Customer Reviews

Bookends

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I'm a sucker for a romantic comedy, and after Bridget Jones's Diary, I became eager to read more books in that genre. When I picked up Bookends by Jane Green, I was looking for a light, fun read, but what I received was a novel that would not let me put it down. Bookends is hilarious, witty, and full of tension and drama, and characters that you will love...and some you might not like all that well.

In Bookends, the reader is introduced - by way of narrator, Catherine "Cath" Warner - to a group of friends who meet in school and though individually different as night and day, they become a tight clique of trusted friends. That is, until the ever-beautiful Portia - the friend thought to be the sun in the clique's universe - destroys friendships that were meant to last forever.

Fast forward ten years where we find Cath and lifelong friends, Josh and Lisa, and her best friend, Si, living and loving in their early-thirties, in London. Si, the sweet, adorable, and gay love of Cath's life spends most of his time in friendly counsel with Cath regarding the lack of men in their lives, and discussing how each deals with that situation in their own way, whether it's Cath's refusal to believe she wants a man in her life, or Si's ability to lower his standards, for fear of living alone.

Just as everyone's life seems to be on track, a blast from the past in the form of an older and more self-indulgent Portia, pops back into the group's tight circle and in an instant, lives are shook up, adulterous innuendoes are cooked up and friendships are tested.

I have to say, this book is a wonderful read. I fell in love with the main character, Cath, and her feelings on friendship and love. Green does a great job in creating characters that you want to care about, characters that you can feel and even relate to. I think readers will be thoroughly and happily surprised that there is more to this book than pure entertainment. I finished this book with tears in my eyes because I felt a connection with Green's characters and I felt moved by the way Green deals with some heavy subjects in this novel.

I would definitely recommend Bookends - love the title - to those who want a fast read with a lot of bite and wit.

Shon Bacon

I can't believe I spent 4 hours reading a truly horrendous book. Bookends, by Jane Green. Terrrrrible. Even more amazing is that there was 350 pages of this drivel. I can't believe I bought that stupid book. I want my 10 dollars back, dammit. Spoilers ahead, so beware.

Here's why it sucked: It was about 5 college friends, four of them stay together after college and one of they lose touch with. It's clear that it was meant to be about the one friend, Portia, coming back and having significant changes on their lives. I know this because the narrator keeps telling me how Portia has "changed the dynamics of the group" and has "changed the balance." Over. And. Over. Which would be understandable if it weren't for the fact that Portia coming back had NOTHING to do with the changes that occured. One of the changes is that Si gets AIDS cause of his jackass boyfriend. Oookay. Nothing to do with Portia. The last hundred pages of the book are about his disease and everything else is ignored. It would be fine if it all came together somehow, but I dunno. It felt like she had finished the book and then edited that part in because there was some word limit she didn't hit.

Another change she attributes to Portia is Josh cheating on his wife with Portia (or so she believes). This would understandable if it weren't for the fact that Josh wasn't cheating with Portia. However, despite being best friends with Josh for ten years, instead of asking him about it, she just decides to be mean to Portia and Josh. Later, she realizes that Josh ISN'T cheating with Portia and instead she believes he's cheating with the maid. Holy crap. More meaness towards Josh. Of course, it turns out Josh was completely faithful all along and in reality our lovely narrator is a verifiable nutjob. Oh, and she apologizes to Josh and Portia for being mean and they're like "hmm...okay. I was wondering what was up with that." I don't know what kind of long-lasting friendships this author had, but I feel sorry for her.

Of course, no book is complete without the narrator, Cathy, finding her true love. Insert James. Insert James, Cathy's bitch. James is a hunky, artistically talented, and somewhat wealthy to boot. Why is this guy single at 36? For some reason, he's attracted to Cathy who's not all that good looking, can't dress, and admittedly slept with any guy at university that feigned any amount of interest. WTF? The only thing that makes this digestible is that fact that this book is supposed to be "romance" and that genre tends to go hand in hand with "delusional" so, okay. Fine. BUT. (There's always a but.) The "romance" factor isn't even that great. Cathy basically ignores James for the majority of the book because she's dealing with Portia's "changes." He gets annoyed, but she smiles at him and is forgiven. She goes out on one real date with him and they proceed to have sex. Sooo romantic.

Oh, and the sex. HA. Holy crap. Here are two quotes:

"I start to cry. Crying this time with pleasure. With forgotten memories."

"It is exactly like riding a bicycle, and everything I thought I'd forgotten comes back in a flash, and it feels wonderful."

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS DRIVEL!??! I actually laughed out loud. The narrator seems to be not so much a "lovably imperfect protagonist" but rather a "self-centered shallow nutjob." A little boy doesn't like her. She refers to this little 7-year old boy as the devil, etc. etc. Even though he likes others who are nice to him and treat him as an adult instead of complete idiot, there is NO WAY his dislike could be HER fault. No. The little boy MUST be evil. Yes.

Terrible book. Terrible. I want my money back.

I have just finished my second Jane Green novel, Bookends. And loved every word of it.
Like the first Jane Green I read, Jemima J, this one is about the life of single Londoners, following the footprints of Bridget Jones. But still the book is worth it's own money, and is not at all predictable and boring.

A gang of University friends stay together for years after they left school, though they have lost contact with one of the girls from the gang, the beautiful Portia, queen of the gang. She broke their hearts one night and after that drifted away from the close gang. Life goes on, Josh marries Lucy, Cath stays single being hurt one time to many, and the gay Si is always hunting for the perfect man of his life.

The book is a wonderful, charming and witty story about friendship. How to give everything for your friends, how to stay together through thick and thin. Though the part of the book that charms be most is Bookends, the bookshop and café Cath and Lucy opens. Through this Cath meets James, but is this man the one for her? Jane Green has a charmimg way to take us through the every day life of her characters.

The ending is surprisingly, and may be a little out of Greens usual style, though it makes you think about the values of your live, the values of your friendships.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

I have read all of Jane Green's novels and have loved them all. However, I've always thought that the theme in her novels were a bit weak and lightly researched, that is until I read Bookends.

Bookends concentrates on a group of people who have been friends since college -- Cath, the narrator; Portia, the glamazon one of the clique; Josh, the adorable and romantic one; and Si, a live-for-the-moment homosexual. The story focuses on how the lives of these people progress after Portia disintegrates from the group and how her sudden reappearance affects them.

I think this is Jane Green's best work. She has delved into the characters by turning them into people everyone could relate to. However, I think the novel would have been better if Green had written it in third person -- the characters would have been better developed individually that way. Also, this novel is rather similar to Marian Keyes's Last Chance Saloon -- except that Last Chance Saloon is far better written than this one.

Green's writing has improved through time, and I know that her work could only get better. Her novels are lighthearted and endearing and I recommend them, especially this one!

If this is the first time you have heard of Jane Green, do not read this book first. Green has also written Jemina J, a hilarious book with some serious issues such as eating disorders and self esteem, and Mr. Maybe, a book that made me laugh out loud and love all the characters. Mr. Maybe is just for fun, it is not preachy at all. Of Green's prior two books that I have read, Bookends is closer to Jemina J than Mr. Maybe. There are times when reading Bookends that I wasn't sure if I were reading a funny Brit novel or a pamphlet from the health department. While there are moments that are extremely funny, it is not a book that will keep you laughing at all times. However, I did read the book in one day because I kept waiting for something to happen. If you want to laugh, read Mr. Maybe. If you want to love a character who finds herself, read Jemina J. If you just want to pass a few hours, read this book.

Another book that I enjoyed.

Si the sarcastic, fashion forward gay guy.

Josh the practical, level headed guy, who had always been in love with Portia, but is married now to Lucy.

Lucy the wife, fabulous chef, and friendly, charming woman.

Catherine the main character who is deeply in love with all her friends, thus shunning men from her life. She is a victim of fashion (wearing all black) according to Si.

Portia the woman who the above, minus Lucy, all went to college with. She's sexy, semi famous, and coming back into their lives.

They all adored Portia, but one night broke their friendship, and it's been 10 years since they have seen or talked to her. But upon meeting a man who just sold his apartment to Portia, everyone is thinking about her. And upon a phone call, and a chance meeting everything seems to become a little chaotic. While Portia's role in this book is rather limited, the author makes her seem to be the force of change. But change begins before Portia steps into the picture as Lucy and Cat start a bookstore/café. This is a funny, sweet, sad story about a group of friends, most who have stayed in each others lives for years and the changes that they are now going through. There are a variety of other characters as well, Will, Si's "prick" of a boyfriend, Ingrid the nanny of Lucy and Josh's "devil spawn" of a child (Max), and James the real estate agent who's interested in Cat. It's a story that actually moves; and the characters each go through some sort of development and issue which they overcome (in a good way). It's amusing, charming and a good read.

I took a chance on reading BOOKENDS because I read Green's JEMIMA J and found it to be light, thoughtfully written and most importantly amusing. Based on reading the dust cover, I thought that BOOKENDS was going to be less of a quality reading experience. I was certainly wrong. In fact, I would say that BOOKENDS has a much better storyline than JEMIMA J. Which just proves one more time, "you can't judge a book by its cover." Several features make BOOKENDS a particularly good reading experience. I liked the character development, the vividness of the Green's written word and, of course, the unexpected plot conclusion.

Good character development requires a writer to have profound insight into human motivation. Green delineates past experiences of the characters in this novel to enable the reader to comprehend a variety of causes for each character's action. Green has the rare skill of offering the reader an in-depth appreciation and empathy for every character. She does this seamlessly and her skill appears to be effortless. As a professor, I can use this novel as an illustration of complex social science theory in the classroom. I am able to do this because of Green's understanding of human motivation and the richness of her composition. Over the years, I've discovered that teaching theory is much less dry to students when I employ examples of human behavior from a good novel.

The vividness of Green's writing skills makes each character come alive. Green's mastery of the written word transfers the reader to a different place. When one reads BOOKENDS, it is more like watching a film rather than reading a book. I don't believe one can offer a greater compliment to an author.

While being caught up in the vivid pictures Green created, I merely expected a thoughtful story. However, Green skillfully includes a couple of plot twists that took me off totally off guard. I wasn't expecting a surprise ending, but there it was. I laughed aloud! And everyone on the airplane heard me.

This is a great book about friendship ~~ almost like the sort of friends you see on that hit tv series, "Friends" or in the movie starring Hugh Grant, "Nottingham Hills" ~~ where friends always get together, scarf down lots of food and drink fine wine and have a good time remembering their old days ... and gossip like old ladies. This book does the job real nicely. Cath, Josh and Lucy, Si always get together every Sunday for brunch to read the newspapers and gossip about their lives. Josh, Cath and Si have been friends since college. Then when another friend from their past shows up, everything seems to snowball into sometimes what is hilarious take on life.

The main character is Cath, a thirtyish single woman who gave up her high-paying job to open up a bookstore with Lucy, Josh's wife, a fabalous cook. Cath narrates the stories between friends and lovers ~~ always from the observer point of view. Then she meets and falls in love with the real estate agent who sold the shop to Lucy and her. In the meantime, she has to deal with the crisis that appears to loom over Lucy and Josh's marriage; with Si's love affair that ended diasterously; with her friendship with Portia, her best friend in college.

It is entertaining and keeps you turning the page. However, it is predictable, which is disappointing for me as I enjoy Green's books. It seems that I've read this book somewhere else or maybe the theme just keeps recurring among the thirtyish group.

If you are looking for something light to read, this book will be it. If you are looking for something that isn't predictable or will keep you in suspense, this book isn't for you. It is a fun book ~~ don't get me wrong. It's just typical reading, that's all. The subject matter isn't new and Green didn't really present a new outtake on this friendship/romantic outlook. It's great to take to the beach or to the slopes to read by the fireplace. It's pure escapism that's for sure.

2-5-03

I have just finished Jane Green's third novel, Bookends, and I loved it! This story brings out the tenderness of Jemima J that seemed to be missing from Mr Maybe. I loved the characters and really felt like these were people I could become friends with. Si's witty personality lent to a great reading experience and seemed to balance out Cath's insecurities. While Jemima J is still the shinning sibling, I would rate Bookends at a close second. Jane Green is a fabulous "Brit Chick" writer, I would say one of the best out there. I am eagerly awaiting her fourth book due out in 2003.

My first impression of this book was the usual "oh lord, another one of these icky romances" but as I got more involved.. of course, after the fact that I had no idea what was happening at the beginning, everyone being thrown into the first two pages of the book. As the story went along I developed relationships with everyone. (yes, even Max). This book was magnificent! Made me laugh, cry, frown all good and bad things :) but all meant for this book! I just wish that some of Ms. Green's books were also US printed... I loved this book! I think it's her best yet! (out of "Jemima J" and "Mr Maybe") I recommend this to anyone who loves a quick and easy romance read.