I truly want to say good things about this book. Anna Quindlen is a good writer, and I appreciate her almost stream-of-consciousness approach to storytelling, as if her characters aren't two dimensional strangers but rather good friends across a table in a small cafe. However, this story was so sentimental that more often than not I felt like it was a recycled tale of the heartbroken woman and her strange but true path to real love.
In Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Quindlen presents Rebecca Winter as a sixty-year-old fading photographer who, after a failed marriage and a declining career, leaves the big city, financially strained, for small town life. It is here that the story mirrors so many others before it - a woman out of her element, a strong but silent local who helps her survive, bizarre and painful family dynamics, misunderstandings, and an unexpected love story. Enter Baby Boom. Enter anything written by Mary Kay Andrews. Enter a less literary Charlotte Bronte.
It was a fast read. It was charming story. It required little more than a cup of tea and a quiet room to enjoy. It made for an easy transition from The Bees, which was a far more rich and engrossing (and cerebral) read. It's the perfect e-book for a trip to the beach or a long plane ride to someplace warm and sandy. I hope the next person who pulls my copy out of our neighborhood Little Free Library enjoys it.
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