
By contrast, it took me a while to “get” Sophie. I never really got a clear mental picture of her in my head and was wondering for some time as to how old she is. She is actually in her forties but she never felt like someone of that age, but came across as someone much younger. I had similar feelings about her boyfriend Brett. We are told he is American but I never felt like I was reading about an American, apart from the times he said “Gee”. I also found it difficult to age him, and it was only the fact that he was going bald that gave me any clues, although that in itself is not necessarily conclusive. From the moment we met him he just came across as a slimy sleezeball and I could never understand what Sophie saw in him.
However, putting that to one side, this is a story that really captured my imagination and drew me in; one that I thoroughly enjoyed. -
The Photographer’s Wife Nick Alexander
This is the first novel by this author I have read. I chose it because it was billed as a dual time frame historical novel combined with a contemporary story , which is a genre I quite like. I also like photography. I dislike poorly researched and slap dash history and silly errors. This book had none of those. The book was arty without being farty, psychological without being overly pretentious, and had a certain humour in that the characters do not take themselves too seriously, and when they do it makes for a particular flavour of humour - the book , in places, laughs at itself. I did not give it 5 stars because 5 is for something absolute. This may nearly be there- wold really go to 4.5. It is beyond good but not sure if it will be great- we might know that in 20 years’ time. Alexander is a writerly writer.
At first I was irritated by the use of the present tense in all the time frames, but got used to it eventually, and as the book went on, appreciated exactly why the device is (may have been) employed. It gives the story a quality of a commentary as opposed to a narrative, and as such reflects the idea of photo- journalism and a photograph as being a capture of a moment in time, but also as a continuance, a preservation of time.
The vignettes , incidents chosen as representative of Barbara and Sophie’s lives are written like the differences in the photographic styles of the characters that become apparent in the exhibition- family snapshot, studio pose, social comment, documented realism, airbrushed, photo-shopped even. The characters also are metaphors of their photographic styles; incisive and enduring, (Barbara) blurred and lacking in focus with the occasional stroke of luck (Tony) contrasting moods trying to find an identity (Sophie) quirky and sophisticated (Diane) professional (Phil and Malcolm). Taking photography as a metaphor (and “ there are no new metaphors in the world” ) the book and all its themes, characters, tropes, ‘secrets’ are pulled together in a masterful manner by the author as the Retrospective Exhibition comes together to reveal more than the sum of its parts.
Talking about characterisation- impressive. The locations are included as characters for this reader, also. Places, buildings, landmarks all have something to say, and the descriptions, although never boringly intrusive are comprehensive, like a good photograph, draw you in so that you become part of the essence of the place, the reader is necessary to complete the overall picture. To this reader, it is a real sign of good writing when he or she feels that she is actually necessary to complete the picture. The characters are all incredibly credible. From the random, irrational Tony, for whom we also feel some warmth because he has a quality of warmth about him despite the repulsion we feel at some of his behaviour- to Jonathan, the son who like Barbara has had his creativity repressed by the cruelty of the mediocre,(or at least the jealousy of those who may not be as good at it) insouciant Glenda, fragile yet resilient Minnie, all the peripheral characters fit into their time frames, develop with the time frames, are children of their times but move on with them. Although we are told that Barbara’s home (through Sophie’s eyes) is unchanging and old fashioned and Barbara caught like a fly in amber since Tony's death, or on Kodak paper never changing, it is patently obvious that the pragmatic Barbara never stops coming into higher resolution the longer she is left to develop. Only her daughter is too self absorbed to notice or know her. I suppose under characters I must mention the odious Brett. You feel like screaming at Sophie not to touch him with a barge pole, but hey, that is the loneliness of the 40 something singleton career/arty girl seeing it all rapidly disappearing before it even arrived. The fact he arouses (not) feelings in this reader, feeling of distaste that is, is testament to the author who has drawn a character that could so easily be cliché, but doesn’t fall over that line sufficiently to spoil the rest of the work , and manages to inspire the odd genuine moue in the reader
With many novels the reader likes to yell at the characters and sometimes the author for being so dense. In PW, plotwise, you see what is coming, guess the ‘secrets’ early on, but that doesn’t matter because the secrets are not really the point. The Zeitgeist is the point, and how it affects the lives of our characters. As a photographic metaphor, but also a metaphor of the changing mores, a microcosm of post war working class society and post modern cultural and social change. Snapshots, snapshots that were sometimes photographs.
There were a couple of points that I had thought the author had overlooked, and just as I wondered where was Glenda in all of this, sneered inwardly thinking I had caught him out, the explanation came, right on cue. Impressive, the way he managed to follow up on every dropped clue, character, aside, without the need for great unveilings. Having said that, I found the ultimate chapter as a finale disappointing. But that’s how life is, especially for poor old Babs- not so much a bang as a whimper. Which in this case was a strength of the commentary.
There is so much in this book, hard to say what drives it- character, plot , psychological observation of human frailty, social history, art , journalism, communication- it is all there. I really liked the atmosphere, ambience, the way the author recreated each place and time to perfection and wrapped it around the reader… in the end, the camera may or may not lie, but it says a lot about the photographer.
PS I have tried not to give away the plot lines which are important to some analyses I would have liked to mention, so have left some really important themes out of this review so as not to make spoilers... Read it!
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This was not a very satisfying read for me. For starters I didn't really believe in the characters enough to be really hooked. I'd figured out the 'secret' in the story quite early on and I found Sophie and Brett, the modern characters at the heart of the story, rather two-dimensional; cliched portrayals of urban media types who it was hard to believe in. The central relationship between Sophie and her mother, Barbara, was handled clumsily. The reader was expected to understand the obvious reasons why this relationship was difficult, even though it was never explored fully. By far the best part of this story was the detailed account of Barbara's impoverished childhood and younger years during the war and into the 1950s. I thought the writer was at his most confident telling this part of the story and as my own parents grew up in London during WW2 I could totally relate to the authenticity and detail of this part of the story. I feel that if Nick Alexander had let this part of the story really develop, this novel would have been far more satisfying for me. Tony, Sophie's father and Barbara's husband (the man with the 'secret'), was at his most believable in the early stages of his development of the story, as a young man, and then receded into the shadows of this narrative, becoming a rather poor caricature of the man he was meant to be. The character of Glenda, Barbara's sister, was worth a story in her own right. She was a fully fleshed out character in the early part of the story with a life of her own, but after developing her so well early on, the writer just dropped her and she simply disappeared from the story. Such a shame. The ending was a bit of an anti-climax. We already knew what had happened in Wales so this final scene added nothing to the story and certainly wasn't a surprise or a twist. Having said all this 'The Photographer's Wife' wasn't a bad read. I'm sure some people will enjoy it but I can't really give it more than two stars.
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What amazes me about this author is that every single book he authors is completely different. There is nothing formulaic about his writing at all and that intrigues me. Yes, he addresses complicated family relationships and secrets that spill, untold, down the decades, but he has the ability to write equally well from the male or female perspective which is not easy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the juxtaposition of the wife, Barbara and her clichéd existense in the '50s and '60s with that of her daughter, Sophie's, in the present day. The gradual disclosure of family peccadillos and their repercussions didn't prepare me for the final revelation which is always a positive for me.
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LA RECENSIONE COMPLETA QUI:
https://thereadingslove.blogspot.it/2...
Ho scelto questo romanzo perché è strutturato come uno storico temporale combinato con una storia contemporanea, un viaggio temporale che ingloba la seconda guerra mondiale fino ai tempi odierni. Questa è la storia di Barbara e di sua figlia Sophie, due generazioni, due tempi diversi e tanti segreti che li separano. I protagonisti trasmettono al lettore l'amore per la fotografia, il dolore per la perdita, il peso ingombrante dei ricordi e degli sbagli commessi. Il romanzo ha un certo humour in quanto i personaggi non si prendono troppo sul serio e quando lo fanno c'è un particolare sapore di umorismo. L'autore nella storia mette in contrapposizione la fotografia che cattura il momento e la sua conservazione nel tempo. Le foto rappresentano momenti della loro vita che mettono in evidenza le differenze negli stili fotografici dei personaggi che si manifestano nella famiglia, in un contesto sociale, in un documentato realismo. La storia, la fotografia con tutti i suoi temi e personaggi vengono messi insieme dall'autore in maniera magistrale come la retrospettiva che si riunisce per rivelare la somma di più parti. I luoghi hanno tutto da dire e le descrizioni, mai noiose, sono complete come una fotografia.
I personaggi sono incredibilmente credibili. Dal Tony casuale e irrazionale con tutti gli sbagli che ha commesso e i comportamenti scorretti nei confronti della sua famiglia fino a suo figlio Jonathan che come Barbara ha avuto la sua creatività repressa nella crudeltà del mediocre.
Il lettore leggendo la storia si sente in balia di emozioni contrastanti, vuole che ognuno dei personaggi paghi per ciò che ha commesso, che venga rivelata finalmente la tanto celata verità che tutti quanti hanno nascosto.
L'importanza deve essere data alla vita dei personaggi, al loro cambiamento sociale, alla società lavoratrici del dopoguerra.
E' impressionante come l'autore sia riuscito a comporre tassello dopo tassello ogni avvenimento e come riesca a regalarci molti colpi di scena che non ci saremmo mai aspettati. Consigliato per gli amanti della storia e della narrativa contemporanea!
CONTINUA SUL NOSTRO BLOG. VENITE A TROVARCI
https://thereadingslove.blogspot.it/ -
Barbara und ihre ältere Schwester Glenda haben die Bombardierung Londons im Schutzbunker und fast immer hungrig überlebt. Wenn ihr nicht brav seid, werdet ihr nach Wales aufs Land evakuiert, hatte ihre Mutter stets gedroht, die von der ständigen Angst und der Fabrikarbeit völlig erschöpft war. Nach Kriegsende lernt die lebenslustige Barbara zu Anfang der 50er Jahre in ihrem ersten Urlaub in Eastbourne den ungeheuer charmanten Tony kennen. Tony arbeitet zunächst als Motorrad-Kurier für Londoner Tageszeitungen und später als Fotograf.
Auf einer zweiten Zeitebene will im Jahr 2012 Barbaras Tochter eine Retrospektive für das Werk ihres lange verstorbenen Vaters Tony organisieren, in der sie Fotos ihres Vaters und ihre eigenen einander gegenüberstellt. Sophie braucht dazu die Unterstützung ihrer Mutter. Die betagte Barbara Marsden hat Fotos, Negative und andere Erinnerungsstücke auf ihrem Dachboden archiviert – und sie verfügt formal über die Rechte an Tony Marsdens Werk. Barbara reagiert auf Sophies Plan sehr reserviert. Sophie weiß über ihre Mutter kaum etwas und kann Barbaras Vorbehalte gegen die Fotografie allgemein nur schwer nachvollziehen. Tony war erfolgreich, hat mit seinem Handwerk die Familie ernährt, auch wenn Barbaras Existenzängste nie ganz beschwichtigt werden konnten. Mit fast 80 könnte Barbara sich einfach zu müde fühlen, um den Staub von alten Kartons zu fegen. Doch je länger sich Sophie mit Leben und Werk ihres Vaters befasst, umso geheimnisvoller wirkt Barbaras Abneigung, alte Fotos und alte Geschichten ans Tageslicht zu holen. Sophies Mutter hat offenbar mehr als einen plausiblen Grund, die Vergangenheit besser ruhen zu lassen.
Barbara hat ein Leben als stay-at-home-wife, als klassische Nur-Hausfrau verbracht. Ohne ihre Unterstützung wäre Tony vermutlich sein Leben lang Motorradkurier geblieben. Obwohl intelligent und künstlerisch begabt, hat Barbara sich von anderen Menschen so behandeln lassen, als könnte sie nicht bis drei zählen. Frauen in ihrer Generation konnten es der Welt kaum recht machen. Wurden sie zu früh schwanger, hatten sie ihren armen unwissenden Partner hereingelegt; waren sie mit 25 immer noch nicht schwanger, war es allein ihre Schuld. Nahmen sie keinen Anteil am Beruf ihres Mannes, bestätigte das ihren Status als Dummchen; interessierten sie sich und brachten eigene Ideen ein, konnte das als unerwünschte Konkurrenz gesehen werden.
Nick Alexander springt zwischen zwei Handlungssträngen hin und her, die sich in unterschiedlichem Tempo entwickeln und in einfachem Präsenz erzählt werden. Die Vergangenheit aus Barbaras Kindheit, ihre Ehe mit Tony, die Geburt ihrer Kinder und Tonys Karriere als Fotograf umfassen fast 45 Jahre, die Gegenwart, in der Sophie die Familiengeschichte mit all ihren Geheimnissen zutage fördert, nur 2 Jahre.
Die Figur der Barbara als Vertreterin ihrer Generation finde ich hier außerordentlich gelungen dargestellt. Die Passagen über Tonys Tätigkeit als Fotograf sind fachlich sehr gut recherchiert – sie waren das, was mich an diesem Roman besonders interessiert hat. Leider harmonieren Buchtitel, Plot-Entwicklung und die Aufgabe des allwissenden Erzählers nur schwer miteinander. Barbaras Kindheit nimmt zu Anfang zu viel Raum ein, so dass man sich nach 200 Seiten immer noch fragt, wann denn nun die Handlung beginnt. Um den Einfluss ihrer Kriegskindheit auf ihre Persönlichkeit zu zeigen, hätten wenige Sätze genügt. Für einen Roman über die „Frau des Fotografen“ nimmt Sophie als - lange Zeit sehr blasse - Nebenfigur zu viel Raum ein. Damit das Familiengeheimnis bis zum Schluss gewahrt wird, erfährt man erst spät, wie alt Sophie ist und damit an welchem Punkt ihrer eigenen Karriere als Mode-Fotografin sie stehen könnte. Geschickter hätte ich es gefunden, den Focus stärker auf Barbara zu legen und sie nur auf Sophie reagieren zu lassen. Fast bis zum Schluss habe ich mich gefragt, warum ein allwissender Erzähler so wenig über Sophie zu wissen scheint – und warum es dem Autor offenbar schwerer fällt, eine Figur seiner eigenen Generation glaubwürdig darzustellen als eine Frau der Generation seiner Eltern.
Nick Alexander wagt sich hier als Indie-Autor an einen ambitionierten Plot, der seinen Lesern einige Geduld abverlangt. Wer sich für Fotografen als Romanfiguren interessiert oder für die klassische Rolle einer 1934 geborenen Frau, dem könnte der Roman dennoch gefallen.
knappe 4 Sterne -
I read ‘the Half life of Hannah’ and thoroughly enjoyed it so was very much looking forward to reading this one. First of all, it is a completely different kind of book, set in wartime Britain as we discover Barabara’s childhood, through to the present day and her daughter Sophie. Once again it is very well written with just the right amount of detail and superbly drawn characters. As Sophie decides to launch a retrospective of her father’s photographic career, secret after secret is unfolded at just the right moment. The denouement won’t be a total shocker to the reader as the writer has given enough hints yet will come as a total shock to Sophie. Trying to find out more about her father, she perhaps discovers more than she really wanted to know. I won’t say any more as I don’t want to spoil it.
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After stumbling across Nick Alexander quite by accident, I read "other halves" and "half life of Hannah" and fell in love with his writing. As soon as his new book "The Photographers Wife" was released I was on to it as soon as I could and was not at all disappointed.
This book had me engrossed from the beginning and I found it hard to put down.
An excellent and very believable story that I can honestly say I enjoyed from start to finish.
Nick Alexander now has me as a loyal fan and I look forward to reading more of his previous and future books. -
Great story!
One of the best stories I hAve ever read. I couldn't put the book down.
I will certainly read another of Nick Alexander's books -
I got this as a freebie from amazon so got what I paid for!
I read 20% and simply didn't enjoy it. I've given it 2 stars, over generously, because there was nothing offensive about it and nothing that made me angry. He writes fairly well - I mean, properly, good sentence structure, lack of annoying writer's tics, and the characters are not lacking in plausibility. In fact, I rather liked the chapters where he described the Blitz - perhaps justifying the extra star. I didn't like the parts set in 2012 at all; has there ever been a duller couple in fiction than Sophie and Brett. As I stress, nothing offensive or of that nature. Just boring - why should I care about these dull people?
I forced myself to read to the end of a chapter set in 1950 which conveniently brought me up to 20%. It was an effort, because it was just so boring. Long narrative of nothing happening - but not even in a arty literary way. I might have read more if I had spent longer on the beach yesterday. But the tide came in quite rapidly and it seemed sensible to pack up and find somewhere nice to eat. -
I usually read ebooks when I am travelling, much easier to take a Kindle in my luggage! The Photographer's Wife was a perfect choice for my last trip as I did not get much time to read, so a novel that was easy to pick up and put down without loosing the thread was important. The story covers two separate periods but clearly and concisely. The realistic plot unfolds as the tension builds, there was humour and sadness as the two story lines came together and it all began to make sense. I did guess the result of the mystery quite early on as the author gives the reader plenty of hints and for this reason I did get rather annoyed with the plausible characters, who without exception all had flaws and annoying traits. Overall a read that kept my attention and was easy to pick up and enjoy in small bites.
https://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogsp... -
As many other reviews have already stated this book is Nick's best one yet.
I loved how the story was split between two eras which slowly came together as time passed revealing more and more of the lives of the characters who we grew to know and love.
The characters themselves are wonderfully human - no one being all good or all bad but with all the flaws and faults that we all have, perfectly relatable people who let us have a glimpse into their lives.
A great read of a well crafted and well written tale that was filled with some surprising twists along the way.
As always Nick has delivered in full... keep up the good work!! -
I'm a huge fan of Nick Alexander, but I have to say this is his best so far. Full of his trademark introspective characters, the story slips seamlessly between the present day and Barbara's life right from the '30's upwards. Heartbreaking in parts, subtly witty in others, this is such an emotionally intelligent novel full of hidden secrets. I loved it.
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I really enjoyed this book. It's well written and a good story. It retained my interest all the way through.
This is the second Nick Alexander novel I've read and it won't be my last.
I didn't "love it" so that's why I gave it 4 stars. But it wasn't far off. Well worth the time it took to read it. -
The author has a wonderfully intelligent and fun writing style. The characters in both storylines kept me interested because they were written believably. I was curious to find out the link between both storylines. What a good novel. Highly enjoyable. I will definitely read more of his novels.
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excellent read another good author loved the parallel stories running together and the eventual conclusion
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Ništa posebno. Divim se Barbari i njenoj snazi, ali se trebala zauzeti za sebe. Moglo je i bez opisa seksualnog života i aluzije na 50 nijansi sive.
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Je penche davantage pour 3,5 ⭐️
Dans ce roman, nous alternons entre les années 1940 et 2011. La portion de l’histoire autour des années 40 avance dans le temps jusqu’aux années 1980.
Dans les années 1940 à 1980 nous suivons l’histoire à partir de la vie de Barbara, tandis qu’en 2011-2012-2013 nous suivons l’histoire à partir de sa fille, Sophie.
Au commencement de ma lecture, j’ai trouvé certains aspects plutôt désagréables. Certains commentaires étaient déplacés.
« La marque de vêtements de sport sportswear direct utilise les mannequins les moins chers du marché ce qui explique sans doute l’état déplorable de leur peau. » P47
« Mannequin filiforme...miss squelette ambulant. » P110
Pour moi, ce genre de commentaires était déplacé et n’apportait rien de bénéfique à l’histoire ni de positif pour le personnage (ici Sophie).
Par la suite, le 2e élément qui m’a dérangé était l’aspect inutilement vulgaire. On passe d’un chapitre émouvant où les bombes frappent la ville et fait des morts à un présent entre Sophie et Brett érotique-déplacé.
« Et puis il à cette façon de sortir sa queue... » p51
ou lorsque Sophie essaye d’avoir une conversation sérieuse sur l’univers de la mode et de la photo et qu’en plein milieu de ceci Brett dit : « Bon tu vas me sucer oui ou non? » p.117
Pour rajouter au tout on va dans le stéréotype de « sex, drugs and rock’n’roll » avec de la coke, et du sex hard core.
Au départ les personnages des années 2000 étaient vraiment difficiles à apprécier et étaient vraiment exagérément stéréotypés ex: Judy la femme de Jonathan, le frère de Sophie (fils de Barbara) lourde as hell, végétalienne et contrôlante.
Éventuellement, ça s’est placé, mais je n’ai jamais vraiment été intéressée par la vie de Sophie. Je préférais davantage la portion historique et le personnage de Barbara.
Pour ce qui est de l’histoire, le volet historique est intéressant. Le clash des mœurs entre 1940 et aujourd’hui est frappant. L’histoire est malgré tout assez prévisible et on ne retire pas tant de bénéfices à ce que les personnages découvrent les secrets. On les sait trop vites, l’accent est mis trop tôt, l’auteur n’a même pas essayé de brouiller les cartes.
Malgré tout j’étais intéressée de terminer le livre pour Barbara. -
This is the second book by this writer that I have read. At the end of the first one I was surprised to see that Nick is a man , rather than a woman. There are few male writers that I can think of who tackle, let alone succeed so well at, writing female protagonists.
This writer is interested - as I am - in the relationships that bind and break us, the things we give up for each other, the things we hold on to.
At first I thought this book would have been better titled The Photographer's Daughter, because for much of it Sophie is the dominant and, to be honest, the more interesting character. She is engaged in trying to resurrect the popularity of her late father's photographic work whilst at the same time using it as a platform to launch her own career in photographic art. But the story's main focus - as it progresses - is Barbara, Sophie's mother. Barbara is very much a child and a woman of her time. Nick Alexander depicts with great puissance London of the blitz and the after-war years of Britain and the women who held it all - and their husbands - together.
Although I saw the story's main plot twist coming from ten miles off, it didn't spoil the book for me. The writing was sound, the dialogue realistic, the characters flawed and human and the two story threads - Barbara's and Sophie's - alternated nicely.
I have only two minor remarks. I wished that the older Barbara didn't become a facsimile of her own tetchy and difficult mother. I couldn't see the younger woman in the old and all the sympathy she had garnered in my heart dissipated in those sections. Secondly, Sophie's attitude to sex is too laddish. She wanted, thought of and spoke of sex like a man. Maybe I'm out of touch, but I think this was the only area that Nick mis-construed his otherwise excellent rendering of female.
I visited Nick's website to find out a bit more about him. He describes his work as 'chick-lit.' I'd say he is doing himself a disserve there; there is nothing frivolous or lightweight about these books. The books I have read have been serious attempts to understand the people that we are in the world, society and culture that we live in. -
An enjoyable read.
A well woven story beginning during World War II , moving to the present day and back again.
The world of photography, and a family with lots of secrets, lies and surprises.
Great characters, some you love, some you hate, and others who just need a good shake up.
I love a good multi timeline with lots of twists and turns, and this one did not disappoint. -
A novel written across two time frames - firstly 1940-1983 tracing the life of the title character - and secondly 2010-2013 tracing the life of her fortysomething photographer daughter and their interaction as the daughter plans a retrospective exhibition of her father's work. Enjoyable book but a bit too long for the story.
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I assume I bought this back in 2015 when it was reduced to a quid on Kindle because it sounded like it was going to be a story tangentially (or more) about photography. Qute rightly it's sat on the last screen of my Kindle for a long time now and I thought I'd at least give it a chance. I got just over a third of the way through it before I just couldn't be bothered any more. Not really my kind of thing, a bit clumsy in places and so on. The jumping between the past and the present was quite nicely done though, and that alone probably kept me reading for as long as I did...
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meh. was hoping the girls would have been sent to whales and a much more interesting tale could have evolved. very obvious "mystery" that took way to long to evolve. Barbara was hard to root for or even like.
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Nekada nije sve kako izgleda, ni fotografije uhvaćene kamerom ne govore ko je bio iza objektiva, ljudi vode tajne živote i javnosti prezentuju samo ono što žele, u traganju za istinom kćerku poznatog fotografa putevi će odvesti na čudne završetke i slijepe ulici...
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I actually enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. The story didn't massively grip me but it was a nice easy read.
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really enjoyed this book. Sophie is the daughter of Barbara and the chapters flick between each of their own stories. I particularly enjoyed the parts of the stories about Barbara’s childhood in the war.
