7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All The Numbers - Judy Merrill Larsen, August 27, 2006
This review is from: All the Numbers: A Novel (Paperback)
The book was good, but the mother character just kept getting on my nerves. She loses her son and the book deals with her grief and how her life was affected.
For a while I could feel her grief, but as the book progressed, it seemed like she became a whiner, and I began to lose interest in her. Actually, she became an annoying figure.
Reading the other reviews, it seems I am alone with how I felt, but I read enough to know a good character when I read one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sad read...but..., February 19, 2008
This review is from: All the Numbers: A Novel (Paperback)
Ballantine Books, New York
Fulk review by on Roses & Thorns
When Ellen Banks hugs her dead son's clothes to her breast and inhales his lingering boy-scent, I was overcome with a sad fatalistic caution, one which warned of falling hard into a mother's grieving world. The evidence is in the first pages of Judy Merrill Larsen's novel, All the Numbers: a mother prepares to enter the funeral home to face the finality of her son. However, although the book deals with the horrific--a child's death--there were elements of hope, love, and life.
Ellen's fury is realistically depicted, and lent a credibility to her grief. There were, however, sections of the book where I had a hard time tapping into Ellen's grief, when I felt Larsen was moving towards something she had in mind for Ellen and the other characters, and not paying careful attention to what was going on at the moment. That said, there were both moments of tender beauty and of harsh reality that were exquisitely written.
I particularly liked Daniel and how he works hard to make sense of his new role as the surviving child, and how he bravely faces the very place where his life was forever changed. He finally faces his mother, too, and through his bravery, forces her not only to see the destructive path her anger is taking her, but how it affects them as a family--even if that family has been tragically altered.
A final thought: I liked how Ellen and Anna both admitted their secret guilty thoughts at the moment of the accident--when the turmoil in the water cleared, and both mothers scanned the lake, of course, as any mother would know, Ellen hoped to see James and Daniel surface, and Ellen's friend Anna hoped to see her children were safe. Later, both felt guilty for what they perceived as a selfish action against the other, as if they had wished harm on another child, as if they were wrong for behaving in a way every mother would understand. What dilemma and tension for these friends, mothers, women to in essence admit: "I hoped it was your child and not mine"--one Larsen handled with aching insight
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story that pulls on your heartstrings, a testament to the love of mother and child, August 28, 2009
I have to be honest in sharing that I have had this book on my TBR (to be read) shelf for awhile. I have had mixed feelings about reading it and often picked it up to put it back on the shelf as I wasn't ready to read it. I "thought" that it would be a challenging emotional read as I could relate to the story in that I am a mother of a young son close in age to the boys in the book. This preconceived notion allowed me to postpone reading this book but I do wish that I had read it sooner. Yes...this is a book that pulls on your heartstrings as a mother as Ms. Larsen evokes such connection to the mother and children in this story. It was written in a way that was not violent or gratuitous rather in a respectful and heartfelt way. I knew what was coming and it helped prepare me for the story. I felt a deep connection to Ellen, the mother and could relate to her motherly feelings and focusing on the little things that are so precious as your children grow. For me, it was a testament to the love of mother and child and how important it is to stop and appreciate the small things along the way and not wish that your kids grow up too quickly. It captured me from the beginning to the end. It is truly a bittersweet novel of a mother's journey of the ultimate loss that one can experience in life. Yes, you will need a box of tissues handy but also you will be a stronger, more patient person after reading this book! I highly recommend it to all...don't delay as I did, pick up this book and you will also appreciate the wonderful writing and depth in this story.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
