Optique.

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian in the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

Using photography as the unifying thread, Bailey has put together a riveting collection of short stories, each anchored by the emotional impact of a photograph. The stories cover a span of more than 100 years, and relate to photographs of all types, from daguerreotype to digital.

These are stories of human pain and tragedy, to which, in each case, the photograph is really only peripheral. Readers will find the stories edgy, thought-provoking, and suspenseful. Each is read with a sense of foreboding that ultimately resolves into tragedy or heartbreak.

Bailey is a master of his literary craft. These stories are a good, if uncomfortable, read.