Customer Reviews

Good Harbor

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

When you are the renowned author of "The Red Tent," how do you top yourself? Unfortunately, "Good Harbor" was not able to do that. However, "Good Harbor" captured my attention and I was taken in about the story of a friendship.

Kathleen, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, meets Joyce, a romance writer. The friendship flourishes immediately as they enjoy walks together on Good Harbor. Through the walks, each woman feels safe in confiding with the other. There are many issues that "Good Harbor" addresses: cancer, religion, parenting, death, infidelity, and relationships.

Diamant is a master at setting the scene. She describes the beauty of Good Harbor and Kathleen's garden so precisely that the reader is able to create a mental image. This was the strongest feature in the novel.

"Good Harbor" is a novel with its own merit, however many will find it difficult not to compare it with "The Red Tent." I encourage readers to try "Good Harbor" and see a different side of Anita Diamant. I eagerly anticipate Diamant's future work.

Ok, so it's not like her first book, "The Red Tent" ~~ but I didn't care as Diamant writes with her usual care and precision in telling a story. And I really enjoyed this book. I am not middle-aged yet, but I have always enjoyed reading a book that talks about friendship between two women. Having good friends of my own ~~ I really enjoy reading the friendship between Joyce and Kathleen. Joyce struggles with a marriage that seems to be heading for the rocks, a troubled relationship with her daughter and Kathleen struggles with her memories and guilt as she battles breast cancer. And when those two met ~~ they help each other heal. It's a wonderful journey through the pages watching how each of the woman grows into a delightful and more confident woman. It proves the old Biblical adage true ~~ one cannot walk through life alone.

I really enjoyed the different pace in the scenery. I love to take long walks and though I don't live near the ocean, whenever my girlfriends and I get together, sometimes our best conversations in life happens on a walk. There is something uplifting about walking with close friends ... and something totally relaxing. You can't hide confidents when you're relaxed. And I admire how Joyce and Kathleen would just call each other up and say, "Let's go for a walk." And in those walks, they confide into each other that they wouldn't confide to their husbands. Just like women everywhere.

If you like to read books about friendship and loyalty ~~ this is a good read. Diamant won't disappoint you with her writing. And you'll be lulled by the soft voices of women talking by the sea.

1-23-02

As a huge fan of The Red Tent, Diamant's previous work, I was eager to read Good Harbor. What I found was a novel as concentrated in focus as The Red Tent is epic in scale yet that was written with as much care and creativity. Good Harbor is a warm, thoughtful exploration of the lives and friendship between two seemingly disparate women.

The name of the book comes from a location in the coastal New England town where the characters reside. Kathleen, a life-long resident and children's librarian recently diagnosed with breast cancer, which killed her beloved sister, meets Joyce, a younger woman living out her dream - sort of - of a second home near the coast in the same town. The two strike up a friendship as Kathleen deals with her recovery from her illness and past tragedies and Joyce tries to find the self that she feels has been lost.

There is genuine caring and empathy between the women, and the instant bond that is formed seems completely realistic and understandable. And while events do not take place on a grand scale, the women change, grow and make mistakes throughout the course of the novel, emerging at the end the same yet different. It's a marvelous story, very well-written, detailed, interesting and enjoyable, sustained by the warmth and strength of the friendship.

While Good Harbor is incredibly different from The Red Tent, that is not a handicap in anyway, just a testament to Diamant's strength as a writer. And despite the shift in scale - a much smaller span of time, locale, etc. - many of the same themes emerge. It's not a sweeping epic in traditional terms, but in a way, it focuses on a similarly dramatic time in the lives of the central characters and is treated with the depth and breadth necessary. Diamant has again lovingly created a tale of dynamic women and a compelling, worth-while novel.

With her debut novel, Red Tent (1997 Anita Diament chronicled the lives of women in ancient times by fictionalizing a Bible story. Once again the author's novel examines relationships between women but this time in a very contemporary setting. Linda Emond gives sympathetic reading to this affecting tale.

We are introduced to almost 60-year-old librarian Kathleen Levine of Gloucester, Massachusetts when she is diagnosed with breast cancer and must undergo radiation treatments. The diagnosis and ensuing therapy throws her life into a whirlpool of stress. She is understandably frightened and further burdened by long held secrets.

Joyce Tabachnik, a free lance writer who has recently enjoyed considerable success with a novel, has just bought a small home in Gloucester where she hopes to continue writing and enjoy visits from her family. But Joyce, too, is beset by woes of a different nature.

The two women meet, walk the nearby beach together, and share their thoughts. Out of a chance meeting a bond of friendship develops which is both supportive and affirming.

Definitely a woman's book for those who wish to lose themselves in another's travails.

- Gail Cooke

I'm another Diamant fan who grabbed this book after being moved for months by the absolutely fabulous "Red Tent" which was everything a great book can be -- perspective-altering, horizon-widening, and maybe even life-changing.

Alas, what I found was this lightweight poorly written piece of fluff. Anita, Anita, when did you write this? Was it part of a college course in which you had to fullfill a "best-seller checklist"? Religion -- check; sex -- check; marital infidelity -- check; competely extraneous drug bust -- check; dead child -- check; and the most important New York Times Best Seller Checklist Item of all -- **breast cancer** (or in this case, pre-cancer) -- check, check, check.

It happens that I know a lot about breast treatments and those parts rang true, but hey, girls, we're talking about DCIS here -- generally a non-lethal, non-life threatening, non-fatal disease, and it would have been a worthy public service for Ms. Diamant to emphasize THOSE facts rather than writing about Kathleen's "disease" with such sweaty-palmed drama. The walks on Good Harbor were likewise well-described (an area I myself have walked many times) but really, again, we didn't need all the drama. The plot sidelines ended up just plain silly (what was WITH the drug bust, the broken collarbone, and the weirdo unconsumated sex (which I was sure was going to turn into a "Crying Game" type scene but instead went absolutely nowhere with zero explanation)).

I love books about the fine relationships that women can have with one another, and I love books about the wisdom that we accumulate over the years. But reading about these self-involved, hand-wringing, breast-beating, completely self-obsessed women was a total waste of my time. I just wanted to grab Kathleen and show her REAL cancer suffering and tell her for god's sakes go do some grief therapy so you can help your poor remaining children and (ridiculously devoted) husband, and I wanted to grab the paintbrushes out of Joanne's hands and shout, "Who cares about your perfect ceiling?? Go work with the ESL kids in Gloucester who are struggling with the MCAS, or go help in a women's shelter, or do SOMETHING more than obsess about your poor innocent teenage daughter, your Mary-on-the-half-shell, and your paint chips."

Oh, I so hope Ms. Diamant's next effort amounts to more than this hill of beans.

This book was an excellent, beautiful read.

Yes, it was a surprise because it was *very* different than "The Red Tent" (Anita Diamant's first work of fiction). Sometimes readers buy follow up books by authors they like expecting the same style and type of storytelling and are disappointed when the book is unlike the first. If the book were *worse* than "The Red Tent", I could see the criticism. But, it's not. It's just a different type of writing, a different type of story.

"Good Harbor" is a lovely story about two different women who come together and form a strong friendship in the midst of health problems, marital issues, and personal challenges. The setting is so beautiful that I wanted to travel to this sea-side town and try and find some of what the women found in the course of the book. I can't stress how much I enjoyed this book- and how I wish it didn't end.

"Good Harbor" reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Berg's books (my favorite author)- well written, poetic, heart-breaking, but not saccharine. If you want another "Red Tent", skip this. But if you are open to a new experience by an excellent writer, read this book.

I was expecting a book in the same league as her first novel, and didn't hesitate to buy her hardcover. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. It may be unfair to critique this book by comparing it to The Red Tent, but The Red Tent made such an impact on me and in the world of book lovers. Maybe Diamant should have written more about Good Harbor, as the title suggests and less about the friendship. The characters were pretty plastic and the friendship seemed manufactured. What attracted the two women to each other and why did Joyce do what she did? Kathleen and Joyce never felt real to me and I'm not sure that they were real to Diamant. And parts of it were just so contrived that they were unbelievable. I kept getting the impression that Diamant was just trying to quickly fill the pages with the two women and one major event after another to get this book out in the stores. What was very real however was Good Harbor, the rocky shores, the smell of the ocean, the sunset, Kathleen's garden, in fact all of Kathleen and Joyce's surroundings. Maybe, that was more real to Diamant too and therefore chose Good Harbor as the title. Overall, the story was interesting enough and it kept me reading. I hope Diamant takes just a little more time and care with her next book. It sure would be worth the wait!!

I always look forward to a good book about female friendships and when I read that Anita Diamant had a new book out on the subject I was so excited -- I really enjoyed "The Red Tent" and recommended it to friends and family. Unfortunately, I will not be doing the same for "Good Harbor: A Novel."

Unlike "The Red Tent" this book is not well-written. The dialogue was terrible (especially painful during Joyce and Kathleen's "peeing contest") and the pace of the book was sometimes tedious. Also, as the two women shared their personal histories with one another I was often uninterested -- even though the topics were important ones: faith, death, illness, parenthood, guilt, and marriage problems.

Part of "The Red Tent's" success was its ability to make us all want more out of our friendships with women -- it made us all long for the community, support, help, and kinship Dinah was surrounded by. And while "Good Harbor: A Novel" is a completely different read and set in different times, it fails to make me feel much of anything -- except disappointment.

I loved Diamant's first novel, THE RED TENT, more than any book I've read in the last ten years. So I it was with great anticipation that I bought GOOD HARBOR. Diamant wisely chooses a topic as far from Biblical times as possible, and the two novels couldn't be more different. Two women at a crossroads in their lives and marriages meet in the small town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and become fast friends. The setting is rich with possibilities, but Diamant's intentions are more successful than her execution. The simplicity of style which worked so well and powerfully in RED TENT here seems to undermine the emotional arc of the two women, Joyce and Kathleen, and we never care for them as deeply as we could. Kathleen's battle with breast cancer, and her attempt to make peace with her son's death 25 years earlier just doesn't move us as it should. And when a lonely Joyce drifts farther and farther from her husband and teenaged daughter into an affair with a handsome Irish fisherman, who will never fully consummate their physical relationship, we, too, feel unfulfilled. Diamant is a hugely talented author, but GOOD HARBOR just isn't in the same class as THE RED TENT. Let's hope her next effort proves more worthy, since she obviously has the talent and the vision to write brilliantly when the topic moves her.

Although I was never able to get into Diamant's "The Red Tent" (I tried twice), I knew many people loved it, so I was willing to give her another try with her new book.

I finished "Good Harbor", but do not know why.

The topic of the book, women's friendship and cancer, has been done so many times, and so much better by other authors. This book was just plain ordinary. Forgettable. My mind cannot even hold onto the title and I keep calling it "Safe Harbor"!

This was a most unsatisfying read: it was not particularly well-written, there were no great insights, the characters were not well- developed, and there was a good amount of contrivance, a device that really annoys me. It is a very commercial book, in my opinion. To wit: Diamant combined Judaism, Catholocism, miracles, cancer, love affairs, drug running, and the death of a child. Some of these topics were just thrown in, as if they were afterthoughts rather than woven into the body of the story.

The best parts were the descriptions of the beach area and how the beach comforts one's soul. This rang very true to me.

My recommendation: buy JoAnn Mapson's "Bad Girl Creek" if you want to read a very good depiction of women's friendships, how women help each other through the bad times, and how they celebrate the good times.