Customer Reviews

Hunger

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

 

 

The main character in Jane Ward's HUNGER, Anna Rossi, understands the sensuous nature of food as well as the nourishing properties of love. With lovely and adroit prose, the author serves us a compelling story of a woman in her early thirties assessing her life with a sometimes frightening dose of honesty. Her work as a food chemist and chef-in-training provides insight into all arenas of her life. An engrossing novel, it left me craving for more wonderful literature like this.

I am an avid readier and I was enthralled with this book. I was unable to put it down once I started reading it. "Hunger" completely captured my attention from the start. Anna Rossi, the title character was so interesting, so human. She came alive through the pages of this book. I felt that she was a friend that I wanted to talk to and offer support. I could relate to her conflict and her struggles. I envied the fact that she could pour herself into her cooking and that it was theraputic for her and such a gift to others.

I became emotionally involved in the story. I became Anna's cheerleader and wanted to see her succeed. I was angry with Michael and I could not grasp his way of dealing with everything.

I would highly recommend this novel to anyone that enjoys a great story that wraps itself around you from the start to the finish. Bottom-line this novel feeds your body and your soul.

Besides being simply entertaining, Hunger will make you experience every emotion. You can FEEL the characters' sadness, their anger, their desire and passion. You will at times feel sympathy for Anna and then at other times want to wring her neck!! leaving you starving for the ending and her final decision about Michael and James.....

All Anna Rossi ever wanted from life was not to repeat her parents' bland inanimate existence. She thought when she married Michael that she found everything with him and through her love of cooking. However, after a few blissful years together, Anna finds herself in that same rut of her childhood that still haunts her today. Trying to put some flavor back into her marriage, Anna persuades Michael to go on vacation, but that only substantiates that they have nothing in common except a six-year-old child.

Deciding to start fresh, Anna leaves Michael to accept a job as a cooking assistant. She soon has an affair with her chef-boss even as Michael pleadingly asks her to return to him in his letters. Confused, Anna finally must decide between Michael and cooking even as her mother suffers a debilitating stroke, making her decision much easier to accept.

HUNGER is an adult coming of age tale starring a frustrated and bewildered individual seeking happiness and solace in life. Readers will react to the demoralized Anna with mixed feelings as they will sympathize with a great to say you are finally getting a life vs. wanting to shout to her to be an adult already. Though Anna over-muses at times, Jane Ward has written a tale that will provide much enjoyment to those readers who relish an intriguing personal crisis.

Harriet Klausner

I found this book in the recycled books bin at our local library. I believe the title of my review says it all.

Although this is a little known book, I felt compelled to write a review on amazon.com after reading the other six reviews. There can only be one explanation for the previous six "5 Star" reviews; the reviewers are friends/family of the author. It is also worth mentioning that it's obvious that at least one reviewer didn't read the book yet was still able to give glowing praise. That made me laugh out loud.

There is nothing to love about this book. The story line is too weak and the characters too one dimensional to make up for the awkward and rather pompous sounding style of writing the author chooses to employ. It is absolutely impossible to relate to any of the characters much less LIKE them.

What did I do with the book when I was finished? I did the world a favor and put it in my recycle bin at the curb on garbage day. Now, if I could just get my hands on that person who left it at the library.

"Hunger" is not worth the one penny plus cost of shipping one would need to purchase this book used on amazon.com. Additionally, it is definitely not worthy of your time.

Author Jane Ward tracks a path we are all too familiar with - the end of an ill-advised marriage, the hardship of personal renewal, growth in spite of obstacles, fears faced head on or avoided. So many of us hide from one hunger (for love, for purpose) by feeding another. Too often the result is gaining weight, feeling guilty, feeding ourselves even more. But food doesn't have to be our enemy. It can feed our souls and heal our bodies and minds. This relationship to food, to people and to life is intimately explored in Hunger. As a Weight Watchers leader, I encourage those who fight with food to see how the flavors, aromas and textures of sustenance can be positive friends as we progress from stage to stage of our lives.

A superb novel that mixes the quest for 'the perfect meal' with the quest for 'the perfect life.' You can try for both but the journey not the end is it's own reward. Thought provoking and entertaining. Must read.