Eight Girls Taking Pictures: A Novel
Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2012:We rarely hear grown women called "girls" these days, unless they've gone wild, but it was common practice in the settings for Whitney Otto's affecting portraits of female artists. The author, who has spun tales of women and crafts before (eight other ladies starred in her 1991 best seller,How to Make an American Quilt), takes a fresh approach here. More a novel in linked pieces than a set of discrete works,Eight Girls Taking Picturesintroduces a range of protagonists in various eras and countries, each with a shutter-happy dream and an obstacle in the way of achieving it. These roadblocks take the form of men--unrelenting fathers, unsympathetic husbands--and social trends, including racism, homophobia, and aversion to the idea of females as creative. Otto's intelligent, sensitive approach to the plight of these women givesEight Girlsits appeal: Safe in our modernity, we trust that their talent will win out in the end. --Mia Lipman