Getting the Picture

When this book first arrived, I was not quite sure why I had registered to receive an episotlary novel set in a retirement home. Most epistolary novels suffer from clumsy exposition and slow pacing. However, Getting the Picture was immediately compulsively readable for me, with the epistolary format only very occasionally being disruptive to the flow of the narrative.

This is truly a unique work – the multi-narrator format is used to its full potential, showing a multitude of characters first from an external perspective, and then, once the reader has her loyalty set, Salway changes narrators in order to reveal the motivations of another characters, changing our sympathies all over again. The ending is telegraphed about three-quarters of the way through, but that makes the redemption theme no less sweet or rewarding.

The real charm of Getting the Picture is the quirky, full-of-life characterizations that Salway brings to her geriatric characters. They are colorful, storied and ultimately extremely believable. The younger characters are also well-drawn, but less memorable.