Moments Captured

In this well-researched but plodding novel, Seidman (One Smart Indian) attempts to dramatize the life of Edward Muybridge (1830–1904), who pioneered capturing motion in stop-action photographs. Muybridge’s fascination with Holly Hughes, a sexually emancipated dancer, evolves into his obsession to capture her movement on film. He finally stumbles on a solution after former California governor Leland Stanford hires him to settle a bet by proving that at some point all four feet of a horse are off the ground while trotting. Historical figures such as Stanford, Thomas Eakins, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison add historical texture, but never emerge as full characters. Holly’s plaintive cries for “dress reform” or ridding women of their corsets will strike many readers as shrill rather than liberating and her suffragist views clash with her neediness for male company. Seidman fails to do justice in prose to the breathtaking vistas of Yosemite Valley, the westward expansion, and the myriad streets of San Francisco that Muybridge rendered so memorably in his photographs. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Nov.)