Customer Reviews

Home Repair

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At first, I wanted to skim Liz Rosenberg's book; but as I read, it became impossible for me to skip ahead. I was drawn into every sentence. Eve's grandmother and her daughter are wonderfully painted, with distinct and lovable qualities and I hated to come to the end of the novel. The story has humor, anguish, and tension -- a combination that doesn't often occur successfully in modern literature.

I had a friend recommend this book to me, so I looked into it as I usually read a book a week while on the train to and from work. It was really entertaining! I actually kept reading it even after getting home, which I rarely do since I read to keep my self entertained on the train and thus try to save the book for that time. I really couldn't put this down though. I'd recommend it to someone who wants a good story that brings them through the everyday mind spinning chaos of life, but at the end leaves them feeling good about being alive and being human (with all our of our own deficiencies and beauty) in this world.

I really enjoyed this and would definitely say it's worth checking out.

Picked up Home Repair while waiting on line at my local bookstore and couldn't put it down. I kept letting people go ahead of me until finally I crept over to the coffee area. I read about 50 pages when my phone vibrated in my pocket and my wife asked me what was going on. (She loved it too.) Smart, funny, beautifully written and full of surprises. Best Book I've read this year.

This novel is about a woman's attempts to deal with her life after her husband unexpectedly deserts her and her children. As if dealing with the loss of a husband for the second time isn't enough (her first husband was in a fatal car accident), she also has to deal with an aging mother, problems with her job, her love life, her children and even money matters. As I read this novel, I kept wondering how much more poor Eve could handle.

My heart definitely went out to Eve, and she really was just a trooper despite all the "bad" things that happened to her along the way. I really liked her (and her family), but for some reason, I just didn't feel a connection with the characters in this story. I was very much bothered by my reaction to this book because I felt like I should felt something more. As I reflected on this novel, I think my problem is that I have led a very blessed life -- I guess that's not really a problem, is it? This book reflected some painful life experiences that I just couldn't relate to (thank goodness), and I think I was unable to make that connection to the characters. I have a feeling that I'm going to be in the minority with these feelings -- many readers are going to love Eve and see pieces of themselves in her character.

I did like Eve and think she was a remarkably strong woman. I can't imagine losing a husband and being left with a small child; however, my sympathy kind of dried up when her second husband left her because he was such an immature and selfish man. I know that women make bad relationship choices all the time, but I felt like she and her kids were better off on their own. I also felt bad about Eve having to deal with her mother's aging all by herself. My grandmother recently broke some bones in a fall and had to be admitted to a nursing home so I realize how difficult that can be for everyone involved.

What I really liked about this book were the messages that I could take away from it. To me, this book was really about life -- both the good and the bad, and the ups and the downs (although there seemed to be a lot of "bad" and "downs" for poor Eve.) I think Ms. Rosenberg showed the readers that change does occur in each of our lives whether we want it to or not -- stuff happens, people die, and life must go on. What happened to Eve in HOME REPAIR and how she handled it shows that life is full of both joys and sadness, and we can only control how we can deal with these things.

This book would make a very interesting book club discussion book. I wasn't able to find a reader's guide, but I think you could easily come up with some fantastic questions on your own. There are just so many universal themes about life that most everyone will relate to. I would love to spend an evening with my friends talking about the changes that occur in our lives and how we all cope with them. I also think there are some other interesting themes such as grief, friendships, parent/child relationships, guilt, and self confidence that will make for an exciting meeting.

When I read a paragraph like

Summer stepped out of its pale yellow dress into its brightest attire. Lights shimmered and shone on the commonest things--red stoplights, plastic lawn chairs, the last roses, making them leap painfully, jabbing at her in unfamiliar colors; sulfur yellows and vivid reds...

It makes it clear to me that this book was written by a poet.

Home Repair, Liz Rosenberg's novel, is a book I started midday, thinking I would dip into at a leisurely pace. After a couple of chapters, life beckoned and I had to put it down. That night, at 3:00 A.M., I was wide awake wondering just how all these lovable, wacky, real characters were faring. I couldn't put the book down again until all reports were in.
There's such artistry here. The plot zigzags with second act surprises and laugh-out-loud dialogue. No other novel I have read in the last few years translates the absurd chaos of day-to-day living with such lyricism and freshness. Minor characters, well drawn and vivid, pile one upon another, almost like a Chinese fire drill, all good medicine in their own wacky ways.
This book explores heartbreak and resilience. After her husband walks out on her at a garage sale, Eve, the main character, is left trying to figure out how to proceed. Her heart's hollowed out - not just by husbands who disappear, but by the fabric of life itself, and all the awful changes that come unbidden - but who has time? There are children to care for, co-workers with unfinished projects, strangers with odd requests ringing doorbells, dogs begging for walks...
In this novel things get better, raucous even, in the process of one foot in the front of the other, just hanging in there. Rosenberg gets the push-pull just right of loving teenagers who drive you wild and mothers who forget you've grown up. By the last page, we are virtually convinced that whatever healing we might need from life's tragedies is available to us just around the corner, right where we live, perhaps in a place as unlikely as Rec Park or Emerald Gardens.
You will love this book. It's tender, funny and true as the best fiction often is.

A very funny, sad, and real book. The characters Rosenberg uses are very familiar but also very unique. Certain scenes and images will stay in my mind for a very long time.

I don't want to give anything away but if you don't like predictable books, pick this one up. It's a fun read and helps you see from a different perspective.

One of the most interesting things about this book is the depiction of the neighborhood--verging at some places on the edge of decrepitude but insulated and almost cozy, a place where friends appear out of the night and vault onto your porch, where a park is nearby, where people make all sorts of lives. Eve--at its center--is its warm and endearing heart.

A terrific read!

Beneath the heartache and the warring currents of grief beats a sense of joy that can not be quashed. The squabbling, life-embracing characters of HOME REPAIR can not help but be generous with one another: giving each other bird seed and counsel, being kind even when it hurts. And the mother is a pieceawork! It's wonderful when an author loves her world as much as Liz Rosenberg loves hers; we leave it larger than when we entered. A charming and compelling read.

This is one of those that just draw you in and you can't put it down.
The style: the way it flows, how care is taken to capture the nuances and closeness of the family - their talk, the way they listen and generally respond to one another - in this way it reminded me of Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. It's an animal of its own though, a little wild in that you don't know which way its going to go next. And it does not disappoint. I would recommend this book to anyone that has been waiting for a fresh, readable and unpredictable story.