Customer Reviews

The Borders of Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was stunned by this fantasy. Why in the world did I find this book in a remainders bin? It is excellently written, well plotted, and totally absorbing. It should have many more readers than it apparently had! I've put G.A. Kathryns on my 'authors to watch for' list. This is an extraordinary fantasy well outside the standard fantasy-type plots. The book might almost be classified as mystical realism.

This is the story of a woman, Alma Montague, who comes 'home' to Lee Corners to retire and live out her life in peace. She left town when she was a young woman, and never returned until her retirement. Part of the intriguing aspect of the novel is the question of what is 'real' Vs what might or might not be the imaginings of the heroine.

Spend some time with this book, I found it to be a lovely elegy and a bit of comfort in grieving about a friend.

I'm not sure how I even ended up with this book. Must have felt compelled by the description and bought when I was leaving the bookstore. That was (eek!) 5 years ago now. I just reshelved all my boxed up books and found it again. Finished about half an hour ago. I almost didn't read it when I read the author's preface. I am not a Faulkner fan--As I Lay Dying was a rather traumatic high school experience. I had nothing else to read. Here I sit, desperate to chat with someone else who has read it. It was...compelling. The descriptions at various points were horrific but extremely well written. I can't believe I'm saying this but I am considering digging out some Faulkner and trying again.

My complaints are that there were more than a few loose ends. My pleasure was in the description and twist and turn of the book. Even with the open ended ending I liked it. I realy, really want to talk to someone about it.

I came here in hopes of getting some insight from other readers only to discover complaints about run-on sentences and disjointed plots. Hello people. Faulkner. Open up your horizons.

Probably a rather useless review. I can't say run out and pick it up--thus the 3 stars--but I would say, that should you find it in the remainder pile, it's worth giving it a shot if you have any literary background at all.

I am enjoying this book immensely, it combines elements of mystery and the metaphysical seamlessly in a story of a small southern town and it's inhabitants. It's a joy to find such a well written and intelligent "fantasy".

I was engrossed by this book and enjoyed the characters, especially the main character Alma Montague. She is a 77-year-old retired doctor who has come home to a small southern town to exist till her death. However, she finds herself becoming drawn into the lives of her fellow townspeople. As the 18-year-old daughter of a wealthy old Southern family, Alma had run away from her destiny in the South (marriage, pregnancy, and motherhood) to become a doctor in the North in a time when women did not become doctors. Now at the end of her life, she questions whether her life was worthwhile and wishes death to come soon and to bring oblivion. Deeply depressed at what she considers her failures, she wants no continuation of life after death. By the end of the book, however, her attitude toward her life, and hence toward her afterlife, changes.

I've seen complaints about run-on sentences in various reviews. According to the definition of run-on sentences that I use, I saw no run-on sentences. However, Kathryns's writing style is complex--a lot of dependent clauses and phrases. I believe that's what the reviewers are calling run-on sentences. It is deliberately done in imitation of Faulkner in particular.

Another review stated that there were some plot elements that never seemed to tie together--the subplot of Greta Harlow, for instance. She was raped, had a son as a result, and was then murdered. I've read that Kathryns is actually Gael Baudino, who has a great interest in women's issues. I read Gossamer Axe by her. Overall I liked that book, but I did find myself becoming distanced when male characters took the stage. All but one token male were at best patronizing to women and at worst murderous. I suspect that the subplots in Borders of Life were meant to be explorations of women's experiences--pregnancy, career vs. family, maternal instincts (perverted, in the case of Sophosiba (?) Gavin, and otherwise), and aging.

I am glad to see more positive male characters in this book than in Gossamer Axe. I would like to read more of G. A. Kathryns.

G.A. Kathryns is a pseudonym for Gael Baudino. Anyone who liked this book should look for more under that name, as she has written no others under this one.

I picked this book up several years ago, and have just finished it for a second time. The characters are all well developed, and the plot has enough mystery and depth to carry you through to the end.

I personally found the ending to tie everything up nicely, though I agree that the run on sentences were a bit much. I think she was trying to emulate a style there.

The Borders of Life would have been okay for a first novel, but it's the twelfth book from Gael Baudino, and once you know that it's just not too impressive. A predictable melange of Bradbury and Terrence Green's Shadows of Ashland, it seldom rises about the author's own apologies for the text at the beginning.

I'm sorry. I just didn't get it. I'd like to think of myself as an intelligent person, but this book seemed to go beyond me. G.A. Kathryns seems to want to make a point that actions or inactions in our lives have consequences. True enough, however, some of the consequences do not take place in the living world, but in the "dead" world. Huh? Exactly. What does this all mean? Well, don't expect to find the answer in this book. The border between life and death apparently is a fine grey line that only a few people can venture between. One is the 77 year old protagonist Alma Montague and her often talked about and never seen Grandfather. In fact, he is the one who found the way (through a gate in the backyard). How he finds it or why he had to is never discussed, other than to say he did it (maybe) for his Grandaughter to use when she needed it. Now there's a sharp Grandpop.

Alma finds all her answers with the help of the mysterious Mr. Dark, a "colored" business man who likes to eat vanilla ice cream at noon everyday. Mr. Dark also knows about the gate and where it leads. He's helping Alma find all her answers while he is being butchered and killed by a racist and his bumbling sidekick (in another reality? who knows?). Got it.

Throw into all this a murdered young Mother. Why? I'm not sure why she was murdered. I think the description of her mangled corpse was too good not to use in the book. Should I go on? I cannot bear it. I am beginning to confuse myself. Again, it's probably me.

As an aside, this book contained the longest run-on sentences I have ever seen.

I'm the type who usually packrats books, but I finished this one and hurled it into the "sell" pile immediately. It had absolutely no point. The plot was beyond disjointed, with seemilngly completely unconnected characters leaping about in all directions with no purpose. The subplots are completely obscure, with about five unrelated and STUPID stories going on at once. We have the young mother who was raped and later murdered and everyone in the community knows it, but is ostracized because she had a child out of wedlock (as a result of rape) and "committed suicide." We have the old woman who's taking care of her son and the grandparents who want him back. We have the evil racist and the disinterested law enforcement. We have the curious and otherworldly "colored gentleman." Ant to top it all off, the main character's "forbidden love" with another woman, which consists of their meeting once and only speaking maybe five words to each other. I kept reading to the end in order to see how the author would tie all these threads together. She didn't.

To top it off, the writing was TERRIBLE. The longest run-on sentences I've ever read, and useless parenthetical asides so long you forgot what the original sentence said. I would only recommend this book if you need something to support the short leg on your coffee table.