My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Still Lives is steeped in art museum/gallery culture, which was, for me, a real education. Unfortunately, I think that education slowed down the first half of the book quite a bit. But there was a point somewhere in the middle where things really started to click and then accelerate. The suspense began to build nicely from there.
Where I think Still Lives excelled was in the recognition of the violence and trauma that many women carry with them, the walls they build to protect themselves, and the ways that the world just keeps throwing new stories of violence at them in the harshest ways. This is not really escapist literature, but a novel that throws light on the gritty reality of many women’s lives.
