Ash Wednesday [Paperback]

Ethan Hawke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2003

Is there anything more terrifying than being in love? Jimmy Heartsock is so afraid of losing his love Christy, he is going AWOL from the army and chasing after her in order to propose marriage - in a frozen car park. Christy is terrified, not so much that she's going to have a baby, but because if she takes on Jimmy Heartsock, she may end up with two. As the unforgettable lovers drive across America, confronting family history, personal hang-ups and questions they've never even asked each other before - about faith, death and learning how to live - the reader is caught up in a sensationally moving, funny and nail-biting drama of love in our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Ethan Hawke's second novel, Ash Wednesday, is the kind of thing you approach hoping that...he may have put a foot wrong. Fact is he hasn't...This is very definitely a book with a point of view...and a good one, too' Publishing News 'Mature, thoughtful and hip ... his writing is crisp, quirky and frequently funny' Telegraph

About the Author

Ethan Hawke is an an actor and author. Ash Wednesday is his second novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks (June 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747561559
• ISBN-13: 978-0747561552
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,703,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most disciplined and enjoyable writers of our generation, September 1, 2009

By 

Daniel Lee Hotard (Baton Rouge) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ash Wednesday (Paperback)

Yes. I said it. All one really has to do is YouTube any of several interviews of Ethan (most importantly the 'Inside the Actor's Studio' ones) to see without much doubt that he is an unusually profound, witty, and insightful person, and one with a charisma to the way he is able to speak and get across his ideas. Thus it should be no surprise that said person would have the ability to write works of merit too. Luckily for all of us willing to dive in, he did his work, lived up to such potential, and pulled off something that truly speaks to the heart. I would say that this is one of my favorite novels ever, and that is coming from an English major. I'd originally read his debut novel, and while it truly had the wrenching, heartbreaking qualities that won me over completely, this one followed and felt as though he had upped it a notch in sophistication, in sheer scope. It was still the emotional palate of the steadfast romanticism and fickle mystery of youth, but this time wrought with all of the realities of imperfect characters, point of view shifts, metaphorical complexity, geographic coloring, and most of all, true-to-life difficulties that our farcical and less-than-mature visions of love can contain. This book is an experience. It sings with highs and lows, and journeys its reader along as if they were right there between the wheels of its metaphor.

As a final note, it is a bummer that almost any discussion of Ethan's writing almost has to automatically suffer some sort of preface with reference to his acting career, as if people in a particular profession should or should not have any particular aptitude for writing itself. He's a human being, is all. One with a grand ability to write. Please hold him to any normal scale that you'd hold any other human being to. I'm sure he must feel not unlike Jeff Buckley did, who couldn't enter a pressroom without being asked about his father, always. I'm sure he'd feel a fresh breeze on him after any interview about his writing that actually didn't mention his acting career at all. Believe me folks, one only writes novels as good as these, if they are inherently called to do so in their soul.