The Photograph | Penelope Lively

Small events can make a big difference in a life. I've read two Penelope Lively novels and in both, a small random event kicks off a whirlwind that changes the lives of the characters. I first read How It All Began (2011) which begins with a mugging in London and tells the rippling story of how that event impacted the relationships of people involved and adjacent experienced that impact. In The Photograph (2003), Glyn is a professor who's rummaging through a closet looking for some research and comes across an envelope marked "do not open." Of course, he opens it and discovers a photograph that shows his wife Kath (who died some years earlier) and his brother-in-law clasping hands in an intimate, unseen moment. There's the nudge that starts the ball rolling on this beautifully constructed and written story.

There's a lot of suspense as more is revealed by each character recalling their relationship with Kath and with the other characters in the story. One review of the book talked about the lightness of the story and I agree. Kath, a young and beautiful woman, is a light presence who seems to float through people's lives and reflect more what they wanted to see than her true self. While the story deals with heavy topics like death and betrayal and jealousy and love, it moves lightly through time and is a relatively easy read. It begs the reader to think about people they know, and how well they know them. In The Photograph, the characters seemed to be aligned about how Kath was, what she was like, what she was about. Only at the end of the story do we learn, from one character who's in the background, important insights about her. Insights that others failed to notice.