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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FICTION DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!, September 6, 2000
As someone who reads in excess of 80 books a year, I encounter a lot of bad novels. Even in books that are otherwise enjoyable, there are usually a few badly worded phrases or character anomalies that stop me cold. Paula Sharp's new novel "I Loved You All" has none of those errors. It is FLAWLESS. Step into the mind of Sharp's narrator Penny and I defy you to want to leave. Penny is sharp, quick-witted and observant in the tradition of Scout Finch. Her mother, Marguerite, a widow, is spiraling down into alcohol addiction. Penny has an older sister, Mahalia,who becomes friends with the a fervently religious neighbor named Isabel Flood. The neighbor disdains everything from the use of the word 'Jeez' to television and Penny loathes her. But, in Isabel Flood, Mahalia finds the mother she so sorely missed with Marguerite. When Marguerite is forced into residential treatment for her alcoholism, the children are sent to live with Isabel with terrible results for Penny. Reviewers are classifying this as an abortion book, which is a shame. With the exception of a few mentions early on, abortion rarely even enters the book until more than halfway through. It is first and foremost the story of a family, the most lovable family, incidentally, in modern fiction, set against the backdrop (yes) of the abortion debate in the late seventies. Paula Sharp definitely owes something to Harper Lee in her sharp characterizations of spirited Southern tomboys (no matter where they live at the moment) and the way that family loyalties are affected by political issues. The characters are true, the plot flows smoothly (albeit too quickly--this is a book you don't want to end) and the "moral" (such as it is) is there, without overstepping the bounds into preachiness. Whatever your beliefs about abortion, this is a book not to be missed. It is smart, kind and above all, loving in its handling of every type of person and problem. Thoroughly enjoyable, Paula Sharp gives the best of what popular fiction has to offer and a book that anyone who loved "To Kill A Mockingbird" should not miss.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great characters & brilliantly funny., October 4, 2000
By A Customer
This is the first book I've read in a while that I longed to return to whenever I had to stop reading. Where to begin? First of all, the characters are great -- you wish you knew all of them personally. Secondly, the book is gripping -- it pulls you along with its comedy and drama and suspense. Third, I realized as I read this novel how rare it is nowadays to find a literary novel that tackles an important, controversial political topic like abortion politics. What a brave thing for a writer to do! Clearly, it would be impossible to write about this subject and please everybody, but I suspect that a very broad spectrum of people could enjoy this book. The treatment of the right-to-life debate in this book is brilliant, funny and balanced. I suspect only the most close-minded people could be offended by this book's handling of the underlying political controversies. Although I'd guess the writer is pro-choice, her portrayal of the main, right-to-life character, Isabel Flood, is affectionate and endearing, and insightful. She lets every character have his or her say on the issue, whether it's an evangelical minister or a muckraking journalist, and she shows believably that every character's political choices are motivated and driven by their own personality quirks. Perhaps that's the best thing about this book -- that even though it centers around a difficult issue, the issue is always secondary to the characters, who will stay with you for a long time. They include, among others, the anti-social but kind right-to-lifer Isabel Flood, the open-hearted and vivacious Marguerite Daigle and her parole officer boyfriend, the hyperactive troublemaking eight-year-old Penny and her rebellious older sister, and their hilarious uncle F.X., an unemployed journalist who loves provoking Isabel, and who brightens the page whenever he walks on. When I put this book down, what struck me most of all is that this book is completely original -- no one writes like Paula Sharp.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reading Groups Will Love This Book!, October 14, 2000
I loved Paula Sharp's Crows over a Wheatfield -- it was so gripping, and so fearless in the way it delved into a controversial topic, and it had the kind of characters you're sorry to say good-bye to at the end of a novel. I Loved You All has those same qualities, but it's a completely different kind of book. While Crows over a Wheatfield was mostly serious (about domestic violence), this new novel is more like Sharp's earlier works, The Woman Who Was Not All There and Lost in Jersey City. It's laugh-out-loud funny, even though it's about a pretty heavy subject -- abortion politics. I think Paula Sharp's ability to build characters is phenomenal -- when I read this book, sometimes I felt like the characters were more real than me! To begin with, there's Marguerite Daigle, a hard-drinking single parent transplanted from Louisiana to a bleak town in New York where everyone is apparently employed by the local prison or in it. There's her parole officer boyfriend who entertains her children by telling them stories about criminals. There's Marguerite's 8-year-old daughter Penny, a free spirit who knows no bounds -- who, for example, injures herself by riding a bicycle along the top of an eight-foot wall, and whose teacher tells her she's missing the piece people call a "conscience." Penny's 15-year-old sister is furious at her mother and so walks right into the arms of -- who else? A flaming, fanatical right-to-lifer with an agenda of her own. And of all the characters, the right-to-lifer Isabel Flood is the best. She's vivid and well-rounded and entertaining. Even if your politics diverge from hers, you admire her for her energy and uniqueness, and come to accept her on her own terms. Even though this is a very funny book, I found it also made me think a little more deeply about right-to-life politics. The novel shows what happens when someone who is fundamentally religious finds her religious beliefs compromised by people within her own movement who have a political agenda that is clearly not godly. The novel also shows how someone who is not a violent right-to-lifer might be led to violence inadvertently by associating herself with the wrong people. There are very few literary writers in America today who tackle these hard political subjects. We're lucky to have a writer like Paula Sharp doing it. This novel is great! I Loved You All is also a perfect Reading Group novel, both because it's beautifully written and because the way it handles the controversial topic of abortion is fresh and interesting.
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