Customer Reviews

The Life Before Her Eyes

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was totally blown away by this book! My local book club chose The Life Before Her Eyes for our monthly selection, and I can't wait to discuss it with everyone. The writing was pure poetry, and the story captivated me from the very beginning. And the ending was one that I did not expect.

The Life Before Her Eyes begins with two best friends, Diana and Maureen, as they are primping in the girls' restroom at their high school. Suddenly, one of their classmates comes in and points a loaded gun straight at them. "Which one of you should I kill?" he asks....

At that point, the story takes off around 25 years into the future. Diana is a happily married artist and mother of 8-year-old Emma. She is the typical minivan-driving soccer mom. Everything is going well, but then there begins these subtle changes -- changes almost of a ghostly nature that impact Diana's life in terrifying ways. And interspersed between the paragraphs of Diana's future are excerpts from Diana's past with her friend, Maureen, before the shooting.

I was completely mesmerized with this book. I felt that something was building up, some sort of surprise or twist to the story, but I could quite figure out what it would be. And by novel's end, I was so out of breath with the anticipation! Laura Kasischke has written an amazing novel. She has a great gift of storytelling that is unshakeable. I loved every minute and every word, and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Personally, I found this novel very entertaining and thought provoking. It was also one of the novels assigned in my Enlish Literature class last semester.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
To all that are unsure of the ending. My professor knows the author, and Kasischke even came to a couple of her lectures and spoke. Diana was actually shot in the girls room at the same time Maureen was. Diana's entire "future" never happened. Notice how her future was very close to the "perfect" life: a pet, a great husband, children, a big house in a safe community, etc. It was one big slow motion that took place between the gunshot and Diana's actual death in the girls room. The publisher of Kasischke's novel wanted a happy ending where one of the main characters survived. This forced Kasischke to be very ambiguous with the final chapter.

Okay - so most people who pick this book up and read the dust jacket might think 1 of 2 things: a) this book is about schools shootings and violence, it's a commentary on current social problems or b)this book is about being face with a terrible choice and the consequences of that choice later in our life. In actuality this book is not about either of those things.
I liked the way the author wrote this book - it is engaging and thought provoking. It takes some getting used to, the switching between 40 yr old Diana and Teen Diana. After a while, if your really paying attention, you start to notice that things in 40 yr old Diana's life are mirroring things in Teen Diana's life, in a way that shouldn't be. For example: her neighbor's act, look and are named the same as a young girl (Sandy Ellsworth) who went with her to highschool but in 40 yr old Diana's world they are young teenagers and she is confused (she at first had thought her neighbors were older, childless, stuffy). Then other things start to show something is wrong: The story she sends to school with her daughter, her cat showing up again, the headaches, etc...
At least a 1/4 of the way through the book I was thinking, okay so 40 yr old Diana has repressed this memory of the highschool shooter in the bathroom and her friend. But then 1/2-3/4 of the way through the book I changed my mind - something else was going on (being a big Stephen King fan it seemed obvious to me at this point). It appeared to me at this point that Diana had not only repressed that shooting memory but was possibly also making up a lot of stuff about her current life. I was wondering if her husband or daughter were even real or was she trying to not face the reality of being 40 plus the shooting? It was a bit confusing to say the least but I stuck with it because it was still holding my interest.
Then the ending: what in the world? I thought it over and then I thought that maybe what was going on was that Diana had been shot and the whole book was the dream of a coma patient. So then I came on here, read through the reviews and found one that confirmed my theory about the shooting part. One of the reviewers speaks of some information given by the author of the book that both girls are shot in the bathroom. The story is supposedly what happens as Diana looks in the mirror, contemplates her life, the possible future she might have had all in the few seconds before she is shot. After knowing this and reading the ending I think what happens is that Diana is shot, but not dead. She is taken to a hospital, is in a coma. Hears things, possibly sees things and these are incorporated into this dream/story sequence. The ending though makes me think that she does die or is taken off of life support and then dies. I think it is left ambiguous like that because while I think this is all interesting I don't think that this is the point of the book.
I think the point of the book is summed up in a sentence towards the end: "That's the miracle....the real miracle...all the goodness all our lives..." I think the author is talking about how in our culture some people are constantly worrying about evil and eradicating the presence of evil and totally forgetting about the blessing of goodness in their lives. The simple miracle of being alive, eating and breathing and going about our routine lives. The author points out in the story how the evil was present in the girls world this whole time (in the form of Michael Patrick) but how in the world were they supposed to know this? They couldn't know it, and as Sister Beatrice in the book says "Often there's no explanation for evil and no way to locate its source." So I think the book is pointing out how we should be thankful for what we have - these simple moments, even the ones we think are boring because we never know when or where something might happen to take that miracle of life away from us and leave us with only an imagined future - imagined by others or imagined by ourselves in those seconds before we die.

I read this book in 2 days. I was mezmorized by it, depressed by it, confused by it... the list could go on. The lyric tone of the book was haunting and sad. Kasischke keeps your mind uncomfortably alert, forcing you to try and make sense of the truth of the story she is telling and not telling. She tickles you with small pieces that seem not to fit and force you to question every sentence you read. I was particulary aware after reading the book of the formatting that occurred between the two voices. As the voices switch back and forth in the book I noticed that the opening sentences of Diana the 40yr old were all capped, as if shouting at you - or at the younger Diana screaming for her or us to listen. The opening sentences of Diana the girl were lower cased and italicized, as if sluggish and dreamlike and not until the end of the book do you understand. Kasischke skillfully crafts the quickening meter of the book as the voices seem to tumble over each other racing toward the end, racing to the truth. This book is a good exercise for those readers who are looking for something different, something to wake up their reading skills. I am anxious to read my next book to see how this experience challenges and changes my next.

The prose of this book was so lyrical I found myself reading some pages twice just too enjoy the language. This is a truly engaging book which makes us step back and examine our lives and the way in which we live. How our past shapes our future and how our 'present' is just that ... a gift!

I read this book after I read the review in the New York times. I won't get into the plot here as others already have. I do not read poetry, so I was surprised to enjoy this book so much. It has been my experience that most poets do not write prose well, especially novels. Ms. Kasischke is an exception to that rule. I did not like the main character of Diana at all. But I don't think that Ms. Kasischke wants you to sympathize with Diana; that's part of what makes this book so good. Diana is a totally unsympathetic, unlikeable character, but you can't wait to see what happens. The first chapter would stand alone as a great short story. Read it and you will be hooked. I've recommended this book to several people already and I recommend it to you. Read this book. Tell other people about it. You will agree with me that Laura Kasischke is an incredibly talented writer.

A carefully written and timely story about a woman who was involved in a school shooting during her senior year, _The Life Before Her Eyes_ was both a quick read and difficult to put down. At the beginning of the book, the reader is introduced to a pair of best friends primping in the mirror when gunshots ring out. Just as they begin to realize they are in danger, the shooter --a boy from their biology class-- walks into the bathroom. Reminiscent of some of the stories to come out of the Columbine tragedy, the girls' classmate asks them which one he should kill. The rest of the book flows from that moment in both flashbacks and in the present day, when the girl who tells the shooter she wants to live is a grown woman. The book ends with a poetic twist, but most astute readers will not find it entirely surprising. A very enjoyable and well written book.

Diana McPhee, a high-schooler, is in the bathroom with her best friend when a boy carrying a gun comes in and tells them that he will kill one of them. Which one will it be? Diana begs for her life, and the book immediately shifts to grown-up Diana's world. She's happy, married to a wonderful man and mother to a wonderful daughter, until it all starts to fall to pieces. The book travels in time constantly, shifting from young Diana's perspective to older Diana's view.

The author uses gorgeous, lovely imagery to express the sheer pleasure and pain of growing up and then simply living and being happy. You really start to care for Diana and her friend who died. They are like all the teenagers we used to be. A wonderful, beautiful book that appreciates how much just being alive means

I picked this up at a writers conference, and I couldn't put it down till I was done. I thought the writing was gorgeous and the overall premise was brilliant and beautifully executed. If you want a novel that tickles both your mind and your aesthetic sensibilities, this is it.

This is a troubling book. What is it saying about reality? I stayed up worrying about that half the night after I finished it. Do we ever really live our lives? Is this whole thing a vision? Am I here, or am I a girl with bullet in her brain?

Laura Kasichke, in all of her novels, makes the world seem very exotic. You can't eat a hamburger after reading one of her books without feeling like something BIG and WEIRD is going on...

No surprise she's a poet. A truly brilliant book.