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Photographic
Careful what you wish for. Discover the perils of marriage to a movie star in the tabloid age.
When Jane married Ian Reilly, he wasn't famous, just a method actor with a dream. In the seven years since their marriage, he's catapulted to the A-list, they own a secluded farm in the Midwest, and Jane and Ian are living separate lives.
While Ian films a blockbuster, action-packed version of The Odyssey on the island of Crete, Jane is hunted by a tabloid photographer who won't take no for an answer.
As Odysseus, Ian is six thousand miles away and three thousand years in the past. His plunge into the tribulations of an ancient Greek hero has left her an unwilling Penelope. When the tabloids break an on-set story too outrageous to ignore, Jane undertakes an epic journey of her own to uncover the truth.
AWESOME INDIES APPROVED -- awarded a place on the Awesome Indies list of quality independent fiction.
When Jane married Ian Reilly, he wasn't famous, just a method actor with a dream. In the seven years since their marriage, he's catapulted to the A-list, they own a secluded farm in the Midwest, and Jane and Ian are living separate lives.
While Ian films a blockbuster, action-packed version of The Odyssey on the island of Crete, Jane is hunted by a tabloid photographer who won't take no for an answer.
As Odysseus, Ian is six thousand miles away and three thousand years in the past. His plunge into the tribulations of an ancient Greek hero has left her an unwilling Penelope. When the tabloids break an on-set story too outrageous to ignore, Jane undertakes an epic journey of her own to uncover the truth.
AWESOME INDIES APPROVED -- awarded a place on the Awesome Indies list of quality independent fiction.
- GenresFiction
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 20, 2013
31 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 10, 2017
Photographic explores the gray areas between life and art. How far should an artist take his or her art, and if they take it all the way, fully submersing themselves into their craft, what is the cost to those that have assembled a life around, and with, the artist?
I found it a compelling look at the mindset of an actor and his intense desire to know and understand deeply the character he is portraying. Ian Reilly is a handsome, sought-after, mega movie star, who is often away on movie sets, while his wife and child live a quiet life on a midwestern farm.
In my mind, Reilly resembles any number of the striking and popular foreign-born actors, like Hugh Jackman, whose wives and families are mostly kept from the public eye. Jane Reilly, Ian’s wife, misses her husband, but likes being tucked away in her quiet corner of the world with six-year old daughter. This husband and wife truly orbit lives of polar opposites.
Longing for his wife and child, far away on the set of an Odyssey-based movie in Greece, you can tell Ian understands Odysseus’ pain and desire to return home to Penelope. The movie’s director challenges Ian and his female co-star, to delve deep into their characters, and in the name of art, to become them, to give their ‘all’ in the final love scene between them.
Photographic is not an action-packed adventure, and at times it got a bit wordy and ran off on unnecessary tangents, (could’ve easily cut a few chapters) but on the whole, it’s emotionally driven and thought provoking, and the characters extremely well written.
I found it a compelling look at the mindset of an actor and his intense desire to know and understand deeply the character he is portraying. Ian Reilly is a handsome, sought-after, mega movie star, who is often away on movie sets, while his wife and child live a quiet life on a midwestern farm.
In my mind, Reilly resembles any number of the striking and popular foreign-born actors, like Hugh Jackman, whose wives and families are mostly kept from the public eye. Jane Reilly, Ian’s wife, misses her husband, but likes being tucked away in her quiet corner of the world with six-year old daughter. This husband and wife truly orbit lives of polar opposites.
Longing for his wife and child, far away on the set of an Odyssey-based movie in Greece, you can tell Ian understands Odysseus’ pain and desire to return home to Penelope. The movie’s director challenges Ian and his female co-star, to delve deep into their characters, and in the name of art, to become them, to give their ‘all’ in the final love scene between them.
Photographic is not an action-packed adventure, and at times it got a bit wordy and ran off on unnecessary tangents, (could’ve easily cut a few chapters) but on the whole, it’s emotionally driven and thought provoking, and the characters extremely well written.
June 11, 2013
I absolutely loved this book! There are so many parallels in motifs and themes between Photographic and The Odyssey. The motifs of storytelling and disguise, the theme of temptation.... The author did a fantastic job of exploring the grey area in a marriage -- where are the limits of right and wrong, especially when you add in the layers of disguise, temptation and storytelling? Fans of Jodi Picoult's work, Amy Hatvany and M.L. Stedman (The Light Between Oceans) will enjoy reading this novel, as well as anyone who appreciates Homer's The Odyssey. Rich in vocabulary, parallels, and layers, this is a deeply thought-provoking and brilliant first novel. Highly recommended.
November 24, 2015
I was excited to read this story for its parallels with The Odyssey; as an English teacher with this book in my curriculum, I did enjoy the author's attempt to delve into the feelings that Odysseus would have had during his last night on Calypso's island. Still, other than that, I thought that the parallels between this work and its inspiration were weaker than the reviews I read made it seem to be. Yes, Jane was somewhat of a "Penelope" to Ian's Odysseus. However, Odysseus was being kept away from his love for decades, without word, held prisoner by the gods and forces bigger than him. Ian was simply off working with ample opportunities to contact his wife. The parallel was a stretch. I hoped for more. I wasn't sure where the character of Hank came in to play as far as his Odyssey counterpart would go, either in character or plotline. The fact that he **spoiler** committed suicide and basically blamed Jane for it was horrific! Why would he do that to someone that he claimed to love and be IN love with? I couldn't wrap my head around that one. That story line seemed to be an unfinished plot point that was worthy of more attention.
In the end, the basic plot line itself was interesting enough and the writing was easy to read.
In the end, the basic plot line itself was interesting enough and the writing was easy to read.
April 18, 2020
Two stars is too low (even though that means it was okay) so I gave it three when really 2.5 would do.
The book was an ok read but many things about the characters bugged me like how the photographer was using the wife and then wanted the husband, the wife was so wishy washy, the husband was able to explain his actions as art (seriously?) and the neighbour was a big disappointment. All in all, it just didn't seem quite plausible.
The book was an ok read but many things about the characters bugged me like how the photographer was using the wife and then wanted the husband, the wife was so wishy washy, the husband was able to explain his actions as art (seriously?) and the neighbour was a big disappointment. All in all, it just didn't seem quite plausible.
March 18, 2017
Photographic: A Novel
It was interesting enough but ultimately like much of real life it was inconclusive. Some of the plot was contrived, in my view not in a logical manner. Not one of my favorite reads.
It was interesting enough but ultimately like much of real life it was inconclusive. Some of the plot was contrived, in my view not in a logical manner. Not one of my favorite reads.
March 9, 2016
This oddly-titled potboiler is more satisfying than it promises to be at the start. Ian Reilly (he lost the “O” somewhere along the line) is a big-time movie star—real paparazzi-bait. His wife, Jane, is a somewhat secluded former makeup artist, living with her daughter, Tam, in the Midwest. Jane is pursued by a real paparazzi, Marta, who turns out to be more than a photographer. There are several photographs that figure in the plot but none explains the title of the novel. Marta is trying to assemble a pictorial of Ian’s family and in the process breaks a camera lens and severely injures her ankle, forcing Jane to take her into the house to treat her. From there on the two grow closer as Ian, in Crete for the last scenes of his blockbuster Odysseus, gets into trouble. Marta eagerly fills Jane in on rumors from the set. They include the fact that Ian has been reported dallying with his co-star, Delany Corts. Photographs that have them cavorting on board a ship surface. But is it Ian in the pictures? It is not clear. Then an even more damaging rumor emerges: that Ian and the female playing the temptress Circe are going at it for real in the crowning love scene on the boat. Jane grabs Tam and heads for England where she stays in a house provided by Marta to find out what in fact is going on. Another pap (paparazzi) named Beezer gets involved and he is even nosier than Marta. Then there is the character of Tor to deal with. He is the Norwegian director of the project and it turns out that he has asked Ian and Vaughn, who plays Calypso, to do their ultimate sex scene for real. And it turns out that both agree. Jane is not happy. Since she has felt insecure in her marriage for some time, mostly due to Ian’s good looks and frequent absence to go on shoots, Jane does not handle the news well and considers leaving him. Much of the novel spends its time dealing with the technical infidelity of Ian and the feelings that Jane has for their next-door neighbor, a widower named Hank. Very much a rugged Sam Elliott type, Hank is more a friend than a lover but his potential grows as Jane’s anguish mounts. A confrontation with Marta clears some air while a meeting with Vaughn produces confusing results, all while Ian repents and lives alone, trying to resurrect his marriage. Some of this is a bit soapy, but the premise remains interesting: what is a woman who is happy with her status married to somebody famously good looking to do when he takes advantage of his looks and opportunities, especially when he confesses and repents immediately? There is a mysterious turn in the plot as Jane becomes stricken with the job of finding out who told the tabloids about the film’s real background and the film is exposed as NC-17. Will the film destroy Jane and Ian? Will the publicity? Will Marta be able to split them up? What about Vaughn? How will Lovgren, the author, manage all the possibilities? She handles them reasonably well so that the ending doesn’t get out of hand and all is sorted out satisfactorily. More a woman’s book than a guy’s, this is a good yarn with the question of how we as a public handle what some call pornography and others call realism and art left for us to decide.
August 22, 2021
Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include PHOTOGRAPHIC by K.D. LOVGREN in the library of Awesome Indies'
Badge of Approval
recipients.
Original Awesome Indies' Assessment (4 stars):
Photographic by K. D. Lovgren is the story of Jane, a former makeup person, now the wife of Ian Reilly, a method actor who has climbed to the A-List. Now that Ian is a top star, they two lead separate lives, with him away filming, and her left on their isolated Midwestern farm with their daughter, Tam.
The gap of separation, though, becomes a gulf when Jane finds herself in the sights of Marta, an aggressive papparazi, and Ian, on a secluded island filming Odysseus for a demanding director, becomes involved in on-set activity so outrageous it shakes even hedonistic Hollywood.
Both Jane and Ian must discover who they are, as individuals and as a family, if they are to survive.
A compelling read that you won’t want to put down. I found much about this book commendable, from a ‘knock your socks off’ front cover that with simple imagery foretells what you’ll find in the book, to a cast of characters (major and minor) who, though flawed, with few exceptions elicit a bit of sympathy. The one exception to flawed characters is the daughter, Tam. Six going on twenty-one, she comes across as a real six year-old, and a handful at that.
That said, there are a few things, mostly stylistic, that keep Photographic from the highest praise. First, the use of character names. Useful as it is to help readers know who is talking, etc., I found it overused in many instances. For example, in chapter 1, in a scene involving only Jane and Tam, Tam’s name is mentioned 10 times in the first three paragraphs, and Jane’s eight times in four. This was the worst example, but I found it throughout the book. Two minor—really minor, but the author is better than that—spelling errors. Papparazi is spelled papparaza early in the book, and the word pablum is spelled pabulum. Beezer, an on-set still photographer who figures significantly in events casting deep shadows over Jane and Ian, is in and out, doing his dastardly deeds, and then, near the end of the book, he simply drops out of sight. We hear no more of or from him.
The ending was hopeful, without being sugary, which was probably about right for this story. All in all, a compelling story about the lives of famous people in the age of tell-it-all tabloids. Because of the aforementioned stylistic issues, I give it four stars.
Original Awesome Indies' Assessment (4 stars):
Photographic by K. D. Lovgren is the story of Jane, a former makeup person, now the wife of Ian Reilly, a method actor who has climbed to the A-List. Now that Ian is a top star, they two lead separate lives, with him away filming, and her left on their isolated Midwestern farm with their daughter, Tam.
The gap of separation, though, becomes a gulf when Jane finds herself in the sights of Marta, an aggressive papparazi, and Ian, on a secluded island filming Odysseus for a demanding director, becomes involved in on-set activity so outrageous it shakes even hedonistic Hollywood.
Both Jane and Ian must discover who they are, as individuals and as a family, if they are to survive.
A compelling read that you won’t want to put down. I found much about this book commendable, from a ‘knock your socks off’ front cover that with simple imagery foretells what you’ll find in the book, to a cast of characters (major and minor) who, though flawed, with few exceptions elicit a bit of sympathy. The one exception to flawed characters is the daughter, Tam. Six going on twenty-one, she comes across as a real six year-old, and a handful at that.
That said, there are a few things, mostly stylistic, that keep Photographic from the highest praise. First, the use of character names. Useful as it is to help readers know who is talking, etc., I found it overused in many instances. For example, in chapter 1, in a scene involving only Jane and Tam, Tam’s name is mentioned 10 times in the first three paragraphs, and Jane’s eight times in four. This was the worst example, but I found it throughout the book. Two minor—really minor, but the author is better than that—spelling errors. Papparazi is spelled papparaza early in the book, and the word pablum is spelled pabulum. Beezer, an on-set still photographer who figures significantly in events casting deep shadows over Jane and Ian, is in and out, doing his dastardly deeds, and then, near the end of the book, he simply drops out of sight. We hear no more of or from him.
The ending was hopeful, without being sugary, which was probably about right for this story. All in all, a compelling story about the lives of famous people in the age of tell-it-all tabloids. Because of the aforementioned stylistic issues, I give it four stars.
November 1, 2015
This was an interesting story. A look into the lives of famous people and how they so often have to deal with paparazzi and gossip mongers. I found my self not caring about most of the characters in the book. For example, the wife I just couldn't quite seem to get a feel for and didn't have any sense of who she was. I did come away with a feeling of disgust for entertainment rags in general. In short, although well-written, the book bummed me out. This kindle edition was poorly edited and has words missing, etc.
July 21, 2016
Photographic manages to be both a page-turner and a thoughtful, deliberate study of marriage, art, and the ways that the two are difficult to reconcile. I appreciated Lovgren's fair presentation of characters who might have been easy to make into caricatures or made two-dimensional. This is a well-written and emotionally satisfying debut that refuses to leave the reader with a definitive lesson or moral: that would be too easy.
May 13, 2015
Who is taking pictures of who and for what tabloid? Who is telling the truth? In this book you will get an inside view of tabloids, selling stories and the lives of celebrities hounded by photographers. An interesting read that kept your attention to figure out what the truth is and what will be happening next.
December 25, 2015
I'm not quite sure what to think of this, to be honest. The conflicts between the various characters just didn't ring true to me, and even the ending wasn't very conclusive. It was a struggle for me to continue after the first couple chapters, but then picked up.
October 4, 2015
Homer's Odyssey is parallelled in an actor and wifes' lives as he becomes the main character in a filming of the epic. The struggles portrayed by Homer are brought into the glitz of modern life, complete with paparazzi. Nicely done.
December 21, 2015
Interesting..
From the title I expected more on visual images than mentioned here, however I did enjoy the book and the view of the media and public figures
From the title I expected more on visual images than mentioned here, however I did enjoy the book and the view of the media and public figures
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews