Customer Reviews

Diary of An Amateur Photographer

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4 star:		(2)
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I found this book utterly fascinating for the pull of the unusual collage/diary format against the mystery plot. The collage diary part has an immediacy and primitive art appeal, while the "mystery" turns out to be both an historical murder and the psychological unraveling of the protagonist. Most fans of visual journals would find this novel too seedy, the anti-hero too unsavory, but I found it an energetic way to tell the story of an unlikable man with sympathy and more revelation than the protagonist can comprehend.

Michael Whittingham is a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor in England who has decided to take up amateur photography. The instructor has suggested that each student "keep a record of exposure times, shutter speeds and aperture settings. In this way we can learn from our mistakes." But as Michael reveals himself through typed entries in his diary over a 2-week period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see an unsavory, egotistical, socially clueless man who mentally justifies his own creepy behavior -- lewdness, peeping in windows, petty thefts, scams for lost-and-found items in classified ads. (Who doesn't know and wonder about people like this, what their internal processes are like?) An ongoing theme is the fantasy he indulges while riding the bus, that he is forced to have sex with every tenth woman, and he tries to "get" a particular shop girl but is usually forced to pleasure some dowdy housewife.

Michael reminds me of the Sting character from the movie "Brimstone & Treacle," though not evil, just tortured and basically dishonest about himself and his motives.

The book is more layered and interesting than the overt mystery, which can be figured out (more or less) by the clues in the diary, plus there is a solution in an envelope at the end. I found that a quick rereading of the diary text -- it wasn't necessary to reread all the ads taped into the diary -- confirmed my deductions and made the denouement at the end all the more pleasurable.

This book was so creative. Graham Rawles did an excellent job of "pasting" together an interesting tale using pictures, text, clippings. Sometimes I found myself laughing outloud at his outrageous creativity. The actual story probably could have been told in a 5 page essay, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss the fun of the journey through Michaels mind and paranoia.

I found this book utterly fascinating for the pull of the unusual collage/diary format against the mystery plot. The collage diary part has an immediacy and primitive art appeal, while the "mystery" turns out to be both an historical murder and the psychological unraveling of the protagonist. Most fans of visual journals would find this novel too seedy, the anti-hero too unsavory, but I found it an energetic way to tell the story of an unlikable man with sympathy and more revelation than the protagonist can comprehend.

Michael Whittingham is a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor in England who has decided to take up amateur photography. The instructor has suggested that each student "keep a record of exposure times, shutter speeds and aperture settings. In this way we can learn from our mistakes." But as Michael reveals himself through typed entries in his diary over a 2-week period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see an unsavory, egotistical, socially clueless man who mentally justifies his own creepy behavior-lewdness, peeping in windows, petty thefts, scams for lost-and-found items in classified ads. (Who doesn't know and wonder about people like this, what their internal processes are like?) An ongoing theme is the fantasy he indulges while riding the bus, that he is forced to have sex with every tenth woman, and he tries to "get" a particular shop girl but is usually forced to pleasure some dowdy housewife.

Michael reminds me of the Sting character from the movie "Brimstone & Treacle," though not evil, just tortured and basically dishonest about himself and his motives.

The book is more layered and interesting than the overt mystery, which can be figured out (more or less) by the clues in the diary (plus there is a solution in an envelope at the end). I found that a quick rereading of the diary text (it wasn't necessary to reread all the ads taped into the diary!) confirmed my deductions and made the denouement at the end all the more pleasurable.

Rawle's book is graphically beautiful. He tells the story of Michael Whittingham, who decides to take up photography as a hobby and stumbles into a mystery.

To tell the truth, I didn't know what to make of the book. Was everything I was reading true, or was it going on in Michael's head. The coincidences were unbelievable, but were they really happening, or were they also in Michael's head. Although I found the 'album' enchanting, it belonged to a rather sick individual, and I became uncomfortable being so intimately involved in his paranoid thoughts and actions. I'd like some idea of what this fascinating story was really about!

Graham Rawles mystery novel "Journal of an Amateur Photographer" is altogether a different type of mystery novel to any that I have ever read. Most remarkable is its presentation. Opening the pages of this slim hardback volume, the reader is confronted with collaged pages of type-writer narrative, cuttings from magazines, photographs, and mundane material objects such as staples and paperclips. Although this book is printed, the design of each page gives the impression that you are reading a unique version, particularly as the supposedly odd-sized pages give the impression of depth by allowing you to read the pages behind them.
The narrative itself (which is in no way weak despite the clear presentational emphasis) is accessible to all types of readers from the literary student to those who just pick up the occasional book for pleasure. The quirky, perhaps paranoid and delusional, narrator uncovers a murder mystery when he buys a second hand camera, discovering a photo of a dead man on the roll of film inside. Taking this as a sign specifically for him, he attempts to solve the murder, giving the narrative a pacey edge accompanied by amusing asides and character details that I couldn't help but giggle aloud at in my office!

All in all, this was a fun, thoroughly enjoyable book that has prompted me to check out his latest novel "Woman's World" and leaves me uttering, "Why hasn't Graham Rawle produced any more novels?"

I could not help but like this book. From a visual standpoint, it was captivating... lots of cool images for the vintage pulp buff. The most amazing thing, to me, was the fact that the book felt like a real journal or diary (from a tactile and visual standpoint). From the "mystery" end of things, I felt as though the story was predictable. I was not at all surprised by the ending. In fact, I thought it was trite -- and many of the details were painfully obvious. THE VISUAL ASPECT OF THE BOOK WILL DRAW YOU IN THOUGH... which is why the story left me somewhat flat. I was expecting something more, but I still wasn't too disappointed. This book is great for the coffeee table as well -- and for the price, I'd grab it! VERY COOL! VERY PULPY!