Belenda W. (belenda) reviewed on 5/24/2006 + 193 more book reviews

Like disparate figures encased in a kaleidoscope, the adult characters in this ingenious, powerful novel by bestselling author Ann Beattie emerge, collapse, and re-emerge around the central figure of the child Will. His mother Jody, a photographer, calls her pictures "images ruffled by currents" - like Will himself, whose life is by turns cradled, nourished, and disturbed by the lives of his parents and stepparents as they pursue art, success, and fullfillment.

Seen through Beattie's characteristically observant eye, the details of these lives form a luminous, complex picture of how the business of childhood and childbearing proceeds - in the midst of adult selfishness, solicitude, and even at times nobility.

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