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Review by Sandy Huseby
Meet Ben Bradford. He's got everything the upwardly mobile, successful Wall Street lawyer strives for. He's the youngest partner in the firm, accomplished by selecting the obscure Trusts and Estates (T&E) division instead of the more flamboyant and lawyer-shark-infested waters of the Litigation and Corporate departments.
He has the perfect suburban Connecticut home, complete with beautiful wife, Beth, and two young sons, four-year-old Adam and baby Josh.
Yes, Ben Bradford has the ideal yuppie dream life. Except that's not the life he wanted, and the frustrations of giving up his dream are starting to weigh on him.
In Douglas Kennedy's The Big Picture, we are treated to the disintegration and re-birth and full, ironic circle of the life of Ben Bradford.
Wanting to be a freelance photographer, he gives up that dream for the father-pleasing world of the law. As he fast-tracks to partnership and the accompanying high salary and perks, he lives the shadow artist's life -- purchasing the most expensive camera and darkroom equipment yet never able to market his photographs.
Like Ben, his wife Beth has traded in her dream. The author of two unsold novels, she now faces the ultimate no-no -- living her mother's suburban housewife life. Her frustration since the birth of their second son, Josh, has frozen Ben out.
Ben's worries about his deteriorating relationship with his wife increase when he realizes she's having an affair with Gary Summers, who lives on a trust fund while trying to market his own freelance work.
Ben sees his world through the lens of a camera, in both fact and philosophy. Every thought seems trapped within the narrow frame of self-induced focus and filters. When a confrontation with Gary turns violent, Ben works methodically to conceal Gary's death. The lawyer side of him visualizes his arrest and the subsequent loss of his family. He undertakes a detailed plan to take on Gary's identity and build a new life away from New York and Connecticut. The precision of his scheme draws upon the exactitude that served him well in the arcane T&E law division, as well as in his darkroom.
The new life he adopts is not without its pain. The separation from his beloved son Adam is particularly keen. When he learns of his mentor's death, he fears he hastened the old man's illness.
As Gary Summers, his photography finally gains acceptance -- at a small Montana newspaper. Ben starts to believe he really will be able to go on, freely living the life he always dreamed. He takes a photo during a forest fire that explodes through the media, a riveting picture of a firefighter bending over a fallen comrade. The picture makes an instant celebrity of Gary Summers and the job offers flow in.
So does his old life.
On the run again, Ben Bradford finally sees the big picture. As will the reader, for Kennedy's writing is assured -- hip, sharp, savvy, and ironic -- and a rocking good tale. Kennedy puts an extra edge on the quest for fame and success -- the pure randomness and even injustice of it all. Ben Bradford may have "died," but Kennedy assures his lesson won't be forgotten.
Sandy Huseby is a writer living in Fargo, North Dakota, and Nevis. She is online at SHuseby@aol.com.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.