Customer Reviews

The Eleanor Roosevelt Girls

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

 

 

I picked up this book expecting to really like it. Instead, it became a chore to read. None of the characters were likeable. The author could have really done alot to expand the central characters instead of branching out to other new characters who I really could have cared less about. I was expecting a much better book.

A big fan of historical fiction with strong female protagonists, I had big hopes for this book when I stumbled across it on a library shelf. But the style was simply too jarring - it didn't transition from the various vantage points well. None of the characters garnered my sympathy, because they just didn't emerge as "real" to me. I abandoned the book about halfway, skimming through in a quest for improvement. I didn't find it.

The premise of this book is excellent; unfortunately, the novel needed better editing, both in content and in style: at one crucial point, a villain-type is described as being down on "all fours," with his hands behind his back -- that impossible position makes the rest of this very important scene unbelievable. Also, better editing would have corrected such obvious and disappointing errors as the constant misspelling of "all right" and the erroneous use of the past tense form of the verb "lie." I was so looking forward to this book, but I couldn't finish it.

I bought this book based on the good reviews. I should have paid more attention to the bad ones. I had absolutely no sympathy for any of these characters and thank God that I have no friends who resemble them. If you want a good story about friendship, I would definitely recommend the YaYas over this.

Bluh's book is delightful. It is a warmly rendered portrait of friends' lives, loves, triumphs and tragedies through various stages of their lives. It is beautifully and intelligently written. It requires the reader to be involved from page one-not a fluff book. Hard book to put down. I just bought 5 more for friends.

What started out to be a very funny, enjoyable book became slow and at times annoying. True, it does not have the charm of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. We saw these women's warts as well as their good sides. It may be their very dysfunction that enabled them to maintain these difficult friendships.

bonnie bluh has written a novel that is what i would call a "fast read". fast because after you've read the first few pages, you will find it hard to put down. the novel follows several woman from childhood to adulthood. reading about how thier lives are changed by marriage, work, and just plain growing up, is fascinating. this is the kind of novel they turn into a movie, but you refer back to the book to read the real story. bring this book on vacation or to the beach, and you'll be thinking about it for months. well written and a great story.

If you like your characters sugar coated, you won't enjoy this book. Bluh presents the good,the bad, and the ugly while challenging her readers to find the humanity in all of them. She addresses issues of importance to all: the need to reinvent ourselves at times and the need to let go of the past so that we can move ahead. Her dialogue, though not elegant, is simple and direct and gets the job done. I read the book in one night and enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the Eleanor Roosevelt Girls.

I was going to write a review but the Boston reviewer did a perfect job ! My feeling exactly!

The premise of the book sounded so interesting. I was really looking forward to curling up with the book over the weekend and enjoying a story about everlasting friendships and strong women. Instead, I was thoroughly disgusted by these self-absorbed women, none of whose characters was sufficiently developed enough to solicit any sympathy, empathy or positive reactions from the reader. There were too many characters and not one admirable one among the 5 or 6 of them. Between the rambling, disjointed vignettes, and the seesawing back and forth from the present to the 1940's (is this supposed to be some "deep" literary technique?), I had a difficult time keeping track of who was doing what to whom. It didn't help that there were several conversations where the reader had to guess who was speaking. The author couldn't deign to use "said Mallory" or anything that would identify the speaker -- even when the conversation was among 4 or 5 women. And, to add insult to injury, there were several typographical/grammatical errors in my copy of the book -- clearly not intentional or stylistic. I kept waiting for the book to get better but it never did. All in all, a very frustrating read.