Customer Reviews

The Ladies' Lending Library: A Novel

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

 

 

This book is fascinating. It's definitely "chick lit"--lots of interactions between women but also interactions between families (parents and kids and siblings and cousins and friends...). There's a few major themes but it's one of the tertiary stories that will move you and make you think. It's set among several Ukranian immigrants that live for the summer in cottages along a fictional lake in Ontario. Much of the action is related to the last two weeks of summer. You can definitely picture the women and kids and all that is going on. The cover photo is misleading--I don't think it's supposed to be the 39 year old main protagonist...and it doesn't really fit her 16 year old mother's helper (who is always in a bikini) either. If you want a haunting beach read and you're a little interested in immigrant stories in 60's Canada then this is the book.

Having grown up in the 60's I wanted to like this book; but found it to be very confusing and boring to read. There were too many characters, and very little story. Consequently, I thought it was difficult to keep people straight much less get interested in any of them. Maybe it would have made sense if I could have stuck it out to the end, but I finally gave up reading half way through! I am sorry I bought this one. My advice is if it sounds good and you think you want to try it--get it from the library!

I picked up this book back in the Spring of this year, shortly after it hit bookshelves. However, I didn't start reading it until mid-November, considering that I had other books to still read. However, by the first few pages, I was anything, but impressed. The novel lacked an actual plot, and you truly felt like the story was going nowhere. It was filled with different points of views of the many female characters, and I found myself becoming lost, confused, though most of all, impatient. Soon after, I put the book down, and never looked back. The book absolutely bored me to tears. However, I do give credit to the fact that the stories were incredibly detailed, and well-written, but sadly, there didn't seem like there was much of a point to them. When I first got the book, I knew it took place in the 1960's, which is a decade I am very fasinated by, and I hoped to see what life was like back then. I didn't see much of a difference, though.

I had great hopes for the book, based on the cover photo and title, the back-of-the-book blurb. But the pace is slow and draggy, there are too many point-of-view characters who are difficult to keep separated in my mind, and it's DEPRESSING! None of these women are the tiniest bit happy. I realize you need problems for conflict, but EVERY woman in the group is depressed, unhappy, out of love with her husband, and not too crazy about her own children. Good grief! Have at least ONE of them content, eh? Just for the sake of variety? I had to push myself to read as far as page 87 and now I just can't devote any more time to it. There are too many GOOD books out there, people I want to read about, places I want to be. My $14 wasted. Sorry. I don't like giving negative reviews, but this is one dark gray novel.