STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS
I’ve heard of Anna Quindlen for years, but have never read anything she wrote. I’ve also taken NEWSWEEK for over twenty years (until they stopped printing the mag) and never noticed her column.
When you’re desperate for something different you read Anna Quindlen’s STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS. It’s about a female Ansel Adams type photographer who has gone out of fashion. She’s swaps her New York apartment for a cabin in the sticks, and that’s when she meets a roofer who takes care of her raccoon problem. They’re hot for each other almost immediately.
So . . .if there’s a theme here it’s whether it’s about a May/December romance in reverse. She’s sixty and he’s forty-four. He doesn’t care; she does.
There’s also a dog in the story and a lady who runs a combo tea shop/bakery called Tea for Two and More who literally can’t shut up, but somehow she fails to tell Rebecca Winter why Jim Bates is suddenly standoffish. The dog is a mutt who gets kicked around and abused until he lands on Rebecca’s back doorstep. Of course she takes pictures of him, constantly, and that becomes a minor theme. Is it okay for an artsy fartsy photographer to do a dog series?
Rebecca also likes to hike in the woods and when she does she keeps finding these crosses, like the kind you see at Arlington, only made of wood.
There’s the cross and a photograph, or the cross and a trophy or a ribbon, like a ribbon you’d get for winning a race. Of course, the reader wants to know what the heck is going on here. That’s about all the plot there is, except for Sarah, the tea lady’s, rotten husband.
I liked Rebecca and I liked Jim. I even liked the tea lady, but is this a romance, a critical comment on art, a schmaltz fest or what? Probably all of those put together.
When you’re desperate for something different you read Anna Quindlen’s STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS. It’s about a female Ansel Adams type photographer who has gone out of fashion. She’s swaps her New York apartment for a cabin in the sticks, and that’s when she meets a roofer who takes care of her raccoon problem. They’re hot for each other almost immediately.
So . . .if there’s a theme here it’s whether it’s about a May/December romance in reverse. She’s sixty and he’s forty-four. He doesn’t care; she does.
There’s also a dog in the story and a lady who runs a combo tea shop/bakery called Tea for Two and More who literally can’t shut up, but somehow she fails to tell Rebecca Winter why Jim Bates is suddenly standoffish. The dog is a mutt who gets kicked around and abused until he lands on Rebecca’s back doorstep. Of course she takes pictures of him, constantly, and that becomes a minor theme. Is it okay for an artsy fartsy photographer to do a dog series?
Rebecca also likes to hike in the woods and when she does she keeps finding these crosses, like the kind you see at Arlington, only made of wood.
There’s the cross and a photograph, or the cross and a trophy or a ribbon, like a ribbon you’d get for winning a race. Of course, the reader wants to know what the heck is going on here. That’s about all the plot there is, except for Sarah, the tea lady’s, rotten husband.
I liked Rebecca and I liked Jim. I even liked the tea lady, but is this a romance, a critical comment on art, a schmaltz fest or what? Probably all of those put together.
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