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beansbookclub's review against another edition
4.0
love the way this plays with format. enjoyed it so much when i read it as a library book, that i bought a copy for my own shelf. <3
sam_hildebrandt's review against another edition
5.0
I really loved this book!! 5 out of 5 stars!!
The book was about a complicated relationship between a mother, Lillian, and daughter, Samantha Jane. Lillian was a photographer and was selfish, but she did care a lot for her daughter. Samantha Jane was raised in a unique, little world of just the two of them. Lillian took some questionable photos of Samantha Jane when she was young, and this caused repercussions throughout her life. As an adult, Samantha Jane is asked to write a catalog for her Lillian's photos. Samantha Jane puts together her personal accounts, Lillian's journal entries and letters to other people to from the catalog of photo gallery.
Lillian and Samantha Jane's interactions are very well written. Lillian is often talking through her journal entries that are directed to Samantha Jane, or through her letters to various friends; past tense. Samantha Jane talks through her writings that detail context of her and Lillians life at the moment the photo was taken; present tense. These two voices heighten the already present conflicts in the novel.
The format of the novel is PERFECT! If Myla wrote in a traditional format, this novel would be bland.
The book was about a complicated relationship between a mother, Lillian, and daughter, Samantha Jane. Lillian was a photographer and was selfish, but she did care a lot for her daughter. Samantha Jane was raised in a unique, little world of just the two of them. Lillian took some questionable photos of Samantha Jane when she was young, and this caused repercussions throughout her life. As an adult, Samantha Jane is asked to write a catalog for her Lillian's photos. Samantha Jane puts together her personal accounts, Lillian's journal entries and letters to other people to from the catalog of photo gallery.
Lillian and Samantha Jane's interactions are very well written. Lillian is often talking through her journal entries that are directed to Samantha Jane, or through her letters to various friends; past tense. Samantha Jane talks through her writings that detail context of her and Lillians life at the moment the photo was taken; present tense. These two voices heighten the already present conflicts in the novel.
The format of the novel is PERFECT! If Myla wrote in a traditional format, this novel would be bland.
taurustorus's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
5.0
Lillian Preston was a photographer who achieved more notoriety than fame in her life. She was a street photographer, taking pictures of people in unguarded moments. This novel is set up as the text from the exhibition book for a retrospective of her work at MoMA. So there's a forward by the singer from a punk band from the seventies that took inspiration and a name from the photograph that caused Lillian's notoriety and the catalog text is largely by her daughter, who was the subject of some of her photographs, as well as people who knew her, letters and extracts from her journal. The result is a vivid character study of an extraordinary woman, one whose photographs are described but never shown, yet I feel as though I would recognize one of her photographs instantly.
This was a five star read for me, there was not a single page of this novel that I didn't love. The subject matter, that of a woman who chose to live without compromise as a photographer, who chose to raise her child alone in the fifties and sixties when neither of those paths was acceptable for woman, and that of living for one's art, is catnip to me, but the writing was also brilliant. Goldberg spent ten years writing this book and instead of being overwritten, it feels fresh and spontaneous. The format is so well executed that it enhanced the intimacy of the story Goldberg was telling.
This was a five star read for me, there was not a single page of this novel that I didn't love. The subject matter, that of a woman who chose to live without compromise as a photographer, who chose to raise her child alone in the fifties and sixties when neither of those paths was acceptable for woman, and that of living for one's art, is catnip to me, but the writing was also brilliant. Goldberg spent ten years writing this book and instead of being overwritten, it feels fresh and spontaneous. The format is so well executed that it enhanced the intimacy of the story Goldberg was telling.
michellemjeffers's review against another edition
5.0
love, love, loved this book.
Complicated mother/daughter relationships
Non traditional structure (written as an exhibit catalog)
Unique characters
NY art world and Brooklyn setting
transporting and tragic
Complicated mother/daughter relationships
Non traditional structure (written as an exhibit catalog)
Unique characters
NY art world and Brooklyn setting
transporting and tragic
kategci's review
4.0
I had read and enjoyed Bee Season a long time ago, but had not picked up a Myla Goldberg book since. I really enjoyed this novel, set mostly in New York, telling the story of a professional photographer and her daughter from the 1950s-1970s. Through letters and journal entries as well as labels for photos in exhibitions, Goldberg shows how the two decades of upheaval were personally reflected in the Lillian, the mother and Sam the daughter.
ashod's review against another edition
4.0
A woman obsessed with photography at the dawn of the artform, my kind of story! A bit directionless at times but by the time the tears come streaming at the end, it hardly matters.
sgmiller46's review
4.0
I feel like this book was at least partially created with me in mind, although I've certainly never read a an exhibition catalogue quite like this! Wished that I could have also seen the pictures!