MADreads

A photo is always better than a photocopy

August 22nd, 2008 Kylee

According to Wikipedia, generation loss is “anything that reduces the quality of the representation when copying, and would cause further reduction in quality on making a copy of the copy”.  After reading Elizabeth Hand’s book Generation Loss, this term makes a lot more sense to me.

Cass Neary used to be a successful photographer.  When her book of avant-garde photos of the punk scene was first published, she seemed to be at the beginning of a bright career.  However, as punk died, so did her inspiration and, thus, her career.  Thirty years later, she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to meet and interview Aphrodite Kamestos, an elderly reclusive photographer whose work Cass has always admired.  However, when Cass arrives at Kamestos’s uninviting private island to begin the interview, she finds that Kamestos wasn’t expecting her, nor is she willing to be interviewed.  While Cass is stuck waiting for a boat off the desolate island, she discovers some disturbing things about Kamestos, an old mystery, and herself.

If you’re looking for a book that you won’t be able to put down, I’d highly recommend that you pick this one up.  Cass’s experiences on the island are thrilling and occasionally frightening, and Cass is my favorite kind of character - one with plenty of attitude and a sense of humor.  (She does have a pretty dirty mouth, though: be prepared for some colorful language.)  Elizabeth Hand has written several novels and many short stories, but this is her first work that doesn’t have any element of science fiction or fantasy in it.  Though this story is realistic, her incredible imagination is evident in the way she describes the bleak island and the characters’ artistic and criminal passions.  I’d say her first foray into the “normal” is quite successful, but I also love her short story collection Saffron and Brimstone, which is filled with plenty of strangeness, along with the wit and excitement found in Generation Loss.

Entry Filed under: Mystery, Thriller