If I Told You Once [Paperback]

Judy Budnitz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Picador Usa (1999)
• ASIN: B002MN2NNA
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant commentary on womanhood, January 17, 2000

By 

Heather McGee (Chatsworth, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If I Told You Once (Hardcover)

Judy Budnitz's imagination is wild enough to be exciting but restrained enough to stay focused on the matter at hand. In _If I Told You Once_, she tackles womanhood, adeptly and with amazing insight. Though the characters are harsh and conflicted, both internally and in relationship, their voices are crisp and honest and unapologetically eccentric.

I look forward to Ms. Budnitz's long and fruitful literary career. It's going to be a good one.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good book, but, January 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: If I Told You Once (Hardcover)

I was somewhat disappointed in it, after the stellar heights Flying Leap reached. The magical fairy tale elements were fun and sometimes riveting, especially in the beginning, but the overall telling, the voices employed - for me grew curiously flat over the length of the novel, and seemed somewhat indistinguisable from one another. That weakness in voice was the main drawback - the deadpan delivery often comes up short on reflection and internalization, and finally rendered the story predictable, despite clever plot twists. Reading the stories of Flying Leap, I was constantly startled and amazed by the richness of invention, and here, I was engaged and surprised, but only sporadically, and never to the degree that the short stories acheived. I still enjoyed the book, I just wasn't transported.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: If I Told You Once (Hardcover)

IF I TOLD YOU ONCE is a genius work of pure imagination, seamlessly fusing the old world and the new in a stirring epic chronicling three generations of women. Utterly haunting, poignant, and unforgettable.