Customer Reviews

Off Keck Road: A Novella

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Enjoyed is perhaps not strong enough. But let's just say that I finished the book at 4:45 pm and now it's 5:08 and I'm online typing the review. There are a few small problems - at first I couldn't keep the characters straight and towards the end the book dawdles a little. But what strikes me is that this is the kind of book I really really like but never seem to be able to find. Few writers are interested in the ordinary lives of people and few writers have the ability to write about them in a way that makes them interesting. She writes well and that makes the book move.

Mona Simpson is one of the few authors I have read who say more by what they leave out than what they include. Bea, the center of this tale, makes a pass at a priest. This pass is depicted in two sentences. The rest is a blank page. There's an exquisite sulleness in the silence of this book. It's probably too praising to say that, as the book cover exclaims, Simpson is "the voice of her generation." But she certainly is the voice of her region--the upper midwest, where nothing much exciting happens, but the human spirit is no less stifled, tortured, starved, challenged. Simpson's description of Green Bay rivals in poignancy Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway's ponderings of Trifalgar Square, and the surrounding urban London land/mindscapes. It could be considered a deficiency that Simpson never allows a moment to grow, or a character to take root in the reader's mind like Woolf or Faulkner so effectively do through their sweeping prose. Simpson doesn't want to be a poet. She tells the story in a straight, dry, yet no less powerful way, mimicking the dry lives of those characters who float in and out of her terse chapters. I was fooled a bit by her Reader's Digest style of writing; it wasn't until about page one hundred that I realized Simpson could delve deep without appearing to do so. Her writing is deceptively simple. But she didnt have to wait until page one hundred to cease holding out on me. I agree with the other reviewer who said that the writing was good but nothing special. For the most part, it doesnt compare to the classics. Its style prevents that. But Simpson does delve, can tell a profound story, but usually in twenty five words or less. And for some of us, who've cut our teeth on authors whose style sweeps over our consciousness, creating an intricate universe in sentences two or more pages long, this may be hard to accept. Still, brilliantly understated, if a little too much so.

At first it seemed odd to me that a novel that spans a lifetime is less than 200 pages long. However, after I finished the book it became clear that its short length is in keeping with the quiet, but interesting lives of the characters.

Bea and Shelley are two women from "opposite sides of the tracks," but as single women they share outsider status in their community. Bea's mother does not appreciate her daughter's good qualities until the end of her life, focusing instead on Bea's lack of a husband and children; she prefers her self-centered, indifferent older daughter because she is a wife and a mother and therefore more socially acceptable. Shelley's mother is a less developed character than Bea's mother, but it is clear that she thinks along similar lines.

Simpson has accomplished something that seems rare in fiction: the portrayal of unmarried women as fully realized human beings instead of as caricatures.

Don't read this novel if you're looking for a lot of action. It is a character-driven book, not a plot-driven one.

Off Keck Road chronicles Bea Maxwell, daughter of a well-to-do family in Green Bay,Wisconsinand her journey apart from the expectations of her times. Bea is never openly rebellious, in fact she is passive, floating from one reaction to another. As her life unfolds (almost without any direction from Bea, she simply reacts to what life doles out) she collects a group of the cast offs of the town, people who reside on and near Keck Road. I was really put off the passive tone of the book, found it hard to follow. The characters are well-drawn, but not people you really are drawn to. The wonderful writing is weakened by the fact that you can't muster up too much concern or interest in thse people. A real let down, especially following the previous books by Mona Simpson.

First off, let me say that this is the first book I've read by author Mona Simpson, and fell upon it only because my sister received it as a Christmas gift this past Dec. Regardless of my lack of initiation to the author or the the title, I was pleasantly surprised by its contents. Ms. Simpson has written a very brief work that says volumes about life in the Fox Valley, or anywhere else in small town America. For those unfamiliar with Green Bay's locale, Mona Simpson did her research on the area's history, especially how the city develops over the decades.

After reading the of the other reviews, I do agree with some of those who critice the lack of formal structure of the novel (introduction, development, climax, resolution), as this book is really a chronological diary of Bea's life (as well as her friends) in Green Bay for the years. Yet, this format makes the book quite enjoyable, and you never really know what happens next. A short read, but quite enjoyable and memorable.

I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. I loved ANYWHERE BUT HERE and looked forward to another Simpson experience, but I felt oddly 'left out' of this story.

Bea Maxwell started out sympathetic but, in the end, she became so tightly wound and fussy that I just couldn't continue to like her.

I actually liked Bea's mother and her best friend much better than Bea. They had lives...they laughed a lot and neither were afraid to live.

I can't recommend this book. Wish I could, but I just can't.

Maybe next time.

A huge fan of Mona Simpson's writing in Anywhere but Here, I find her talent as a writer exceptional and her ability to portray the intricacies of human nature insightful and touching. I had high hopes for the short novella that lay between the adorable cover of Off Keck Road, and the front flap describing the story as a coming of age story, of friends and the ups and downs of a small town life. Off Keck Road left me somewhat disappointed.

The story centered around Bea, a woman who grew up in Green Bay, left for a short time during college and briefly after, returns to her home town where she cares for her mother and develops a career and niche for herself. We also get a brief glimpse into the life of Shelley, a Keck Road resident who struggles with a sense of identity in her family and experiments a bit with love and physicality with men. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the story more if I could have gotten closer to the characters, if we were more clued in with feelings, dreams, disappointments. Simpson touched the surface at times, but I never quite got a connection with them. At times the writing was choppy and the characters hard to keep track of. I went back and read it a second time and enjoyed it a bit more, but overall it left me with a sense that the story was not fully developed. I will still read more by Simpson, but would recommend Anywhere but Here.

A woman who is herself at all times and chooses her friends because she chose them as her friend NOT because they fit into the "norm" or because they are the "type" of friends she should have. Very good book, refreshing in it's own way. I recommend this book and it's a very quick read.

I started this book thinking, "A simple read." And I thought it was, at first. In fact, I finished the book in just a few hours. But it was after I finished the book that I realized how powerful it was. Lying in bed that night, I couldn't get it out of my head. The characters and their humble stories stayed with me. To me, this is the sign of an excellent book.

it's nourishing but not exactly "scrumptious." At first, I could not keep the characters straight in my head....but I hung in there, got hooked, and ended up scoffing up the last half of this little book. A low-key story about an unglamourous group of people who live their lives simply, yet not exactly "ordinary." I cared for the characters and enjoyed my little window into their world.