The Camera Never Lies: A laugh out loud tale of life in the spotlight

Product Information

When Daniel first uses his new camera he finds someone has already filled the roll of film. Annoyed, he processes the film and finds photos of a secret that he’s been hiding from his wife and daughter. He told the Life photographer, Hansel Mieth, that the Borrell picture had been taken when the militiamen were fooling around, not in the heat of battle as had been believed. She added that Capa seemed upset and said little more except that it "haunted him badly". Niépce’s incredible invention of the camera gave us a way to record moments in time and space—but that’s all they are. Moments. Slivers of a much bigger something. And even when we have access to 10,000 of those slivers in high definition and with clear audio, we still aren’t seeing everything there is to see. We can’t possibly. Rawlings has an incredible imagination and his themes are spot on, as it was with his first novel. This book explores the theme of secret keeping and the effects that has on relationships and a person's entire life. Keeping the secrets becomes more and more difficult as time passes. Overall, this book is worth reading because that message is powerful. Loved the idea of this magical camera that sees the truth.

I think this novel will find a good consistent three-star "beach read" following, but it just felt a little too choppy and poorly executed for my tastes.Not exactly. It’s important to be aware of the natural shortcomings and pitfalls of visual media, and it’s doubly important to be aware that there are people out there who are all too happy to take advantage of those shortcomings. Not everyone will enjoy the speculative side, but I loved every aspect of the camera, the film shop, the characters, everything. Daniel, Kelly, and Milly were real, raw, and hurting. They needed each other but were so afraid of someone learning their secrets they pulled away instead of pulling together.

First of all, this is a clean book. No profanity or sex scenes. And even though God is not really talked about in the book, Biblical/Christian principles are promoted. There are some unexplained phenomena in the book, but that is a part of the charm of the book, I do believe. What the Time cover does not show, according to the Washington Post , is that the girl pictured was never even separated from her mother. The mother was standing right next to the child, and they are together still. Time magazine had to issue a correction about the false “carried away screaming” claim. It was made up.

Shortcomings

Writing a story about a marriage counselor who’s own marriage is failing might seem a bit on-the-nose, but having that familiarity allowed me to engage more with what wasn’t being said than what Daniel kept projecting through voice and language.