Customer Reviews

A Hole in the Universe

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found "A Hole in the Universe" to be Morris' best novel since "A Dangerous Woman" (which I loved and highly reccomend), because what she does in these two novels is what she does better than almost anyone else: she brilliantly captures the essence of characters who are on the fringes of society; those who are socially inept, socially shunned, those "too needy" for other people's confort levels. She very craftily makes her readers both sympathetic, and at the same time repelled, by her characters.

I LOVE Mary McGarry Morris so what you'll read here is 100% biased. Having devoured A Dangerous Woman and Vanished before realizing Ms. McHarry Morris is not exactly prolific, I promised to buy my own copy of her subsequent books and refrain from lending them to others if she'd just "step on it" a bit more. Fell on deaf ears, though ... .

Alas, what attracts me to her books are the characters and the prose. Her characters are somewhere between mainstream akimbo and slipstream irregular; fringe-dwellers who we're all capable of employing at one time or another. Her dialogue flows easily and every so often hesitates momentarily for honest and revealing introspection.

My offer still stands, Ms. McGarry Morris: Hardcover purchase, no lending. Now, get going on the next book!

I've read many reviews of books with the testimony "I couldn't put it down'" but had never really felt that way about a book. To me that was one of the beautiful things about a book, I could always put it down and do something else and come back to it when it suited me. Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish the last 100 pages of A Hole in the Universe. I so needed to know what was going to happen to Gordon, Jada and Delores the three main characters in the novel. Mary McGarry Morris makes these characters part of your life and you care deeply for them and hope beyond hope that their lives will get better. Needless to say I loved this book!

Mary McGarry Morris dazzled us with her hard-hitting Songs in Ordinary Time and Fiona Range, and now she dishes up another feast for the reader. In A Hole in the Universe, she delivers an uncompromising and forceful story, full of wonderfully challenging characters, and remarkably interesting and heart rendering situations. The narrative centers on the character of Gordon Loomis who has just spent twenty-five years in prison for murder. He returns to his neighborhood as a changed man, but he also sees a neighborhood that has suffered the effects of urban blight where drug dealers now proliferate and property remains uncared for. With the help of his brother, Dennis, a successful oral surgeon, Gordon tries to desperately remake himself in a community that fears him and sees him as a criminal.

Gordon's neighborhood is rundown but vitality was everywhere - women are on their front steps day or night, children play on the sidewalks, and music blasts from idle cars. Life might be a struggle, "but energy charges the air, blind and unstoppable." Yet Gordon finds a world gone awry, the planet tipped. "Instead of meteors, airplane bolts, and metal chunks fall from the sky." Gordon hates talking about himself: the misery of it, the emptiness, the dead echo behind every word like footsteps through an endless tunnel. Twenty-five years earlier, evil had invaded his aimless, blundering life, and he doesn't know how he can live with the consequences of what he has done.

The strength of this novel is the wonderfully three-dimensional characters. Feaster and Polie, the two local drug dealers, who recruit the young Jada - who hungers for love just as she hungers constantly for food. And then there's Delores, earthy, solicitous and who insinuates herself into Gordon's life and who tries to do the best by him and feeds off his private needs and loneliness. When Gordon discovers that his brother, Dennis is having an affair with a local realtor, he feels obliged to tell his wife, Lisa, because he just can't spend his whole life turning his back, not seeing and never doing the honorable thing. Gordon is someone who needs the "anonymity of blank spaces" yet he has not realized how strange freedom would be, how alien he would feel.

How we remake our lives and what we do with the life we are given is at the thematic core of A Hole in the Universe. And some readers may find Morris's view of the world unintentionally bleak, as she sees us as no more than "inconsequential flees jumping through our preordained hoops in a meaningless cosmos, hopeless, helpless, and blameless." Morris also delves into the psyche of the criminal and postulates that just as criminals are locked up to protect society, so are the imprisoned safe from society's expectations and nuances. Activities such as paying bills, entering relationships, and holding down a job are probably unfathomable language for some men. In Gordon Loomis, Morris gives us a stalwart, sturdy and robust character that perseveres and tries to meet the challenges of life on the "outside." Mike Leonard April 04

the story of a man who has spent 25 years in prison is illuminated by the hardships of the others in his life. Gordon Loomis' brother, Dennis, is imprisoned by the affair he is having with a local beauty, which endangers his wife and kids; his neighbor, Jada, a 13-old-girl with a crack addicted mother, is imprisoned by the danger of her life; and his only friend, Delores, is imprisoned by her own weak nature, which has deprived her of happiness all her life. Loomis' problem of resuming his life after incarceration is accentuated by the problems the others face, which makes his story a rich portrait of a contemporary community plagued by crime, drug abuse and the hopelessness they all share. at first, this novel was hard to read, because the characters seemed insignificant. but they and their problems grow on you and it becomes highly impactful.

I loved Songs in Ordinary Time, A Dangerous Woman, Vanished, and Fiona Range; this one was OK...an enjoyable read, but I found one of the main characters irritating enough to diminish the overall pleasure of the book.

I have read all of Mary MaGarry Morris' books. She is one of the finest writers that I have ever read. Vanished and Hole in the Universe are two of my favorite of her books. Her characters are real and empathetic, her stories captivating. I can't wait until she publishes another treasure for us to read.

This was my second book by this author and I enjoyed it quite a bit. All of the characters were very realistic, and the story engrossing. You get a real sense of desperation and loneliness in each character. Gordon is desperate to be left alone, Delores is desperate to be worthy of love, Jada is desperate for a normal life with a mother who cares for her and so on. For me the most pathetic character is Dennis. He has everything and it's still not enough.

I found the ending a little suspect. It ended a little to quickly and neatly for me, but overall a very enjoyable book.

Morris has a way of writing that enables the reader to get deep into a character's psyche, and this book was no exception. Each character in this book is in some way intensely desperate, and very real. Morris' writing style is incredible, her descriptions sharp, and her pacing satisfying.

That said, this is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Nothing good happens until page 266, and it was a tough, tough read up to that point. I had to push myself to finish it. While Morris' writing is phenomenal, this just isn't the way I want to spend my free time.

Readers of Morris's four previous novels know that few can script dialogue with her skill and understanding of human foibles. This is rich territory for actor Jason Culp to mine and he does it superbly, whether it is the voice of Gordon Loomis, a man recently released from prison after 25 years or a 13-year-old street child who ekes out a living dealing drugs.

Loomis has almost as much trouble outside prison walls as he did inside. He returns to his old neighborhood, which is dramatically changed. It's rundown, rife with drug dealers. His brother tries to help him find work, and Delores, the woman, who visited him regularly seeks to reconnect with him.

He cannot forget his senseless crime; others don't want him to forget it.

As she has done in the past Morris draws sharply etched, sympathetic portraits of the down and outers. We see them through her eyes and perhaps rethink our definition of forgiveness.