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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like a bandaid... quick and painless, August 8, 2008
As one of my fellow viewers, I picked up this up at my local library due to the attractive, fun cover. "2 chicks from the 50's wearing beach caps and bright red lipstick? It'll be like an old MGM movie in my hands!"
It wasn't. And while it wasn't, it wasn't disappointing either. Being my first Rita Mae Brown short story (103 pages; reminds me of aiming to put $20 in my tank and spilling over to $20.03), I'm not surprised that these are repeat characters. If you're new to this book, the author has been able to flesh them out a little and make them extremely individualistic. They each have their own specific quirks (to the point of personality stererotypes) but the dialogue used to display them is witty, quick and relateable. Whereas I don't believe that people actually have these Mother/Daughter, Grandmother/Grandson, Sister/Sister, Cousin/Cousin relationships, I can see bits and pieces of my own childhood impressions of my peers and superiors in them.
The plot is pretty basic. Two attractive sisters in their mid- to late-forties and completing annual trip to the beach both towing children: one sister with her grandson (her daughter/his mother having passed away from illness 8 months or so before) and one with her only child (a tomboy daughter). Fresh from tasting death and heartcahe due to two World Wars, the sisters have taken two very different courses of life. The older sister chastises and preaches her new-found love of Jesus Christ while the younger sister approaches life more logically with a rational mind. Told from the voice of the tomboy-daughter, the dialogue that progresses from all four characters is carefully chosen and well worded... even if it is hard to believe.
With insightful scenes such as preparing, building and protecting a sandcastle (created with care that people use to decorate their Christmas trees each year), a wonderful story of a grumpy aunt and her woolen swimsuit, and the poor young boy's unfortunate accident with an over-zealous crab, it's familiar and heartwarming to remember rituals, excursions, and "remember when" moments from one's own childhood.
The Sand Castle won't change your life but it is a quick and thoughtful read in a few days (which allows you plenty of time to return to the library as it's a two-week rental!).
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
First disappointing Brown book ever, September 25, 2008
I'm a huge fan of Rita Mae Brown, owning every single book she has ever written, and an even bigger fan of Juts and Wheezy, first introduced in Six of One (her best, in my opinion). Upon seeing The Sand Castle release, I was thrilled to, yet again, visit the Hunsenmeier sisters and their vibrant, entertaining dialogue.
Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant visit. While Brown still has the witty repartee she is so well known for, the storyline is thin, and the book is too - literally! Only 100 pages of what transpires in a day on the Chesapeake shore with Juts, Wheezy, Nickel, and her cousin, Leroy. Boring banter between the sisters, typical kid arguing, and a minor catastrophe really don't do anything to improve the storyline or endear one to the characters.
As a lover of Six of One and the subsequent sequels, it was also a bit disturbing to read certain affectations given to favorite old characters whom, to my knowledge, were never referred to as such in any previous books; i.e. Cora as "Big Wheezy?" Maybe I was sleeping.
In short, this review is probably longer and more substantial than The Sand Castle. One can only hope that the next releases from Brown have a bit more substance.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely not up to her usual standard., November 27, 2008
The best thing I can say about "The Sand Castle" is that it's a quick read. Other reviewers have recapped the story (what there is of it), so I won't go into that; I'll just say this: if you were a fan of "Six of One" and "Bingo", you should definitely skip this one. Other than the fact that the characters have the same names and more or less the same personalities, there's really no continuity at all between this prequel and the earlier "Runnymede" novels. (Same thing could be said about "Loose Lips", which suffered from similar continuity problems.) I tried my best while reading this to think of it as a completely separate story with characters that happened to have the same names, but it was difficult given that it just wasn't all that engaging on its own.
If you must read this one, get it from the library, like I did.
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