Customer Reviews

Ash Wednesday

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Ethan Hawke takes the time to wonder aloud those thoughts we all ponder at one time or another in our lives. Insecure thoughts. Angry thoughts. Proud thoughts. Thoughts of love and desire. He takes all of these sentiments and ties them together into Ash Wednesday which is a ode to human growth and the joys and pains of it. This book is about a man and a woman growing together yet wondering if they should be elsewhere but in the end they feel their time together is worthwhile and stick it out.

This is not a great book but it is a good book and one written by a man of depth and substance brave enough to speak his mind about the wackiness of the human condition.

I do not deem it necessary to re-hash the plot--since many of the other reviewers have already done so--but also because the plot is not what makes this book great. What worked in this story is mainly the characters. They were real and they were interesting, but what really made the characters work was the point of view. With two main characters, most authors would have gone with an omnicient point of view. Hawke chose to alternate between the two character's first-person points of view, which allows the reader to know the private thoughts and feelings of both characters. When other authors try this technique it usually doesn't work because the reader cannot tell the difference between the speakers, but in this book both characters are so distinct in their personal "voices" that you can always tell which one is speaking. I didn't exactly fall in love with the characters from the beginning, but they kind of grew on me and I found myself wanting to know--even CARING--about what happened to them. In the end, I was satisfied with this book and glad that I had read it. I also enjoyed Hawke's first novel, The Hottest State, and if and when there is a third, I will be sure not to miss that one either.

What happened to actor/director/author Ethan Hawke between "The Hottest State" (1996) and his second novel "Ash Wednesday"? He became a writer of note.

Hawke has fashioned a realistic, poignant story of two lovers, young lovers who must, of necessity, find themselves or lose each other.

Staff Sergeant Jimmy Heartsock, a rather capricious Kent State dropout, has gone AWOL. He's also gone AWOL from Christy, his pregnant girlfriend, who issued him an either or - either come home with me to Texas or we're over. When Jimmy opted for the "or" she boarded a bus for the Lone Star state, after whispering, "You make me sick....People have always told me about this feeling, but I've never had it. It's awful." She spoke these words with "empty eyes, as if it were already two years later."

While he is impulsive and immature, with drugs as "the most invigorating thing" in his life, Jimmy is given to introspection. After some mental reassessment he decides to go after Christy. He catches up with her, and they begin the cross country trip in his `69 Chevy Nova.

It is during this journey that the pair reveal themselves to each other and to the reader through an interesting strategy - the use of dual first person narrators. It is very effective. As Hawke said in an interview he thought this was simply the natural way to tell his story of two lovers.

"I think there's a value to having a dual perspective on a story," he added.

There is value, indeed, as readers are privy to both the thoughts and words of Jimmy and Christy as they come to realize what is important in life and love.

- Gail Cooke

This story does not say a lot and what it does say is not said well. The plot is derivative. The characters are hollow and unlikable. The male character's narcissistic self-reflections grate unmercifully. The female in particular is reduced to a hollow caricature. The tone strikes me as somehow false in that the story's "honesty" seems a pose. A good actor does not a good writer make. Forego this book and read the classics. F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" are good places to start. Sprinkle in Hemingway's short stories. Throw in D.H. Lawrence; he wrote obsessively about male/female interactions and did so with great insight and honesty. Add Sam Shepard's plays to your list. These are the real McCoys. Sadly, it seems that Hawke's publisher wants to cash in on his celebrity status, because if this book were written by a non-famous type it would have been promptly rejected.

I was intrigued to read a novel by Ethan Hawke and was very pleasantly surprised with his wonderful, believable use of dialogue. I felt the characters were so screwed up they wiped out any empathy I might have mustered for their situation, but there was so much thought put into this book, so many different ideas concerning our very being on this planet, that I set aside my dislike for the characters and enjoyed reading a novel with so much soul. An excellent actor and a much greater author than I expected. And he shares his beautiful first name with my son, so how could he possibly do any wrong?

In his second novel, Ash Wednesday, Ethan Hawke tells the story of Jimmy and Christy, two twentysomething lovers who are on the brink of a quarter-life crisis as problems and consequences are thrown into their faces. Christy is pregnant, and Jimmy is AWOL from the Army after an "all around bad day" where he, while strung out on drugs, has to tell a mother that her military son was killed. They embark on a road trip where they each go back to their home towns, see their parents (Jimmy has only has flashbacks of his father, who committed suicide), get married, and face consequences for Jimmy's absence without leave from the Army.

This book is heavy with dialogue, which is, in my opinion, a good thing. One line of dialogue can tell more about a character than pages and pages of a narrator's description, and Hawke definitely has an ear for it (possibly from all those scripts he's read?)These characters are complex, and so real. You believe them as real people, possibly someone you might know in life, and you are dying to know what happens to them next.
This is one of the best books I have read all year.

What an original plot Ethan Hawke has come up with: Two young people who were meant to be together and love one another for the rest of their lives just can't seem to get it together (what with all the obstacles thrown in their way), unless they make a serious effort. To make it really interesting(?), let's have the guy be AWOL from committments: his 'career'(The Army), his family, and even his religion. As for the girl - why she has 'committment issues' with men, due to her tattered relationship with her daddy, that she has yet to come to grips with. Throw in an unwanted preganancy and what do you have? A story that has been done many times before - only better from more capable writers (not to mention screen-writers, too). Sorry Mr. Hawke, don't give up your day job!

Well, I will be honest: I wasn't expecting to be impressed by this book, and it did exceed my expectations. Although, I have to say that Jimmy and Christy were difficult to like, especially with Jimmy telling her things like "I am going to have affairs" and her just accepting that with a smile on her face. I'm no feminist-but come on!! Any woman who can listen to a man tell her that and accept it, well, that is hard for me to swallow. Other than that, I think you have to give Ethan Hawke some credit. Not only is he a good actor but he seems to be a halfway decent author as well. This isn't a great book, but it's ok, and it is hard to put down once you get started.

When you mention the most exciting and promising writers of the younger generation, most people don't mention Ehan Hawke. And that's a shame. They should. The Hottest State, while an enjoyable freshman work, is nothing compared to the raw and profound provocative tour de force that is Ash Wednesday. Let's face it, I, like most of you, had my doubts coming in to this one. To say that those doubts have been erased and replaced by assurances of grandeur would be the understatement of the year.

While he most positively should have won the Oscar for his sublime effort in Training Day, Ethan Hawke deserves equal kudos for this telling tale of enigmatic Jimmy Heartsock and his pregnant girlfriend Christy. Hawke emits such intangible, yet very real, intensity and cathartic power that lead to Jimmy's self-discovery through a trying and arduous epiphany. Folks, we're seeing Ethan Hawke at his best - don't kid yourself. If you haven't read this, then you, my friend, are missing out on a voyage into profundity. 5 Big Stars from Robert Jackson. And that's the 411.

This is not an easy task with Hawke's book b/c the characters are narcissistic and stifling. The writing is not revelatory, but there is a heart to the book and that is offered quite sincerely. Neither character is one you'd necessarily like to sit down with for dinner (well maybe Christy, b/c she is depicted as being very sexually-attractive and her mood changes are interesting).But this is a book I felt like putting down a couple of times b/c it doesn't have a real strong narrative drive, but I stayed with it, found the male character endearing and honest, and ended up enjoying it pretty much.