A Review By Zoe Boulton

The Picture Book is marketed as being “an intimate family portrait captured in snapshots”. In it, we follow the lives of different generations of the same family. William is the first member of the family we are introduced to. He is a young working-class father who loses his life at Gallipoli, then we follow Billy, his son- a potential world class cyclist. From Billy we are introduced to his son, Will- a cripple who flourishes in academia, and from him we follow Will’s daughter Billie.

The premise of this novel sounded really good, but as the story unfolded all of the members of this family became the same, flawed and doomed to repeat the mistakes of their fathers, temptations fall in their way which they find hard to resist, secrets are hidden, doubts and missed opportunities crop up, until we meet Billie, who is the only person able to make a change. I found the repetition tedious after a while and the writing became ponderous, so I skipped quite a few pages as the characters began to merge into one. Also, the write-up on the back of the book led me to think it would be presented as snapshots in the life of each family member based off, say, their descendant looking at a photograph, which only happens in the beginning of the book. All in all, I was left feeling disappointed by this novel.