This is not only a memoir of Penelope Lively's childhood in Egypt in the 1930's and 40's, but also a meditation on childhood perception and how it differs from the way one sees as an adult. Lively manages to present the direct, self-centered, sensual perceptions of a child; but she also writes of her later re-interpretations of her childhood experience with adult hindsight and an adult's complex, but clouded, vision. The last chapter, in which she "returns" to England -- exotic, inscrutable England -- is beautifully rendered, turning on its head the experience of the Westerner visiting the exotic East.

While it becomes quickly evident how excellent Penelope Lively's memory is, reading this memoir opens up all kinds of doors.

In the book there is a wonderful theme of how we think of the past, and what the past means to us. There is also more than a glimpse into the lifestyles of 20th century British colonial elite. As a child, Lively could straddle different realms, different cultures, and this is the fascinating heart of the book.

She grew up with ruling class privilege in British-occupied Egypt, and yet she had a child's access to local village life. She had a devoted governess, but the grown Penelope realizes how little they shared of each other. There are many fascinating parallels of home and country, such as the weight of a distant, somewhat cold mother/land.

Nowadays, there's a lot written about the phenomenon of the Third Culture Kid. Usually, and to speak very simplistically, this refers to American kids who grow up overseas and cannot feel any true attachment to the US, but who are not visibly connected to the land where they spent so much of their childhood. In the worst scenario, these people can end up with severe feelings of rootlessness, and with a sense of never quite belonging. Lively beautifully and sensitively writes of this lack of connection.

Aside from Oleander, Jacaranda being a wonderful story of returning, it is a comforting read for those who are affected by Third Culture Phenomena. I urge ALL EXPATRIATE parents to obtain and read this book! My third culture daughter read it at age 15, and I would recommend it to others in her age group and cultural situation.

Also great by Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger (Fiction).

Penelope Lively's autobiography is dense with a beautifully arranged description of her unusual childhood and offers the reader a chance to imagine life as a young child growing up in a lifestlye with changing surroundings that only an adult should be handling! Lively's writing styles (very apt colloquialism for this sort of book) blend in with the content of her descriptions of her childhood and the humourous moments she had with Lucy, her nanny/best friend. Her travels are illustrious and vibrant allowing the reader the escapism into the lands of Egypt from Cairo to Khartoum!

I love this book and the memories passed on from Lively through to me are treasures to read!

I'd give this a six if it were possible!-PKane

I am amazed that this book is out of print, because it is a very entertaining and readable novel by a writer who consistently provides a good read. I recently came upon an English paperback copy of it in an English-language bookstore in Paris, and I found it to be one of this writer's better novels. It concerns the lives of a sister and brother after the death of their old dragon of a mother, with whom they had been living for most of their lives (they are both middle-aged). There are problems with the house and some adjacent property, as well as problems in new and old relationships, and Helen, the sister and the main character, realizes that the mother was even more awful that she had thought, and painfully also comes to realize her own connivance in the mother's viciousness and in her attempt to keep Helen and her brother under her thumb (even after death). Helen is a likable and admirable character, and one gets a good sense of what modern life is like in an English village.

Reading this book broke my heart. And yet, when I finished it I turned back to page one and began again. The characters in this book are so complex and compelling, it was as if they were people who inhabit my day to day life. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to be haunted by perfect fiction.

Passing On was my introduction to Penelope Lively and now I'm looking for her other books to see if they're as good! Reading this novel was a much more pleasurable (and poignant) experience than any plot synopsis I could provide would indicate, so just try to get hold of a copy-and enjoy!

This book is just what it says--Aerial photographs of various monuments of ancient Egypt. I found it extremely satisfying. I visited Egypt about 18 months ago, and was in many of these same places--The opportunity to see them from a different vantage point was enjoyable. I love the book, though I wish the photos were in color rather than in black and white. I realize that there are probably technical reasons why b&w gets a clearer image, and is more economical, but I still regret color's absence....

I was actually watching a T.V. show called Sightings it showed the Black and White pictures of Egypt and I just had to have it. The book has stunning pictures. It is a must BUY.

In an England abandoned by People, covered in water and inhabitated only by scavenging animals, a small group of friends set out on a journey. Pal the dog, Ned the horse, Freda the cow, Pansy the kitten, Offa the pigeon, and Stanley, who doesn't know what he is. In order to find out his true idenity, the group takes a boat, the QV66, and begins the long and difficult journey from Carlisle to London Zoo. For there, they are sure, they will find the answer. Wit and wordplay abound, and the animals are delightfully ignorant of the human items they find, and their goofy explainations of them are often very funny. A fun, lighthearted read.

This book is - indubitably - the most enjoyable, intriguing, humourous, atmospheric, inventive and affecting novel for children yet written.

This book is one of those books that haunts you while you read it and long after you've finished. A gorgeously-wrought tale, told in two alternating time periods---I read it twice the same week I bought it. Like her peers, Muriel Spark and William Trevor, Ms. Lively has the ability to write humorous, quirky characters whom we are glad to spend time with. This book is romantic in the best sense. The accumulation of passion on the page is mesmerizing. I recommend it highly.

This book is now an A-level text for many U.K. exam boards and is wonderfully suitable for those teaching adolescents the craft of writing. Its changes in narrative position, the kaleidoscopic nature of the story as it is gradually revealed to us, the combination of old and young characters and the delightful sense of irony make it a magical book for the adolescent just beginning to realise that literature is more than linear narratives with happy-ever-after endings. Above all, it is transparently clear in style. It also makes a great accompanying-piece to Ondaatje's "The English Patient", which covers very similar themes and techniques of story-telling in a much more dense and poetic style

I taught this book to 15-16 year old girls for 6 years, and it was an unforgettable experience. They constantly referred to Claudia's character, the character of poor Sylvia (her sister-in-law) and the mother-daughter relationship between Claudia and her daughter, Lisa, for a year or two after they had studied the book. The philosophy in this book, though difficult to understand at first reading, is so profound as to challenge the reader constantly. We dealt with relationships, death, characters, how we influence people and they influence us: Claudia's concept of being a part of everything, and everything being a part of her. It was wonderful. I think that this book should be read and re-read until it forms part of one's own character, and congratulations to Penelope Lively for the best book she has ever written.

Kath ... died.

Glyn and Kath had quietly grown apart over the years of their marriage. A photograph found among Glyn's papers, in an envelope provocatively marked "Don't Open - Destroy", shows him just how far apart they had, in reality, grown. For a time, he sits immobilized, taking in myriad possible implications. In an effort to understand and share this hurtful knowledge, he reveals his discovery to sister-in-law Elaine.

Oldest of the two sisters, Elaine is a selfish and humorless contrast to Kath. A landscape consultant, she no longer sees any charm in Nick, her husband of too many years. He is the epitome of a free spirit, entertaining grand ideas that he cannot bring to fruition. Nick dances through life, letting his imagination lead him, to Elaine's utter frustration. She, on the other hand, takes a businesslike approach to everyday existence, driven by her success and irritated by Nick's lack of it. Now in her prime, looking back, she makes excuses as to why she made the choices she did, excuses that come across as exceedingly lame. Kath, six years her junior, was underfoot during their growing-up years, an annoyance, like a gnat flying around one's ears. Elaine found her bothersome despite her startling beauty, or maybe because of it. Elaine always had a plan, a blueprint if you will, with a severe order to it, and Kath's spontaneity grated on her nerves. And Kath, in adulthood, remained irksome to her big sister.

Widower Glyn meets with Elaine to try to sort through the tatters left by Kath's death --- and Glyn's disturbing discovery --- remembering with a touch of guilt a time when they entertained fantasies of each other. They deal with the news in their personal, and opposite, manners --- Elaine, swift and without brooding; Glyn, drawing it out and obsessing. Then there's Nick, indulging in some deep soul- searching, and Kath's niece, Polly, viewing her aunt from a surprising new angle. One small revelation builds upon another until each individual in Kath's life reassesses the person they thought she was. Kath takes shape through the others' memories, but the picture of her never quite focuses. She remains just beyond one's grasp, leaving an impression of herself without satisfying substance.

While involved in their story, an introspective look can hardly be avoided. And that's one of the best things about this book: finding snatches of one's own personality among Lively's characters. It is also one of the most disturbing. Self-examination is quite literally unavoidable, and the results, for me at least, are eye opening.

The book, while not quite wonderful, is very, very good. The prose is poetic, melodic and plainly beautiful --- a delight to the ear. It has a haunting quality that will niggle at you long after you've laid it down. You will likely find yourself revisiting Kath's life time and again in your endeavor to sort the whole thing out.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

By Carol Herman http://www.washtimes.com/books/

Penelope Lively's "The Photograph," her 16th novel, opens with a startling find. Glyn, a handsome Welsh landscape historian, has just discovered a photograph of Kath, his recently deceased wife. In it, with her back turned to the camera, she is holding hands with another man. The infidelity that the photograph presumably reveals leads Glyn on a series of encounters with those who have information about the affair: Nick the interloper; Elaine, Kath's sister who is also Nick's wife; Oliver, the photographer; Polly, Elaine's daughter and assorted others who have ties to the ethereal Kath.
The stage is thus set for what has become the author's signature minuet in which a world and time are revealed psyche by psyche after individuals from differing perspectives weigh in. The author employed this technique to moving effect in her 1987 Booker prize-winning novel "Moon Tiger," in which Claudia, a character faced with death, seeks to reconstruct her life. Voices of those from her past emerge to create a sense of myriad Claudias, while leading readers to a sorrowful story of lost love during WWII.
Although myriad Kaths emerge from this book, its achievement rests not in the ways we come to know the elfin and elusive young woman at its center, but rather it resides in the vibrant, searching, full-bodied characters who she captivated and, in some cases, abandoned. It is their stories that keep this riveting narrative afloat.
A clue as to the author's technique comes midway through the book when Glyn spies a kestrel hanging in the wind. The bird suggests to him a memory that he recalls this way:
"The kestrel evokes Kath. He came here with her once: another kestrel performed similarly, and Kath remarked on it, 'It stays still,' she had said. 'The wind is rushing past it, and it stays still. How?' He sees today that other bird, and Kath's hair blown across her face, and feels her hand on his arm. 'Look!' she is saying. 'Look!'"
Kath "stays still" because, beyond her death, this is the way memory ' as it is assembled here ' operates. Glyn summons what he calls "episodic memories" of her. There is nothing chronological about when or what he remembers, just pieces here and there. For the others she will appear in much the same way.
Elaine, Nick, Oliver and Pollly, in turn, recall a playful moment shared with Kath ' an outing, an argument, a discussion ' as they move through their lives attempting to understand the love and landscape that she inhabited. The memories are focused and vivid, even as Kath herself remains less so. The book reads like a mystery and each character is touched and put off-balance by it. Watching the plot unfold is much like staring at the shifting parts of a kaleidoscope in which only Kath ' like the kestrel ' is fixed.
Glyn, as Kath's husband and the person who finds the photograph, is the character readers meet first. His anguished ruminations set the tone of the book and propel his inquiry. "I am evidently a dupe, a cuckold. My understanding of the past has been savagely undermined . . . for the foreseeable future this requires all my attention."
When Glyn starts his investigation, the first person he rushes to see and inform is Elaine, now a prosperous garden designer. Prior to the revelations of an affair her marriage to the feckless Nick was burdened by their respective approaches to work and responsibility. Elaine is a businesswoman who fastidiously stays on top of the smallest details. Nick, a dreamer, "runs for cover" whenever something practical is asked of him such as a business plan. Dreams and "schemes" to acquire easy fortunes are what keep him going.
Still the sturdy Elaine and flighty Nick have stayed married for 32 years.
Therefore it comes as more than a little bit of a shock to Elaine when Glyn calls her for a lunch date, ostensibly to fill in gaps about Kath's life, only to have him drop a bombshell. Elaine confronts Nick about the photograph and, when he confesses to a liaison with Kath, Elaine boots him out. To Polly's great dismay her desolate father comes to live with her in the new apartment she has acquired.
In the meantime, Glyn continues to search for as many clues as he can find about Kath and the photograph, starting with the photographer Oliver who has little information to offer. "'Why did you photograph them?' demands Glyn."
"For heaven's sake. 'Look, I didn't see until after I got the prints. I just snapped the whole group, standing there chatting to each other. I hadn't noticed that Kath and Nick were '' He shrugs."
Oliver, like other leads Glyn will chase is wholly innocent of any wrongdoing and yet is aware of the torment Glyn has felt since the photograph's discovery. "He is irritated and also faintly apprehensive. There is something evangelical about Glyn's approach to this, the sinister evangelism of the obsessed."
Without giving too much away, it turns out that yes, there was an affair between Kath and Nick, and there may have been others. But in the world of this book the revelation is only as consequential as the people touched by it imagine it to be. And because these characters are ultimately so finely drawn, the reader ends up caring about all of this as much as they do.
Of all the characters, it is surely Elaine w ho is the most compelling. Her aging, her rivalry with her dead sister, her demanding career are given thoughtful treatment here. And the juxtaposition of her rich, if sometimes unwieldy life, against the unsettlingly truncated life of her younger sister is powerful. This is a book about love, marriage, betrayal and dependency. Part love story, part detective story, it is a tale that is as smart and breezy as the writing itself. It matters little in the end, as one of Elaine's memories of Kath reveals, that "Kath has blown in; soon she will blow away." The lives she has touched are as immediate and endearing as she ever was or might have been.

The book begins simply. A husband searching through his old papers comes across a photograph of his wife holding hands with her brother-in-law and understands they must have been lovers. Through each chapter, as he angrily interviews friends and relatives for details of the love affair, a question begins to softly arise. Beneath the accusations, the denials and the love of those he questions, something begins to whisper not so much "What's the truth about what Kath did?" but "Who really was Kath?" Kath who died young, who was such a free spirit, not pulled down by life. But in the end what Kath did or did not do is secondary; it is the truth of who she was, and that all these people talking and fussing and denying and befriending, did not know her.

I have looked about me many times since reading "The Photograph" at people I know well, and wonder what they allow me to see. In the end of this remarkable novel, all the busy characters seem to fall away and the spirit of the illusive Kath remains alone gazing at the reader. We wonder how we can assume we know someone so well, and never perhaps even after many years know them at all.

This was my first try with this author, and despite rave reviews and major prizes, I doubt if I will be reading her again. This is what I call "formulaic British women's fiction." Dry style, stoic middle aged sexless frump, wishy-washy young woman, evil male. Perhaps it's my generation, but I do not understand women who can't get past a long-ago betrayal and kick their sex-lives back into gear. And the daughter -- well, what does a 29-year old sap, who is completely financially dependent on her husband expect? If I was the husband, I would have looked elsewhere, for stimulation, too. She seemed like a total baby who took her cushy life for granted. But, being British, people never communicate in these formula books -- they just have affairs and committ other drastic actions -- oops, I think I gave away the ending. On the plus side, the less than bucolic atmosphere of the working countryside does come across. But I'd expect such an aclaimed author to create more memorable and sympathetic characters than the ones I found here.

I had not read a Penelope Lively novel in so long, I had forgotten how brilliant a writer she can be. Her talent is very evident in "Heat Wave." A deceptively simple story with very dark undertones, the book is a masterpiece of "novel-as-understatement."

Long-divorced Pauline, a freelance book editor, is spending the summer at her country cottage, World's End, with her daughter Theresa and her family--husband Morris, baby son Luke. Theresa and family occupy one half of the duplex, and Pauline the other. It's an agreeable relationship that allows each household the privacy it needs as well as the companionship, as the entire family gathers for dinner and other outings.

All is seemingly serene in both houses, but as the weather turns hotter in an unusually strong heat wave, the civilized overlay between the adults gradually melts away. For in an almost obscene coincidence, as far as Pauline is concerned, her daughter's husband Morris is engaged in an affair that is destined to break Theresa's heart--the same as Pauline's was broken many years ago by her husband (and Theresa's father) Harry.

The similarities between Morris and Harry are chilling. Both are authors. Both are self-centered, charming, and careless of their women. Both have affairs with young women who are "editorial groupies." As Pauline watches Morris become increasingly involved with Carol, the vacuous girlfriend of his own editor, Jack, she begins to relive (and re-feel) the horrible emotions she encountered as a young wife betrayed by her own cheating husband. The novel moves effortlessly between the present and the past as Pauline watches her own daughter's betrayal and is helpless to stop it. As her emotions churn, so does the weather. Only Luke, the innocent baby, is unaware of the terrible events unfolding all around him, and only Luke is unscathed in the end.

Similar in tone to the works of Joanna Trollope, "Heat Wave" is just about as good as it gets. It is beautifully written, spare and to-the-point, and it ensnares the reader completely in its seemingly simple story of love and loss.

This book is very well written. The characters come fully to life and Ms. Lively examines the emotion of jealousy with a thoroughness that I haven't come across before. Most people who have ever been jealous or insecure in a relationship will be able to relate to Ms. Lively's characters who suffer from jealousy, but Ms. Lively takes the plot a step further and introduces an observer - the mother - who cannot stand to see her daughter cheated on, in part because the mother went through the same agony. This book isn't bashing men or relationships, though; Ms. Lively includes loyal men and healthy relationships in the novel. You wonder, though: is Ms. Lively intellectually compelled by the notion of jealousy, or has she felt it herself to this extent? The novel is balanced between careful observation and heated emotion.

This is a very well-written book. It is kind of long but it kept my interest. It has alot of details that are very well written. The story line is good and interesting. This is a very good book.

No, this is not an 'action-packed' novel to astound readers, but it offers an intelligent look at the strength and vision of a pioneer women and the friendship of two, culturally and socially opposites. The characters in the novel are described in great detail; their personalities were fashioned such a way that the reader receives a true sense of each character. The book was published at a time when women characters were expected to find happiness only in love or marriage. 'My Antonia' gives us a forceful heroine who is independent and strong of mind and body. The use of plot, characters, setting, and perspective open readers eyes to a period in time that most people today can't imagine. The novel invites readers to feel the pain, hardships, joy, and satisfaction of the frontier characters. In 'My Antonia,' Cather successfully develops believable characters and an intriguing story of prairie life. While your reading this novel, look for the theme of friendship. This significant theme can bring your comprehension a little deeper. Willa Cather develops the friendship beautifully throughout the book. Jim and Antonia symbolize what every friendship should include. I believe my thoughts about the book are changed when Jim Burden returns and finally reveals the hidden emotions that he had for Antonia. I had to read this book for English class and ended up enjoying it. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a great book that isn't hard to understand. As an English student, I was sick of reading difficult books. My Antonia can be enjoyed on many levels.

My Antonia by Willa Cather is set in the farmlands of Nebraska during the late 1800's. The main characters are a young inexperienced boy named Jim and a strong willed girl named Antonia. I thought the book was unique and worth reading.

It was like a fresh breath of air from reading other stuffy books. The first reason I liked it was because the setting was clear. I never knew what Nebraska looked like until I read the book! I felt like I was standing on the long, red, grassy farmlands. The author described the setting so that the reader could get a better feeling for the story. Another reason was the characters were described very well. The main characters, Jim and Antonia were described to make you feel that they were like real people. Jim snuck out of his house to go to the Fireman's dances every Friday night, when his Grandparents forbid him to go. Antonia had a child with her fiancé who ran away from her before they were married. The last reason was the theme was fantastic. The theme was Jim's admiration for Antonia. Even when Antonia had a bunch of kids and was older, he still admired her inner strength, intelligence, and beauty.

My Antonia is a different kind of a romantic novel. It wasn't gushy, otherwise I wouldn't have read it at all! The novel was exciting and a really good page-turner. My Antonia is a novel you would want to read sometime during your lifetime.

Willa Cather's novel was a recent selection for the One Book, One Chicago program and what a rich treat it was, since I was familar with any work from this author. While I'm not big on "pioneer" or "western" type novels, this book was sheer joy. There are many themes in the book and to go through each one would be to write a review that goes on for pages and pages. So I'll try and hit the major themes that came out to me. First the theme of the immigrant expereince are here, the hardships of trying to build a new life in a stange life where opportunity is promised. Second, you get the real feel of the Nebraskan land and the effect of the land on the people and vise versa. Third, the reader becomes aware of the "circle of life" and the people in our lives; how our existence effects and is affected by so many people. Fourth and finally, it is a subtle love story between Antonia and the narrator, Jim Burden, which is the device the Cather uses to tell this incredbile story. Jim leaves small town life an becomes a educated sucessful man, while Antonia stays behind and gains her education from the her own life, one that can not be validated by any piece of paper. A true masterpiece is written here with every sentence.