Customer Reviews

The Nine Lives of Clemenza

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a bright, original idea! Well written, thought provoking. Elicits a wide range of emotions. Makes you want to meet Clemenza. Holly Christine is a smart, new author. Can't wait to read her next book!

I could not put down this book. What an awesome feel good story. Holly Christine paints the most awesome pictures with her words. I felt like I could visualize each scene in the book. I couldn't wait to see what Clemenza would choose next. If you need a good pick me up, feel good, warm all over book, this is a must read.

Holley Christine's, The Nine Lives of Clemenza, found a unique place on a shelve of my literary library. I've never read anything like it. I plan to read it to my grandson as soon as he's lost enough energy to sit still.

It's difficult to write this review without giving away too much at the heart of this creative, heartwarming story. So, I'll be heaping a little praise on the author and hope that inspires you to get the book and read it, especially if you have children. Nonetheless, a really good children's book is also a really good adult read.

At the heart of the story is a little ball of energy--what we would think of as a soul--that must inhabit nine lives before gaining entry into a retirement community in Heaven or be lucky enough to become an angel. Clemenza's world postulates that Heaven is a life-affirming concept where God is unlike the one we learn about in church or bible school. Each of us has an advisory connection to God and he allows us the choice to direct our journey's itinerary. He's a sort of God as tour guide who becomes a mentor as Clemenza attains greater awareness and sophistication.

Choice becomes a key ingredient in this morality tale, and like all of us, Clemeza makes good choices and bad choices. Furthermore, she must learn from her mistakes or fail, just like the rest of us.

The beauty of the story is that we love Clemenza in all of her incarnations because we know she is trying hard to be good. Even during lives in which she is selfish, inconsiderate, and angry, she learns to make amends for them and we see her true, pure, and loving character.

Clemenza takes the form of unexpected aspects of the physical universe. Could one predict coming back as the wind or a molecule? We think of reincarnation as a soul's habitation of an animal, insect or human body, but a tumor? These clever incarnations allow us to see the world in a way we've never experienced. It gives me something to share with my grandson and fills me with joyful anticipation.

An artist, whether painter, sculptor, poet, or musician, desires to create something from their soul or find some truth in the souls of others. Aristotle once said that the aim of art is not to show the outward appearance of things, but to reveal their inward significance. Once in a while an author comes along and creates something new. Holly Christine has found something inside of her heart--her Clemenza--and has brought it to us in the form of a little ball of energy, a lovable little metamorphosing soul. It's deceptively simple story drew me in and reminded me of the power of art, of the power in seeing the world differently.

Read this book.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. I thought it was well written and very well thought out. I truly loved the idea of the book itself, very innovative. It was so good in fact that I found myself contemplating it while not reading the book (the sign of a good book to me).

The only complaints I have of the book is that sometimes Clemenza would say things that seemed beyond what she would know,say something like it "reminded her of such and such" but she really wouldn't know what such and such was. Threw me out of the book a bit. I also felt the ending could have been stronger, though it was well written, it fell short of the superior thoughts, ideas, and writing of the rest of the book.

I would highly recommend this book, it is a quick read at about 1400 kindle locations, but it will really get the wheels turning in your head!!

Rachel

This book fulfilled my wish to read something short and uplifting. Holly Christine was able to successfully craft a world from an optimist's point of view. There is pain and sadness, but Clemenza is a selfless and good person who just wants to make a difference. I read this on my kindle, and I'm thinking of purchasing it as a paperback to have when I want a pick me up. I really enjoyed the connections with other souls and the ability Clemenza has to choose to put other's needs ahead of her. She is truly a heroine to emulate.

This is an existential approach to spirituality and life. "Clemenza" elicits a wide range of emotions in her nine lives--a very thought-provoking novel unlike any others I have read. I would recommend it highly. I look forward to the next novel by Holly Christine

I liked this story very much, it was uplifting and made you think. There could have been a tad bit more character development in each of the nine lives, but other than that, I enjoyed this book.

This book was sweet and thought-provoking. This is a book that will stay with me for years to come and make me think about life and how people fulfill their purpose. It really made me imagine what life forms I would like to be were I in Clemenza's shoes. I love the creative lives the author imagined for the character. I liked the naive character and watching her growth as a soul. I liked the interesting lifetimes she lived and how they all connected. I wish the end had a little more depth to it--I felt like it wrapped up too quickly. Also there were several typos (breathe/breath) that I noticed.

This book did hold my interest, though it dragged a bit in places. I definitely couldn't stop reading because I wanted the payoff at the end. And, payoff was received, for the most part.

I did feel that more explanation of each life could have been given at the end from God's viewpoint. But, it was still very good.

I did take off a couple of stars for what I felt were discrepancies in the telling. There were times that I felt that Clemenza "knew too much."

The book was told from Clemenza's viewpoint, for the most point. But there was a lot of background thrown in on "co-characters" that Clemenza had no way of knowing. This background should have been 'shown' to Clemenza either through dialogue or actions instead of the reader being lectured on it.

The Nine Lives of Clemenza is a spiritual novel about Clemenza who begins life as a ball of energy before entering her first life on earth as air. At the end of each life she returns to heaven having learned a moral lesson. Then, she's off to her next.

Holly Christine is easily one of the most original writers I've read. Her latest novel Tuesday Tells it Slant operates from the premise that the day of the week "Tuesday" has her own story to tell.

Add to this recipe an impish sense of humor, a pinch of feminine wiles, and a dollop of humanity and compassion, and you've pretty much got the ingredients for a very fine wine indeed.

If there's one thing I'd love to see Holly continue to develop in her writing is a sense of dramatic conflict. There's really no antagonist for Clemenza to overcome, and I think I would be even more invested in Holly's story if I knew what her protagonists had to lose (or gain) and who stood in their way.

Overall though, I totally recommend The Nine Lives of Clemenza to anyone looking for a good story... and particularly if you're bored by cookie-cutter formulaic plots. Holly Christine is an American original, with a style reminiscent of writers like David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, and yes, Kafka.

Rock on, Holly Christine. Keep the stories coming.