Saturday, February 26, 2011

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt

I reviewed an earlier book of Leavitts over the summer holidays, it was a book I loved. Well I love this, her latest twice as much.  Beautifully written, words that paint the most brilliant pictures, characters that are so well defined that you feel you know them, while the initial car crash that pivots this books quickly draws you in, it is the incisiveness of the writing that takes you deeper and deeper into the lives of Charlie, April, Sam, Isabelle, Luke, Bill, Frank and those that surround them.This book glides along even when the situations being written about are not pretty, you don't want to leave these people, you find yourself following them as they go through all the grief,pain and ultimately the revelations that the outcropping of the car crash brings. Twists and turns abound and what in the hands of lesser authors might  be considered predictable, in Leavitts hands  actually keep you on your toes, take you down unexpected paths and lead you to ask some rather important questions especially how well do we really know those we Love?
Written with great insight and compassion, the humanity of this book will stay with me a long time as will the way Caroline Leavitt has the ability to write a book with multiple characters and story lines and yet bring them together in such an incisive and inclusive way. The character of Sam as written by Leavitt will leave you breathless, her insight is amazing.
This book is not available in NZ, my copy came from Book Depository.com, I am sure it is a soft cover edition in the U.S,Unity Books in Auckland would be able to order you a reasonably priced copy, they post out if you live out of town or even if you do.

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