Working with Available Light – A Family′s World After Violence - Hardcover

Kalven, Jamie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393046907 ISBN 13: 9780393046908

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 1999

Synopsis

A courageous, compelling, resonant account of how one woman and her family responded to an act intended to destroy her. On a golden autumn afternoon, photographer Patricia Evans, out for a run on Chicago's lakefront, was attacked by a man who severely beat and sexually assaulted her. Evans's husband, Jamie Kalven, has written the story of a family shipwrecked in the midst of everyday life, each struggling in his or her own way to make sense of the violence that has entered their lives. It covers a period of five years, during which Evans remaps the world in light of the terrible knowledge inflicted on her, and regains her place in it. Evans's honesty and refusal to embrace easy answers create the space in which the story unfolds, and Kalven bears witness to her experience not by presuming to understand but by deepening his questions. The narrative evokes a richly textured world of family, friends, and neighbors; it takes in the sweetness of everyday life as well as the desolation of grief, the play of light upon the world as well as the enveloping darkness of terror. A profound inquiry into the effects of violence and a singular love story, this startling book again and again rewards the reader with fresh, unexpected perceptions.

About this title

Synopsis:

On a golden autumn afternoon, photographer Patricia Evans, out for a run on Chicago's lakefront, was attacked by a man who severely beat and sexually assaulted her. Evans's husband, Jamie Kalven, has written the story of a family shipwrecked in the midst of everyday life, each struggling in his or her own way to make sense of the violence that has entered their lives. It covers a period of five years, during which Evans remaps the world in light of the terrible knowledge inflicted upon her, and regains her place in it. Evans's honesty and refusal to embrace easy answers create the space in which the story unfolds, and Kalven bears witness to her experience not by presuming to understand but by deepening his questions. The narrative evokes a textured world of family, friends and neighbours, and it takes in the sweetness of everyday life as well as the desolation of grief.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0393046907
• ISBN 13: 9780393046908
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352