I didn't know much about Janet Malcolm, but this past week, I finished Still Pictures, a posthumous collection of essays loosely focused on Malcolm and her family. I say loosely because, in the end, as Malcolm's daughter notes in her afterward, this collection is not strictly autobiographical. In each chapter, Malcolm takes a grainy old image and uses it as an entry point into the past, into her past. There are essays focused, primarily, on Malcolm's family and their emigration from Czechoslovakia to America; there are other pieces, though, about religion, American culture, and intellectual life -- both in Europe and the States. For me, what was most refreshing about this collection was its brevity, confidence, and wit: Malcolm does not reach for too much, and she does not focus her gaze entirely on herself: instead, her view is outward, from the original image to its context and history. In many ways, the result is a social history of the first half of the twentieth century: from the wars to the Cold War and beyond. For those with a special appreciation for Czech history, this collection will be particularly rewarding. All told, Still Pictures was a book to savor, and was evocative -- in all the right ways -- of Sebald, Berger, and other greats.
nice to know there's a worthy book out there like this. thanks for sharing.
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