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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like The Corrections, only much nicer (3 -1/2 stars), November 25, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I am one of what sometimes seems like six people who did not like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. That famous tale of a family reunited in the the dying of their parents seemed to me cruel to the weaknesses and failings of his characters and unforgiving of the shallowness that, if you believe the author, pervades American life. Sing Them Home is also about a family brought back together by the death of the father and haunted by the loss of a mother to a tornado. But Stephanie Kallos entirely empathizes with Llwellyn Jones, his now dead wife Hope, their three children now grown and the Viney, their mother's stand in. She describes them in detail, leaving little to the reader's discovery, and follows them around Emlyn Springs, a tiny town near Lincoln, Nebraska, as they accept themselves and their small town strengths and come to realize that Hope brought the town back to life through the mostly inadvertent choices her children make 25 years after her death.
There is a fair amount to nitpick about. The dead participate a bit in the story, both in the extending mourning rituals of a Welsh American town (which is the source of the title), and by the dead themselves who tend to hover near where they lived. Kallos does a nice job of imagining the involvement -- and non-involvement -- of the dead but after the effort of creating their place, she uses little of it to further the ambiance of the place or the actions of the characters. If Sing Them Home is lyrical, it is lyrical in the language of today, where stress and anxiety evoke the sense of a stomach full of gerbils or a head full of popping corn. What is parsed throughout is the inner life of the characters, mostly the women, each explained nearly completely so the reader's sense of the character is not what they discover in the writing, but what Ms. Kallos tells them right out loud. The story is of the emotional life of the characters, but there are no hard edges in the books not softened by humor and a gentle distance from the pain. Her male characters remain far more hidden than the women, who are more explored and nuanced. I am usually easily caught up in an author's world but it took about half of the 542 pages before I got to the point where I did not want to put it down, and, for the last 50 or so pages, could not put it down.
There are some terrific strengths. Kallos makes even incidental characters interesting, and weaves together seemingly accidental elements of character or minor chance into the tapestry that binds a family together, and she does it effortlessly. Even the unlikely is believable. If the ending is not a surprise, it is satisfying. She has a persistent humor which is just slightly acidic enough to spice the stew.
At its length, it is not a quick read but by the end, you know these folks pretty well. In a sense, the book is about forgiveness of one's self and one's family and one's roots, but if that is the message, it is gently told. Fundamentally, Ms. Kallos likes her characters which is why it is not like The Corrections at all.
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Story, October 28, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I loved this book! It is a beautifully written story of one family and one Welsh Town in Southeastern Nebraska. We are taken through the life of Hope and Llwellyn Jones and their three children, Larken, Gaelan and Bonnie. This is also the story of Vinie (the children's stepmother) yet she never really married their father.
The couple marry in the early 1960's and settle down in his hometown of Emlyn Springs, Nebraska. It is a town that honors all their Welsh traditions and Hope falls in love with the town as a young woman. Llwellyn is a Doctor and Hope a stay at home mom, who suffers several miscarriages before giving birth to 3 children.
Through excerpts from Hope's diary throughout the book we learn of her feelings as she goes through these losses and tries to adapt to and fit in to this very "set in its ways" small town. At the same time we are taken through present day (2004) and the lives of Larken, Gaelan, Bonnie and Vinie.
Llwellyn is struck down and killed by lightning in 2004 and from that point on we learn the details of the life he has had. We learn that Hope was diagnosed with MS and that she was "taken up" during a tornado in 1978.
This is such a dynamic book, I highly recommend it. I had trouble getting to sleep at night worrying about these people and couldn't wait to get back to the book the next day. All the characters of this book display a humaness that we all have. It is believeable and inspiring to follow these people through their lives. It has heart and warmth not easily found anymore in writing. Great work!!!
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Novel! You Won't Want to Put This One Down!, November 7, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"Sing Them Home" is a beautifully written novel which you will find hard to put down. Further, it may be one of those novels that you cannot forget. The basic story involves the lives of three siblings and the impact their mother's death has on their personalities and relationships with the opposite sex.
One is tempted, at first, to compare this book to "The Lovely Bones." The dead "speak" through the narrator, and through the diary of Hope Jones, the mother of the three protagonists. That comparison would be, however, a mistake. "Sing's" dead speakers help draw the picture of the tiny community of Emlyn Springs and are not a major force in the narrative. Hope Jones' diary excerpts are inserted at appropriate points in the story and serve to provide background for the characters' actions and reactions to situations.
I found this book to be particularly moving in the sections where Hope spoke of her miscarriages and her subsequent reaction, psychological and physcial, to those tragedies. Stephanie Kallos writes these scenes with empathy and insight. Further, Kallos' insight into a parent's serious illness (Hope has MS), death, and the manner in which those event impacts children into adulthood is masterful. If she does not have first hand knowledge of the subject, I would be quite surprised.
I thought the female characters were more finely drawn and much more realistic than the males. Irrespective of that opinion, I found that I liked all the individuals who peopled the town of Emlyn Springs; thought their customs were fascinating; and wanted everyone to have the life they deserved.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read a gentle, well written novel. You will find yourself wrapped up in the lives of the characters, crying when they cry, and celebrating their joys when they celebrate. First class all the way!
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