Customer Reviews

Homecoming

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been an admirer of Belva Plain for many years - her novels are like watching a Sunday television movie on a snowy afternoon. However, her latest effort, "Homecoming" is a disappointment. The story is stereotypical and trite: A well-to-do matriarch gathers her troubled family together at her country estate for a homecoming in hopes all will resolve their family difficulties which include a troubled marriage and a rivalry between 2 brothers. A tragedy occurs at the home which brings everyone closer together and, like magic, by the end all have resolved their differences. It is all very neat and clean and, quite frankly, a bit of a disappointment. "Homecoming" is a small novel, almost a short story - still, I wish the characters were more developed and that their lives contained more than the usual "baggage" we all are used to reading about. The book is easy to read and can be finished in a few hours and, yes, it is enjoyable to read. I just wish this book would have been more interesting and not so contrived. I will continue to read Belva Plain and will await her next work which, hopefully, will be a more in-depth novel for, as I said before, I like to nest on a Sunday afternoon and sink myself in a comforting and soothing story.

First, I'm shocked that this book got any negative reviews. Had I read those reviews before I picked up this book I probably wouldn't have read it, and that would have been quite a shame.

This is a heart-wrenching tale of a family of adult children who are at war with each other. That war was brought on by tragedy. These were all good people who just couldn't seem to connect anymore. Hence the matriarch of the family, Annette Byrne, engineers a plan to bring all those family members together to help mend the giant divide that separates them.

This book was well written, well plotted, told from each family member's point of view, and a very satisfying story. This book was definitely worth my time, and I assure you that it is worth yours.

Is this the same author who wrote the literary gem "Evergreen"? If I wouldn't have seen Belva Plain's name on the cover flap, then I wouldn't have believed that the such an established author could produce such a trite, unimaginative, immature piece. Dare I call it literature. Quality is so much more important than quantity and I would suggest that instead of producing the "annual-quota" of fiction, Ms. Plain hibernate with her thoughts so as to present a better storyline. This was truly disappointing.

Plain was not at her best with this novel. The events are predictable, and the sugary-sweet ending is less than realistic. Plain has many better books to choose from. This one is pure cotton candy. Fans of Plain will read it, but with some disappointment.

I received this book in a compilation of four works in a book of the month type club. This is the ONLY reason I read this book. I mistook it for a short story initially. I've never read the author before, but this book is amateurish at best. Simplistic, short, disappointing. The concept may have been promising, had everything not turned out happily ever after. Way too many long-term, complex problems solved in a day to even be considered minutely believable.

This is the story of an 85-yr-old woman who feels that she must do something to bring the family back together. Like most of us, she is lonely with her two sons so far away and the devoted, loving husband now dead. It is a story of healing, love and forgiveness -- something my family needs badly.

As she writes her invitations of the last Homecoming, she says to herself, "I don't feel different from the way I felt when I was twenty. I only look different."

As e-mail is the way to communicate these days, there is still nothing as satisfying as to send and receive a well-written letter. Annette Byrne did such that December as she looked out at all of the Christmas trees they had planted. She had a special place with loving care to maintain it over the years -- it was a showplace.

Now, she has invited the brothers who had a falling out, embittered by a breach of ethics, honor, and trust. Those things happen in the best of families when a parent dies and the will favors one over the other. There are two grandchildren invited who are estranged from their families and the 'get-together' will do them good.

It is a touching story, as so many of Belva Plain's novel have been over the years. I especially enjoyed THE CAROUSEL and EVERGREEN.

I've read many of Plain's works, but I just found this one to be not well developed. Of course an incident always brings people together. That's just par for the course. This book read like one of Danielle Steels newer ones (The ones that have fallen in quality). You're better off reading another Plain book.

Although this book is very well written, I didn't find it to be very believable. It would be nice if things like this worked out in real life but, as a rule, they generally do not. However, I did enjoy reading this book and I will be reading more books by Belva Plain. We all can use alittle fantasy in our lives to relieve the stress and tentions of the day.

This was the most trite, cliche, and predictable book I've had the displeasure to read in a long time. I stayed with it just to finish for my book club, but I'm mad to have spent $7 for a double-spaced silly, happily-ever-after soap opera. I will not be so foolish with her book(s) next time (if there is one for me!).

Remembering which characters were which made reading this book a bit tedious. The only characters that were remotely developed where Cynthia and Andrew and the tragedy of losing their twin children. My question after reading about the near drowning of Lucy is why didn't anyone go to the hospital? It was a disappointing fairy tale of a meddling wealthy grandmother, her piggish, stubborn children, and alas from these children we have their equally rediculous offspring.