Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen is another winner in her batch of books - fiction or nonfiction. I can always count on her for good solid writing.
Rebecca Winter is a photographer but now facing a declining career and a bit of a crisis of faith, plus her bank account is dwindling. She flees to the country for a new perspective. (cover blurb) There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer/birder named Jim Bates, that what she see through a camera lens is not all there is to the world.
p. 6 I like her description of the country. It was quiet now. There was a smell. So many smells. Mildew, damp linen, trampled plants. The bananas in the glass bowl on the drainboard. A whiff of what might be skunk, or skunk cabbage. In the backyard she'd taken a deep breath. It had smelled as though the entire forest around her was rotting by inches.
p. 213 She has a new agent, a new project The White Cross series, and a new lease on life. This series of enigmatic tableaux is both mysterious and heartbreaking. Each as it was found: some images reflect the disintegration wrought by wind and weather.
Rebecca's journey at age 60ish is well written by Quindlen. She captures the questioning, the endurance, and the world of a creative. Flee with Rebecca and restore your soul, too. Enjoy this book.
