Customer Reviews

A Dangerous Woman

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Meet Martha Horgan. By all accounts she is odd, peculiar, and haunting. Martha is definately suffering from a mental illness. But the question that must be asked is how this illness came to be. Was Martha always odd, or did something unspeakable occur to make her this way?

Martha craves to be like everybody else. She is starved for friendship, love, and mostly normalacy. She is often found obsessing about contacting her 'best friend', or lurking about watching people. Martha's obsessions are often disturbing to those around her.

Set in a small town, Martha Horgan is a household name, a taboo. Martha, who is relentlessly truthful, does not have the control to hold back, even when it means diaster for herself. Through Martha's truth, she is often victimized by those who she preceives closest to her.

A Dangerous Woman is an interesting and compelling read, you will want to find out how Martha resolves all her difficulties. Mary McGarry Morris has created a diverse novel with many twists and turns! Accompained by a diverse cast of characters, A Dangerous Woman is a novel to read!

I happen to LOVE Mary McGarry Morris...I've read all of the Oprah books and she, of all authors, writes the most about very very real people and situations. This is a depressing situation book, but if you like those "heavy family dramas", you'll love this one. It's NOT all "happy and worked out" at the end. I felt so bad for Martha, yet, I would have had to run away from her too, she's overwhelming and just "not right" and very annoying to everyone! The last sentance blew me away - it just finalized her situation and mentality in my mind. And Mary McGarry Morris - when is your NEXT book coming out - I CAN'T WAIT!

Compelling and heartbreaking, Morris weaves a haunting tale of a lonely young woman's losing battle to gain social acceptance, love, respect, and a healthy life of her own. Alienated and ridiculed by her small community, the origins of what make Martha Horgan so strange and different from those around her are unknown. The "dangerous" qualities referred to in the title put off those around her and ultimately lead to her undoing: her belief that the truth must always be known, under all cirumstances, her inability to function around others in society, her tempermental outbursts, and her undying fixations on people. Martha is richly drawn in three-dimensions as a character both frustrating and sympathetic, unlikable yet lovable, exasperating yet endearing, and ultimately, all too human. Morris does a superb job of painting those inhabit Martha's world as equally complex and contradictive, particuarly Frances and Mac. These two judge Martha for her abnormalities, yet their own distorted belief systems and foilables are all too abundent, and their own behavior quite questionable at times. In many ways, they see reflected in Martha the qualities they fear the most about themselves. Morris does an elegent job of depicting the culture of their community and the adverse reactions of "normal" society to those who are different. I liked that Martha's mental illness remained undefined....it was an interesting way of highlighting that people are afraid of what they can't label, not all diverse people can be placed in a tight category, and it raised questions of whether or not the base of the problem was biological or the result of her life experience. Overall, a worthy read: thought-provoking and well-written, sensitive yet brutal, yet not a difficult or lenghty read by any means.

Morris is incredibly adept at creating and shaping characters and worlds which live on in the reader's mind forever. This book is at once engaging, heartbreaking and bittersweet. You will find yourself feeling less alone in your uniqueness, which sometimes may come across as awkward. Poor Martha is a misfit you want to shake and hug, but mostly console. Morris illuminates the sensitive, chaotic mind like no author I have ever read. She also reveals humanity's unceasing desire for acceptance and love without steeping the prose in sentimentality. A winning story is what this book is.

A Dangerous Woman is a rich characterization of a woman in need of love, support, understanding, security and warmth. This novel is one of the most brilliant that I've read so far this year and it's now the tenth month. The extra-ordinary depth of it's author, Mary McGarry Morris in her understanding of the heroine is outstanding and she delivers her punches with passion and tenacity. We follow Martha through her ordeals, from teenage insecurity through to early thirties bewilderment. We grope blindly along, knowing that there is a tragedy coming and wishing that we could avert it, but it's impending doom is fate and Martha must face hers alone. While Martha can be annoying, gratingly stubborn and insensitive, most of the time she is written about in such a way that you just want to wrap her in your arms and protect her to save her from herself. The novel left me with the huge provocation of how we are in control of our destinies and how we affect those that witness our lives around us. I can't rate this novel high enough. It's compelling, absorbing and brilliantly written and can teach you things about yourself that you may not already know. A must read on anyone's list. I loved it!

This is a truly amazing author. All of her books have been 5 stars in my opinion. This novel is so absorbing! Morris has captured the tortured life of Martha and keeps you riveted to the story through suspense and compelling honesty. You will not easily forget this story, but that is typical of all the books I have read of Ms. Morris's.

I was first introduced to Mary McGarry Morris when Oprah chose Songs in Ordinary Time. I loved both of these books. Martha was such a vivid character and I could actually feel each emotion as she experienced it. Well-written, descriptive, and haunting. The ending made me cry, I was so emotionally involved by then that I felt like I should be trying to help Martha! This was a quick read and I was enthralled from the start.

Don't let the movie fool you. This book is an absolute must read. Do not cheat yourself from this wonderful and gripping elegy of a town in Vermont, its views for one of its less fortunate and the love of a 'dangerous woman.' Dangerous is used ironically, since the protagonist of this book is so damaged that her greatest goodness is what ultimately seals her fate and the fate of those around her. This is truly a literary masterpiece that reads like a page burner. Morris is an author that we all should take more notice of. What first appears at the surface is most definitely not what lies beneath. She is truly a wonderful and thoughful writer who has turned this novel into a poem that will not let the reader get on with their lives quite the same way as before. How Morris "pulls" off this novel, I am still amazed by!!!! Marthahorgan will be seen by your own eyes more times than you would think after reading this book.

I couldn't put it down, I was so enormously enthralled by the lives of these people! This was an amazing character sketch of an entire town and their denial of the truth and how that changed everything.
Martha is a sad creature who needed someone to believe her, love her and show patience with her. Perhaps she came close - but, not until it was too late.
Maybe this book will make you lean over your neighbor's fence and say hello. Maybe it will help you open your heart to someone you don't understand.
I always rate books and movies in my mind by this question, "Am I a better person for having read this book or seen this movie?" The answer in this case is YES!

This book was absoultely genius. I have never been more sympathic of a charcter, Marta was heartbreaking, rivitoring, disturbing and yet passionate and self-loathing. The walk through her life filled me with both dread and hopefulness. After reading this book I knew I would never be the same. Hooray! for Mary McGarry Morris for a book that is perfection to the painful, realistic side of human insanity.