MALCOLM, JANET (text and photographs). Burdock. Unpaginated, 28 color plates. 4to, cloth. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2008.
As a literary critic and journalist, Janet Malcolm's inner eye is a finely honed observatory instrument. In this series of photographs of 28 burdock leaves in various stages of growth and decay she turns that talent outward, choosing and photographing leaves that have the strongest narrative voice. It is a meditation on time, and nature, and acceptance.