Still Life with Insects

Still Life is a gentle, lilting, wonderful look at the progression of a life which is both nobly and heroically lived by a man who is neither noble or heroic in the traditional sense. I have read this book and come back to it again and again, much like catching up with a caring friend after a period of absence. Buy this book for yourself and for many of your close friends.

I find it difficult to write an intelligent review for this book. It is one of my favorite books - I bring it with me when I travel and when I meet someone who I care about, I give them this book to read. The measure of a good book for me is its ability to be read in different moods and give different facets of itself each time. Kiteley writes in careful measured prose. His characters are complex but simply written. I am reminded of the Japanese art of Sumi-e (brush painting) in which a single line describes the entirety of a form. Still Life with Insects does this for a man's life. We read scenes ranging from his honeymoon to playing pool with his grandchildren.

Kiteley does a lot in a small space. His prose is tight and clean, careful as poetry. The criticism that his book is small and underdeveloped is absurd. The main character's entire adulthood occurs in only 125 pages, and that life is not clipped or unexplored. To damn this novel based only on its length would be as dumb as slamming Conrad's Heart of Darkness for its brevity. Give this novel the chance it deserves; after all, the time it takes to consume this wonderful book is short