The Age of Hope by David Bergen

Author:David Bergen [Bergen, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Literary, C429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781443411356
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Hope and Roy had never been diligent about taking photographs, and though there were a few family photos, black and white, from the sixties, and the odd photo of a child at play (one of Judith on horseback, wearing tall riding boots, her hair pulled into a ponytail), there had been little record keeping. Nor did Hope keep a diary, though Emily always urged her to. And so the past was like a vacant lot of the mind, a place where one might scrabble about looking for something of value, a remembrance of perhaps the trip to Disneyland or the family vacation in Portland, or of Christmas 1966. As the children grew—they now ranged from nineteen down to nine—she realized that if she did not begin to record the precious moments in their lives, she would eventually reach old age and have nothing to stir her memories. She decided to buy a camera, and purchased a Kodak Motormatic from a shop on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg. She was immediately baffled, what with all the bells and whistles, the depth of field, the flash, the shutter speed, the light meter, et cetera, et cetera. Roy, who should have been mechanically inclined, was even more stumped, or perhaps he just feigned uselessness because he didn’t want the responsibility.

For a month after she had discovered the simplest manner of taking the most basic photos, she charged about the house snapping pictures of the children, who ultimately became impatient with the intrusions. The first roll of film was a dud because she had installed it incorrectly. The film never did advance. The second roll of thirty-six images, 100 ASA, turned out to be mostly blurry, though there was a lovely clear shot of Penny and Melanie standing by the front door, on their way to school. Penny looked distracted and impatient and Melanie was grinning madly. It turned out that Conner had taken that shot. Recognizing Conner’s ability, Hope handed him the camera and several rolls of film and asked him to be in charge. Over the next month, fourteen rolls of film were used up and then stored in the fridge and at some point Hope carried them down to the drugstore to be developed. She picked up the photos a week later and went through them, only to discover that most of them were of Conner’s friends and of various motorcycles standing in the street, or of cars, sometimes a grill, other times a dashboard showing a tachometer. There was a photo of Conner smoking, standing with his arm around a very beautiful girl whom Hope didn’t recognize. She was disconcerted by this beautiful girl who was leaning so coyly against her son. She also didn’t understand why he needed to smoke, though she didn’t have the strength to confront him. There wasn’t one photo of the family. Disheartened, she retrieved the camera and gave it to Judith, who was leaving for Europe.

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