Review: A Beautiful Quilting of Sounds and Images
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 17, 2013
Split-Second Lifetime by Denise Kahn is the story of Jebby, an enthnomusicologist, and Dodi, an international photographer.  As a music producer who studies music from an anthropological viewpoint, Jebby is focused on sounds across the world. At the same time, Dodi's emphasis is on visualization and images. His life is focused on photography.The resonating narrative voice is reminiscent of a "stream of consciousness" voice. As it crossed through time and global space, the voice wound its delightful way far beyond the traditional definition of "stream of consciousness."The work reminded me of one of my dear grandmother's quilts. When I was a little girl, my grandmother told me stories about each colorful square of the quilt. "This pink square with white flowers came from the dress your aunt wore her first day of school." Each square represented its own story, meshed into the beautiful whole. As Jebby's consciousness flashes back and forth from present to past, the scenes are intermeshed like the squares of colorful fabric. The "flashbacks within the flashbacks," the wonderful visions which take us into another culture and time, and her travels across the world are all crafted together to form the amazing quilt of this masterpiece.The author took on a panoramic project with her book. She did a magnificent job. While Jebby and Dodi learned about each other, I also learned more about other cultures and ways of thinking. At the same time, the writing style was lyrical, entertaining, and brought together images, sounds, flavors, and sensations.The book even encompasses humor, particularly about the harvesting of "guano," which is bird droppings! The entertaining and unexpected puns made me laugh out loud with Jebby and Dodi.I highly recommend the book.