PositiveThe Irish TimesAlthough the book’s episodic narrative is addictive – like scrolling a timeline on your phone (another person’s) – eventually it unspools in meandering and repetition, ending with score-settling regarding her libel trial ... Still Pictures reads a bit like a public therapy session: she is getting things off her chest to make peace with her origins. You wonder what her family would have made of it were they alive to see her airing their dirty laundry. In any case, and whether you’re familiar with her work or not, this memoir will make you think about your own family’s internal myths.
Stephen Walsh
PositiveThe Irish TimesSquarely oriented on the music ... Walsh’s primary focus on the music means the biography is at times light on anecdote and psychological analysis, but it’s a fair trade-off. Walsh’s narrative, without neglecting how Debussy’s art chimes with its historical contemporaries is a bravura account of how the force of genius can in any age create the new and unforeseen.
