Customer Reviews

Fiona Range

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I admit I did not get into this story right away. However, when it begins to take off, BOY does it ever! Fiona Range is a novel full of twists and turns, and even though I thought most of it was predictable, the ending threw me for a loop.

Fiona Range is probably the oldest teenager alive -- 30-years-old and still causing trouble. Raised by her aunt and uncle after the hasty disappearance of her mother shortly after her birth, Fiona has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a house full of cousins who could do no wrong, Fiona looks at herself as the Black Sheep, the Trouble Maker, the Embarrassment Who Can't Get Her Life Straight. Slipping in and out of different beds quicker than changing socks, and if there is a moment of goodness that lasts longer than usual, leave it to Fiona to break the monotony.

Fiona's story is one of sadness and trying to fit in. It speaks of the different relationships that surround her: with her family, who tend to cover their own transgressions with surface smiles and false happiness; with her ex-boyfriend, Todd, who is a troublemaker in his own right; her co-workers at the diner, Maxine, Chester, Donna and Sandy, who have their own stories to share; and her father, Patrick, who Fiona seeks out for answers about her mother. The fun begins at an engagement party for Fiona's cousin, Elizabeth, and doesn't end until novel's close. Excellent writing, very engrossing storytelling. Will be reading more by this author.

Once again, I bow down to Mary McGarry Morris for enabling me to get so involved in these people's lives, I think they're real. I feel like a "fly on the wall" just watching all these people's relationships and interactions and decisions. With a house/husband/kids/p/t job, Ms. Morris is the only author that completely absorbs my thoughts and takes me away into another realistic world. I'm a die-hard Oprah book club fan, and Morris' books exemplifies all the relationship intricacies. Her characters are always 3-dimensional, never just "cliche" people. She's not a "happily ever after" author, which is also realistic. If anyone else out there also loves Mary McGarry Morris' books as much as I do (I read them all), please e-mail me to give me other books similar to hers, that are just as absorbing and realistic. I'm a avid reader and would love to share book info. Thanks. Enjoy Fiona!

Where do I start? At the beginning of course. Fiona's character jumps off the page from the start, in fact her life was thrilling to the end of the novel. Morris once again paints a complete portrait of a woman. By the time I finished I felt I knew Fiona inside and out. If she waited on me at the local diner here in town, I'd spot her before I read her nametage. But it wasn't just Fiona. This book is packed with 3-dimensional characters. The judge-what a crafty, yet somehow still respectable man. (By the way, has anyone stopped to follow how Morris portrays judges in her four novels? That would be an interesting essay itself) His wife, Aunt Arlene-keeping up appearances no matter the cost. Dear Elizabeth-Almost as complex a character as Fiona. Get this book, you won't be disappointed.

Once I picked FIONA up I couldn't put her down. I suspect that's how a lot of the other men whom she encountered in her life felt too. FIONA is voracious and demanding and very pleasing as well. Bet you can't tell if I mean the heroine or the book itself. You've got to get this one and find out. I can't get FIONA out of my head. ENJOY!

I found this book SO exasperating. Fiona is totally unsympathetic. Within a single paragraph, she thinks she's being dismissed by her family, then she likes them, then her feelings are hurt by some perceived slight, and on and on it goes. I thought it was carelessly written; it felt very lazy to me - it could have done with serious editing. Plus, I couldn't shake the feeling that the book was set in the 40s or 50s, which is fine, if the book REALLY were set in those decades; I had to keep reminding myself this was supposedly set in the current day. I finished the book because I just had to see if it was going to be ludicrous to the very end, and it was. Even the "happy ending" was apathetic and tacked-on.

I've liked the author's other books, so I was most disappointed when I finally got my hands on this one. I did finish it, but I sure won't be passing it on to my friends!

I'm one of those people who dislikes re-reading books, or seeing a movie more than once. I'm a novelist myself (unpublished, but hopeful), and I like to gulp as much fiction and media as I can, but rarely go back over old ground.

The only movie I watch over and over is the Coen Brothers' "Miller's Crossing" and the only books I seem able to re-read are those by Mary McGarry Morris.

For one thing, each time I re-visit one of her novels, I find there are new layers of meaning I missed the first, and even the second time. For example, the first time I read Fiona Range, I, like some of the others who have reviewed it here, found it to be less tragic and moving than her other books, "A Dangerous Woman," "Vanished" (my favorite; it should have won the Pulitzer) and "Songs In Ordinary Time."

However, I am currently re-reading it now and, contrary to what I thought was going to happen (I knew the ending, so how could it be surprising and interesting?) it has turned out to be even better BECAUSE I know the ending. Now it truly does seem tragic, a magnificent character study of a Woman Interrupted...a woman whose whole life revolves around the black hole of lost identity, a giant lie perpetuated by those who pretend to have cared for her.

It's a about monstrous hypocrisy and what happens to people when they are kept from essential knowledge about themselves. It's about cruelty that drives people to self-destruct. Damn, it's good.

After Faulkner and Joyce, Mary McGarry Morris has had the most significant effect on my writing. Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Ford, Russell Barnes ("Affliction"), Alice McDermott, Annie Prioux, Stephen King, Toni Morrison...they are all to be studied, and I owe them so much. But Mary is the greatest writer in America today. As another reviewer here noted, her characters are fresh, real, surprising, devoid of stereotype, human to the bone. No one writes them living and breathing as she does.

With their many flaws and their heartaches, their jerkiness, their addictions, their violence and their cuteness, they are truly unforgettable. The old expression, "To know her, is to love her," is what makes these books keepers. Thanks, Mary, for the gifts.

Mary McGarry Morris has a winner on her hands. This book is just wonderful. I think it could possibly be one of the best books I have read this summer (and, I've read a lot) but, this one has everything you need. The characters, story, plot, setting, etc...I found it thrilling, charming and wonderfully told. Others have said it's no better than a cheap "dime-store" romance novel, but I disagree. I thought it was well written and very nicely told. It's a smart book by a gifted author. Certainly one I would recommend to others.

Fiona Range is a revealing book about a young woman who learns to take her place in the world, in spite of her step-family's well-meaning attempts to keep her an outsider. Fiona is raised by her maternal aunt and uncle and grows up with three cousins, one of whom is also her best friend. While Fiona is attractive and witty, she's also a hellion facing a turning point in her life. She is searching for the reasons why she is such a difficult person, and why she is so unappreciative of her step-family's 'good deeds'. Fiona's life changes when she digs up the family secrets and asks to have the record set straight.

Fiona Range is a great study of the kinds of people who take in 'abandoned' children and undermine those children's fragile sense of security by 'unintentionally' reminding them of their second-class status. It is also a great study of the development of the classic 'guarded personality'.

Thoroughly enjoyed the book. Whisked through 418 pages in two-days. I couldn't put it down.

I really hoped to enjoy this book. The initial introduction to Fiona, is risque, yet pathetic. She wakes up one morning to find herself in bed, hungover from a party the evening before, with an aquaintence, whose wife was in the hospital, recovering from childbirth.

And it only gets worse from there..All the male charecters are seen as Fionas' victims. From her employer to her family, they all complain of being victims to her selfishness. I couldnt sympathize at all with her.

Her worst charecter in this book is the cruel and crazy Patrick Grady, who is believed to be Fiona's illigitamate father. She relentlessly persues a relationship with this terrible man because she wants to be his daughter. The author paints a one sided picture of him...never really showing any warmth or humane personality traits. It made Fiona seem even more unreal, to chase after him so relentlessly.

The other charecter who was so irritating was her cousin Elizabeth. She is whiny, spineless and weak. I had wondered how she attracted so much love and attention from the other people in this book.

I have to say the only reason I finished this book was that I was on a 4 hour bus trip, and it was more interesting then the scenery.

On a more positive note, this book was mildly entertaining, and an easy read. It seemed like more of a soap opera plot then a book with a lot of substance, which can sometimes be fun.

Although Fiona Range, the title character of her fourth book is the main focus of this story, author Mary McGarry Morris ultimately paints the portrait of a flawed family trying to maintain its place in a very confusing and complex world. Fiona Range is a satisfying, if not always easy look into the world of a prominent New England family and its one wild child. When she is quite young, Fiona is abandoned by her mother; she is denied paternity by her father, Patrick Grady; she is raised by relatives who do not understand her petulant behavior and who are constantly puzzled by her absolute lack of judgment. Fiona is 30. For the past few years, she has worked as a waitress in Chester's Coffee Shop in Dearborn, Massachusetts. Her life is stuck in a constant cycle of rebellion, failed relationships, and an endless, empty horizon. As much as she yearns to be part of the family who raised her, she is repulsed by their shallow lives and their almost insatiable need to present a perfect face to the community. Her Uncle Charles Grady is a prominent judge. Her Aunt Arlene is the perfect wife and mother, volunteering in the community and taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves. To the world, the Grady family is a model of success. Their three children are educated, employed and functioning members of society. Jack is a computer whiz. Ginny runs a day care. Elizabeth, the schoolteacher, is engaged to a wonderful doctor from New York. Their lives are picture perfect, if you don't look too close. And then there's Fiona. The trouble with you, Fiona, is you don't think before you act. The trouble with you, Fiona, is you don't think. The trouble with you, Fiona, is you. The trouble with Fiona is you. The trouble. Fiona is the trouble. There are a lot of issues raised in this book. Not all of them are resolved, but they're out there for the reader's inspection. This is not a book you read in one night. You must pace yourself in order to endure Fiona's wild abandon, Elizabeth's neuroses, Patrick Grady's madness, and ultimately, the Grady family's undoing. I liked all the characters in this book. No one was perfect and there were no Hollywood endings, all neatly tied up with red ribbons. The people who make this story work are flawed and they all struggle with life's hardest questions. In other words, these people could be REAL. And, to me, that's what quality fiction should create: real people, flaws and all, dealing with life's triumphs and tragedies, while trying to make their way in the world without inflicting too much damage on themselves and those around them. Very Highly Recommended.

Terry H. Mathews Reviewer