Customer Reviews

The Cape Ann (Contemporary American Fiction)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Cape Ann is the story of a mid-west, depression era family's life, told through the eyes of their daughter, Lark Erhardt. As the book opens, Lark is only six years old and already starting to understand how complicated life can be for the people around her. Faith Sullivan draws you into the daily lives of the citizens of Harvester, Minnesota so completely, that you become part of the novel, observing life's happiness and sorrows and the power struggle between Lark's parents. This book is beautifully written and the characters are so well drawn and developed, they come alive on the page. A wonderful, poignant, touching story of a loss of innocence, that will stay with you for a long, long time.

This is a beautiful, haunting book. Lark is a child who grows up with all the questions and interests that most children have in adults. Why is my mother this way? My father - what does he mean? Just trying to figure out life is much too difficult and this book will make you remember your own childhood and smile. Lark realizes she is never told everything and she and her two best friends are enchanting and real enough to make you laugh and cry at once! Pretty little Sally with the "strange" mother, poor sassy Beverly who grows up fast and learns the ways of the world from her struggling single mom.

Lark's mother is a woman "ahead of her time" and it causes her no end of trouble, but she thrives on life and living it to the fullest!

You must meet these characters. You will never forget them.

The second book (in what I hope is an ongoing series) is THE EMPRESS OF ONE. It particularly carries on with Sally and Beverly and not enough of Lark. At the end, we catch up with Lark, but the book ends leaving us waiting eagerly for the next installment! Not enough stars for this one. Please, Ms. Sullivan ENCORE!

Faith Sullivan has the ability to write about her characters in such a way that everything they feel is transferred to you, the reader. I'm not one to show a lot of emotion while reading a book, but this one had me both laughing and on the brink of tears.

The story is told from eyes of 6-year old Lark, who lives in a train depot with her strong mother and semi-abusive, gambling addict father, during the depression. The book has several storylines, with the main one being between Lark and her mother who long for a house of their own, the Cape Ann model in particular. Her father's continual gambling debts threaten to sabotage their plans until her mother starts a typing service from their home in the depot.

Lark has to deal with learning catechism for her first confession and communion, her bed-ridden, pregnant Aunt Betty, befriending a WWI hero who has lost his sanity because of the war, and her two best friends, Beverly, who lives in poverty, and Sally, whose mother suffers from depression.

This novel is a humorous, poignant look at a child's world where everything is changing quickly beyond her control and causing her to call on reserves of strength that only growing up can bring.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who went through the rigors of First Communion and Pennance or any religious turning point that employs fear and guilt to drive the gravity of the ceremony home. Lark embodies the extreme in this case, yet is written so artfully that you can understand her perspective. For me, I actually relived the experience a new. The friendships, insecurities and needful voice Faith Sullivan employs in her characterization of Lark are true art. I have recommended and actually given this book away in hopes that my family and friends read it. Out of the many books I have read in the past two years, this was the best written and most captivating. I also read the Empress of One. Also excellent, yet I believe this to be the best in this series by Faith Sullivan.

I checked this book out at the library without ever having heard of it or the author, but was I ever impressed! The story is told from the perspective of young Lark, who is about 6 when the story begins. She is the only child of a strong willed mother and often abusive father, living in Minnesota during the depression. Lark's mother is making do, living in the train depot where her husband works, saving every penny she can so that one day they can build their own house. Lark and her mother have decided on a Cape Ann style house, but everytime they get enough to make a down payment on it, her father ends up gambling away every bit of it. He is a devout Catholic and Lark is trying so hard to study to be confirmed, but no matter how hard she tries, he finds fault with her. It's Lark's mother who keeps her going. She is a woman ahead of her time, figuring out a way to make money on her own, she learns to type and starts her own business. They befriend a man named Hilly who is a hero from the war, but has come home with a shattered mind. He has the personality of a young child and Lark loves to go to his house and read to him. She and her mother always remember Hilly on his birthday and Christmas, much to the disgust of the father. This story is so great, because the author has really gotten into the mind of a child. I laughed out loud at some of the true things that Lark thought, and felt angry and sad right along with her when her father beat her. This was such a good book that I am ready to start on the next one by the same author. I would recommend it to any age reader.

Harper Lee, I think, set the standard for books told through the eyes of a precocious child with To Kill a Mockingbird. This incredible book by Sullivan is the only book I've seen that comes close the the genious displayed by Lee. The narrator, Lark, is innocence personified, a bright, thoughtful child facing questions about subjects as complex and diverse as where babies come from and how God works. Lark's mother Arlene Erhardt, is exactly the kind of feminist mother I hope to be one day--one who loves her daughter selflessly and strives to teach her daughter by example. My favorite line in the book is spoken by Arlene as she plotted an escape from Willie, the abusive husband/father: "Hippopotamuses aren't all bad. They are what they are. But I wasn't meant to have one sitting on my face."

Once in a very great while a book comes along that is truly unforgettable; 'The Cape Ann' is just such. Wise, warm, and unflinching, Faith Sullivan skillfully captures the innocence and questionings inherent in childhood, and the funny, difficult, illuminating, shocking, and ultimately indelible lessons one learns along the way. You shall grow to love Lark and her mother, you will cheer them on as they struggle through obstacles to make for themselves the type of life that they wish for, dream of, and deserve. The small town of Harvester, Minnesota, the characters with their heartbreaks and yearnings and triumphs and failures both big and small, the rural lifestyle, the Depression era ~ everything interweaves so flawlessly that you'll lose yourself in this book, and feel sorry when it draws to a close. Within these pages you'll have met a host of good, affectionate, honest-hearted people, and some not so, and you'll be the better for the knowing of them, and the world in which they live. Extremely highly recommended, one of my most treasured literary finds. Waste no time in getting a copy for yourself.

I absolutly love this book. I found it one day while hiding in my school library, and I was hooked. The story is told in a serious, yet inspirational, fun-loving way. The story is told through Lark, a six year old girl who is young and hopeful and happy, and yet facing many issues, from the depression, to her father, and her own beliefs. There are so many ups and downs, hopeful moments, and sad moments, scary moments. In the end, it doesn't completely END, it doesn't just finish, it leaves you thinking about the story, wondering, yet content and hopeful. This is a must read, check it out!

Being a voracious reader of fiction for the past 40 years, I do not know how I missed this masterpiece of literature till now. The adage "better late than never" applies perfectly here.

The story of six year old Lark, viewing life in Minnesota during the depression, is so compelling you will experience every gamit of emotion possible. What's more, you will yield willingly to every feeling, being instantly captured by the the myriad of perceptions lurking in Lark's furtile imagination. As you read a smile will settle on your face so long it will ache; then tears will flood unabashedly; your anger will flare at the indiginites; and then a smile will return. I could rave on, but I want to sum it up with this paragraph:

If you could only read one book this whole year, this would be the one to choose. Everything that is compelling and stirring about storytelling is weaved brillantly in this tapestry of life. You will laud your choice to everyone you know, as this must be read by all that appreciate the nuances of excellent writing.

I read the Cape Ann several years ago and have been meaning ever since to get on Amazon and review it. Faith Sullivan is a darn good writer and with the Cape Ann she has gone right to the top.
The Cape Ann is a coming of age story, following an interesting young girl (and her family) who live down by the railroad tracks. It is an especially satisfying novel, leaving the reader with a good taste so to speak. I'm a writer myself ... and I appreciate fine writing--and this one has it in spades.
I don't mean to run a synopsis of the story here, one can look to other reviews here for that, but what I wanted to do was to encourage people to read this book. I was pleased to see that it is still selling quite well, some 5-6 years after publication---a very good sign for any novel. But this one deserves to do well. It is a wholesome book but not in the least bit uptight, not preachy. Sullivan's characters are interesting, whole, different, and real. Other reviewers have suggested that the Cape Ann is or will be a classic, and I'd have to agree with that. I predict that thirty-forty years from now it will still be read. It deserves to have a larger readership right now than it does. It is that good.