One Shot
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A wonderfully realized coming-of-age novel about the emergence of an artist.
Lorrie reached for her camera. Okay, this was it. She lifted the camera to her eye. The woman was now sobbing, her shoulders heaving up and down. A man, crying too, stepped over and cradled her in his arms. Lorrie wondered who they were crying for. A son? A brother? A neighborhood boy?
Lorrie lowered the camera. The shot was there, but she couldn't take it.
Lorrie Taylor is looking forward to lazing away the long summer days with Sarah, who's been her best friend since childhood. But Sarah's working at the riding stables and has little time to spend lounging by the pool. The cute stable manager, Thomas, seems interested in Lorrie, but even his welcome attention doesn't make up for the fact that she feels lost in her own hometown.
Then Lorrie lands a job with renowned photographer Molly Price, who has become a recluse. The prickly old woman isn't the easiest person to get along with, but her photographs touch Lorrie deeply. With Molly's encouragement, Lorrie begins to shoot and print her own pictures.
As her abilities develop, Lorrie comes to realize that technical skill is not enough. Her search for that one perfect shot proves much more difficult than she ever imagined—and much more rewarding.
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When Lorrie Taylor moves to live with her father, she takes a summer job working with Elaine, her new stepmother. Elaine, a lawyer, is organizing the estate of a famous, elderly and now-reclusive photographer and asks Lorrie to help by "sorting through papers, moving around boxes, possibly getting the house ready to sell." Molly Price may be abrasive, but 15-year-old Lorrie, a budding photographer herself, is immediately drawn to her work, which hangs throughout the rundown house. Debut novelist Glick provides rich details there are poignant descriptions of photographs, such as Molly's pictures of a soldier in Vietnam ("In the subsequent shots, the baseball cap was replaced by a helmet, and the football by a big ugly gun") and insightful comments about photography in general. However, the plot follows an easily foreseen trajectory, and the subplots are not fully flushed out. As Molly and Lorrie warm to one another, Molly offers the use of a basement darkroom, some teaching and even stories from her past. Lorrie immerses herself in shooting and printing, trying to take pictures that "say something." But when Molly slips into a coma, Lori initially avoids visiting her in the hospital and stays away from the darkroom, where Molly suffered her stroke. While Lorrie's metamorphosis into someone "shooting for herself" builds credibly (and will especially interest readers who share Lorrie's interest in photography), other developments create a melodramatic effect (e.g., the boy with leukemia who uses Lorrie's camera to take memorable pictures of his friends in the hospital). Ultimately, while many of Glick's descriptions of Molly's photos and Lorrie's shoots provide lasting images, the tangents, and the predictable relationship between the photographer and the teen, drain some of the story's strength. Ages 12-up.
