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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautifully crafted novel,
By
This review is from: Sacred Time: A Novel (Hegi, Ursula) (Hardcover)
I always read the Amazon book reviews but rarely write them myself. After reading the previous reviews, I feel compelled to voice another opinion on this book. Having read all of Hegi's work, I was eager to read her latest novel.Until the end of the first chapter, I was very disappointed. Being written from the point of view of a child, the ideas and writing seemd sophmoric and completely unlike the poetic and meaningful writing of Hegi's previous novels. The dramatic end of the 1st chapter changes all of that & signals the thrust of the rest of the book which is the life of a family as it moves through time from several of its members' points of view and how it is shaped & impacted by a tragedy. Hegi is a master of manipulating the tools of story telling and in her past novels she employs various interesting writing techniques to try to approximate the changing and often abstact nature of experiencing life. This book is no exception. She jumps ahead several years as she switches from chapter to chapter and to the point of view of another family member. Some things are made clear while much is left unsaid. This book does not proceed in an orderly fashion from event to event so it may unsettle some readers . But one of Hegi's greatest strengths is her abilty to portray the thoughts and emotions of her characters as a person really experiences them: in flashbacks,in snatches of rememberances, in emotional reactions. She is also very gifted at presenting a single happening from so many different points of view thereby really giving one a more complete understanding of an event's true impact. Reading Hegi is like looking at a character's family photo album and reading his/her journal. It is raw life stripped down to it's true nature & presented in a profound and poetic way. The point of this novel is the impact a single event can have on a family and its subsequent generations & how people are shaped by the forces of time, events and our interactions with one another. In order to capture such an unwieldy subject matter she has pared down her narrative to it's emotional essence. It's an absolutely beautiful novel. I have only a few pages left and I don't want it to end. If you are the type of person who enjoys looking at another person's family photos you will love this book. I cannot imagine having the genius to write this well.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
elegantly simple and triumphantly natural,
By
This review is from: Sacred Time: A Novel (Hegi, Ursula) (Hardcover)
Ursula Hegi opens her novel Sacred Time with deceptive simplicity: the first paragraph contains only one sentence, "That winter of 1953, stenciled glass-wax decorations appeared on nearly every window in the Bronx, and Uncle Malcolm was sent to jail for stealing stamps and office equipment from his last new job." The same bare elegance runs throughout, somehow creating a subtly complex and motivated story out of clear, uncomplicated prose. The novel has the impact that it does because Hegi selects the perfect words, constructs layers of rich atmosphere, and forces the reader to fill in not only sundry details, but major plot points as well--she tends not to finish one subplot until long after several new ones have started, which results in a novel that is truer to life than the books whose chapters each contain a perfect capsule of introduction, rising action, climax, and dénouement.A novel that spans three generations and two continents could easily become stretched, with too few delightful specifics and too many underdeveloped story lines. Hegi does a good job, however, of making Sacred Time fill out its expansive framework, partly by letting all the stories grow naturally out of previously-recounted events. Her multiple narrators echo each other in their own words, and stories that are only hinted at in some chapters burst into full and satisfying bloom in later sections. By combining this intriguing structure with effortless prose and delicious details, Ursula Hegi creates in Sacred Time a novel that is as compelling as it is thought-provoking. At under 250 pages, Sacred Time is a fairly quick read, but make sure to have some cannelloni or calzones on hand before you start, because it will be as hard to resist your cravings for the traditional Italian fare that appears throughout as it will be impossible to put the book down before reading the last, triumphant sentence.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Totally Agree with Donna!,
By
This review is from: Sacred Time: A Novel (Hegi, Ursula) (Hardcover)
I had to review this book because I could not believe how bad the customer ratings were. This was one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read all year and I think others should read it as well.Please disregard the bad reviews and give it a try, it will be well worth your time.
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