Customer Reviews

Blame: A Novel

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Brief summary and review, no spoilers:

Patsy MacLemoore is a professor of history at a small college near Pasadena. She is also an alcoholic, who has suffered several blackouts. One morning she wakes up in jail with a bad hangover and having no idea what happened to get her there. She thinks it's probably something minor since she's woke up in jail like this before. But this time it's much more serious - 2 people, a young mother and her daughter were run over and killed.

This book is divided into sections by year. We start off in 1980 just one year before this accident, and this novel moves us forward over two decades. During this time we follow Patsy as her life takes this sudden plunge, and as she tries to make amends for what she did.

There were many things to love about this novel. I thought the dialogue and characterization were spot on, and I was completely pulled into the story. The locale is mainly Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, and I am very familiar with both places and thought their descriptions were accurate and I could just picture them all.

There was also an epic feel to it as we travel the years with Patsy. We age along with her and we share in her traumas. When I turned the last page of this story I felt like I had been through an experience - I needed to think about this book before I could pick up anything else.

I think this book would appeal to a lot of people. We relive the AIDS crisis and we learn about the criminal justice system, AA, and what it's like to be in prison. We see (and experience) how life can turn on a dime, and how our lives can take strange trajectories away from our best laid plans. This book is about forgiving and atonement, in the truest sense of both those words.

And for those who like this sort of thing (and I do), there is a twist of sorts, towards the end.

I highly recommend this book. It was an absolute page-turner for me, and I can easily see this novel being made into a movie. I also recommend it for book clubs as there is a lot to think about and discuss.

This is the first novel I have read from Huneven and I loved it. Her beautiful and poetic description of both places and feelings made me long for her talent. I loved the way she portrayed the passage of time. Yes, the book is broken down into sections marked by dates but instead of this feeling like some big announcement to the next part, it did not interfere with the story at all. Time going by felt the same as it would in life. Early on in the story we meet the main character Patsy as a young woman with a serious problem. If this was to be the last time she appeared, I doubt she would have been liked by many readers even though her addictions were apparent. The Patsy we get to know over the course of the book is one of the finest characters I have ever read. We learn how decent a person she really is and just how insidious a monster her addiction was.

There is a twist at the end and like many readers, I had it figured out before it came so it is not at all like something you won't see coming but there is a scene that takes place at the end in a Shell station bathroom that was the perfect metaphor for what it really means to be imprisioned and how we choose to handle the way our lives turn out. Patsy learns this over and over again throughout the story. It seems imprisonment ends up meaning far more than time served in jail. The final scene also caught my eye because of the 3 people present. It was as if Patsy had come full circle in a sense.

This one is definitely worth the time.

It's another morning in the county drunk tank for Patsy, who is sadly inured to this ritual. She wakes up in her vomit and her filth, with no recall of last night--she experiences frequent blackouts when she drinks. A young, talented, comely, and statuesque college professor, Patsy is nevertheless on a grease skid to oblivion due to untreated alcoholism. This time she is accused of running down and killing a mother and daughter in her driveway, and her life subsequently takes a turn to prison.

The first part of Patsy's story reflects the jacket blurb and marketing for Blame--bracing, taut, suspenseful. The book description even contains an unnecessary, thoughtless spoiler, which doesn't affect my rating of the author's work but does illustrate that the publishers are intent to mislead readers into thinking that it is one kind of book when it is entirely another. The author is a superbly talented writer, i.e. her use of language, the written word, is obviously what earned a sterling endorsement from Richard Russo. Her metaphors and turns of phrase are verdant, fragrant, lyrical. Her characters are sympathetic and genuine. There were no false notes there. Her erudition is in the contemplative, the characterizations.

I adjusted to the temperament of the story, which often meanders and slows down to a staid portraiture of a collection of people. The narration actually reads like a 19th century novel at times, even though 20th century issues were involved. Now, that was unexpected. The author seemed to forgo what she started out to do and then changed course. The fuel-injected thriller morphed into a balmy sea. I went with it, but I want to warn readers--if you are looking for a tight, twisting, adrenaline-pumping thriller, look elsewhere. This is a cerebral look at rehabilitation and redemption. AA plays a vital role in this story, and the author does a stellar job of capturing the impact and life-altering possibilities of its sobering influences on existence.

Blame opens in 1981 and spans twenty years. The weakest area of this story is its architecture and structure. Some characters are introduced as poignant, but elusive. And then they recede or disappear awkwardly (which is too bad, since she creates compelling characters). Direction is lacking, uneven; it is as if the author had several books or story ideas and then labored strenuously to fuse them together. It came off as choppy and indistinct. She kept my interest up because of her beautiful passages; the warm and dusky tone; and the characters of Patsy and her gay friend, Gilles, whose brio is scene-stealing.

The concocted denouement was prosaic, tipping toward bathetic. As if the author decided to get back to writing a thriller again. I sighed. And the anticlimax was dour. Events felt cobbled together, the story was circumvented--and yet I read every word. And I would read her next book, too. She is a classy wordsmith, a sensuous writer, a fathomless thinker. Another draft or two would have helped this story to coalesce.

A friend urged me to read this book and he was so right. It's an evocative, unusual story, exceptionally well- written. The first chapter is almost a stand alone story involving a 12 year old girl whose mother is dying, who falls into the care of her irresponsible charming uncle and his smart, alcoholic girlfriend. It's a sly, intelligent beginning, as we see the girlfriend at her drunken worst--except then she goes down even further. For the rest of the book belongs to the girlfriend, Patsy McLemoore, who goes from brilliant, live wire party girl to accidental murderess to (many years later) an adult who can finally live with herself. She sobers up, makes new friends, keeps old friends, marries a charismatic, much older man. The author is subtle, intelligent, and packs so much into her quiet sentences, that I could only marvel how deeply I came to know the characters and their southern California home.This book is a literary find. Also--I would recommend Blame to anyone who is or knows an alcoholic, as it's right on the money concerning the disease and recovery.

Huneven has written an extraordinary novel, a paean to guilt and repentance that begins on one harrowing night when a drunken Patsy Mc Lemore wakes up from a blackout to find herself incarcerated for killing a mother and daughter, Jehovah's Witnesses, crossing her driveway as she pulled in. A victim of blackout drinking binges, the ever-ebullient Patsy can remember nothing and considers herself fortunate to receive only four years on an amended charge. In possibly the most disturbing part of the book, this tenured professor at a local college has fallen into the deep, cold well of the California penal system (she makes the distinction: prison is not jail, and the reader will soon understand the permutations of these differences). In prose that is consistent and fluid, Patsy endures, wracked by the guilt of what she has done, her life trajectory forever altered in very specific ways.

If redemption is possible, at least in some small measure, Patsy does her best to address the angry fates, getting sober while incarcerated, rebuilding a bizarrely shattered life outside the cement walls of prison. Patsy's time post-prison is spent on the altar of amends, the deed haunting her days and expectations. Yet the author has created such a compelling character that is impossible not to want Patsy to triumph over her flawed past. Deeper than a sobriety memoir, Huneven scales the interior walls of Patsy's secret self, her dreams, motivations and urgency to make peace with the world. The result is a revelatory, deeply moving novel that will stay in your mind long after it is finished, a brilliant character study of the human capacity for endurance, self-forgiveness and humility. Luan Gaines/2010.

I thoroughly enjoyed Michelle Huneven's novel "Blame"; I've never read anything quite like it. I never knew what was going to happen next, which was a delight. I also appreciated the thoughtful description and analysis of a marital crush; so common and yet not often so well portrayed. Great novel...BUT:

But what's the heck's wrong with quotation marks? They are such nifty little punctuation devices to let the reader know who is talking and to differentiate between what's being SAID and what's being THOUGHT! I really really hope this trend of eschewing quotation marks is just some editing fad. GET OVER IT AND:

BRING BACK QUOTATION MARKS!

The life of alcoholic Patsy MacLemoore seems to be heading nowhere until she is arrested and tried for manslaughter. She tries to live sober and learn how to make good decisions for herself. Her story shows how our connections to others, be they friends or passing strangers, affect us in unexpected ways, all of them meaningful if we can recognize and accept what is important from each encounter and relationship. I'm middle-aged male who normally reads non-fiction and occasional PI novels. I left my comfort zone and selected "Blame" based on one small newspaper review. I half-expected something very much not readable by someone in my demographic. I was wrong. Good book, good writer, memorable story.

I had high hopes for this book and bought it because it was chosen as a top ten in a list I read about. I thouroughly enjoyed the beginning and found myself engaged. It is strongly written for about the first two-thirds. However, towards the end, when the "twist" was revealed, I felt jipped and unsatisfied. The author sold out and made a good book bad. Blame should be a great book about redemption and forgiveness. However, Patsy is not likeable and I found her gay friend, Gilles, completely unbelievable in his actions and words. Her husband, Cal, bored me as did his family. The more I write about it, I realize I did not like this book and would not recommend it. The ridiculous end just made me feel like I had wasted my time and disengaged me from all the characters because I no longer respected the plot. Don't buy this one. Don't even get it from your local library.

I enjoyed reading Blame by Michelle Huneven. For the most part, it's well written and the characters are memorable. It's a book about alcoholism, life-altering events, women's prison, AA, AIDS, friends, marriage, wealthy families and decorating your home well via garage sales. Looking back, it's like a glimpse into someone else's life - believable and real.

There are, however, several issues that I have with the writing that I feel need mentioning.

Chapter 1 starts off by giving the wrong impression about who is the main character in the story. The author clearly was establishing the back-story, but it seems strange to do so with a character that plays a very minimal part for the rest of the book. I found it to be quite disorienting.

I also have a problem with the following description on the back:

...For the reader, it is an electrifying moment, a joyous, fall-off-the-couch-with-surprise moment. For Patsy, it is more complicated. Blame must be reapportioned, her life reassessed. What does it mean that her life has been based on wrong assumptions? What can she cleave to? What must be relinquished?

Firstly, I feel that too much is given away with these statements. I would have rather not known that the surprise was coming. Because I did know, it felt less electrifying, joyous, etc.

Secondly, the above statement gave me the impression that most of the book is about the main character and her adjustments to this electrifying moment. It's not. In fact, the electrifying moment comes at the end and then the book seems to peter out without too much depth. The book may have been more moving if the event came at nearer to the middle. I really wanted to learn more about the main character and her reapportioning and reassessing.

Ultimately, I have fond memories of the characters and of reading the book.

Recommended with reservations.

I was really intrigued with the author's method of introducing Patsy through the eyes of a character who subsequently disappeared again till much later in the book - and then became extremely important to the plot! In fact, I'd forgotten the description of the story by the time I actually read the book and at first thought Joey was the main character. I also loved how Brice kept re-emerging in the story each time I thought he'd faded out. Of all the characters gathered around Patsy, I loved how this unlikely reprobate was usually the one she could count on. The author, I think, had a playful way of surprising the reader by snatching away characters then having them reappear unexpectedly. I assumed we'd never see Cal Sharp ("Auntie!") again, then lo and behold!

All the characters interested me, but I have to say, Cal really piqued my interest. I knew someone once who loved playing "earth mother" to all the needy souls around her and I quietly noticed that she'd drop those who made improvements or advancements in their lives. As though for the sake of her own ego, she needed their neediness. I thought of Cal as a male version of this person and so when Patsy made her revealation to him (that it had never been her after all who had struck and killed the mother and daughter) I was holding my breath... And sure enough, Cal reacted the way this acquaintence would have. He didn't want Patsy to have that weight lifted - He needed her haunted and guilt-ridden. I admired the way the author summed his whole character up in a 2-line exchange between Patsy and Audrey: They acknowledged that the people closest to Cal were invariably birds with broken wings to whom he could play the Rock of Gibraltar (my words, not the author's).

Only complaint: I didn't like the lack of quotation marks. I stumbled through paragraphs a few times trying to mentally insert them so I could understand what was actually being spoken aloud. I've never understood the point of eschewing quotation marks, it's irritating and disrupts the flow.

I loved the way most characters turned out differently than you expected. In big ways: Patsy (going from destuctive drunk to practically a saint), Cal (going from stalwart supporter to morally superior) and in little ways (Joey seemed like a weird little brat and becamse adorable) and Gilles (angelic but his diaries revealed that even he had his snide little observations about his friends). The only one who remained constant was March - I despised her at the beginning and despised her even more toward the end!

Long review for me, and it wasn't a very long book. I guess that's a sign of a great author, that she packed so much food for thought into a relatively short novel.