Customer Reviews

The Skating Pond

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Copyright © 2003 by Diana Guerrero
The Skating Pond is full of breathtaking prose. The rich imagery and descriptions were a delight. Once hooked, I didn't put up much of a fight and followed Elizabeth's journey from adolescence through motherhood surviving challenges and memories. I devoured this novel and will definitely put Ms. Corey on my list of authors to watch.

The metaphors in this novel are truly uncountable - but every one is aptly drawn. Combine that with a cast of characters that are so compelling and real, involved in a story with which any reader should be able to relate, and there are plenty of reasons why this novel should be widely read and lauded. The quote on the book from Elizabeth Hardwick, characterizing THE SKATING POND as `a love story' might lead some potential readers to write it off as romantic fluff - to do so would be to do this novel a great injustice. This is simply incredible writing.

Corey's main character, Elizabeth, is thrust into adulthood at an early age through a double tragedy - the death of her mother and subsequent abandonment by her father. Over the course of twelve years, we see Elizabeth go through the emotional ups and downs that would easily fill most people's lifetimes. Through it all - through her yearnings for more than a life in a remote Maine coastal village can offer her - she remains questioning. She questions the life led by those around her, and she questions herself - what does she really want out of life; what can she expect from it; what does she know of love, and what does she want from it? These are things that each of us must work out for ourselves, in our own way - and Corey's lovely writing allows us inside Elizabeth's mind and heart as she walks (and sometimes stumbles, as do we all) through life.

Corey has a way of revealing the humanity and goodness that resides (I believe) in all people - even the characters in her story that are somewhat less than likable come across sympathetically, at least in some ways. The life-lessons that her central character absorbs here are never presented as set-in-stone or rigid - as another reviewed astutely pointed out, it's all about the choices we make. Those are the ones we have to live with.

I wonder if Corey set out to write such an ambitious novel, or if it `just happened' to turn out that way. Whatever her original intentions, she has written an absorbing, rewarding and entertaining novel - highly recommended.

THE SKATING POND by Deborah Joy Corey is a story written to the emotions and soul of the reader. It works its way into your mind, and haunts you with its meanings and consequences. By writing this story in first person, Ms Corey allows the reader to fully experience the happenings and people in the life of the main character, Elizabeth. These things are felt and viewed by Elizabeth in the presentation of the story, but the judgments about these things are left up to the reader. After looking for love in all the 'right' places, Elizabeth finds only pain, disquiet, and abandonment - she then turns to a place where she receives great passion and greater pain. Eventually, Elizabeth makes choices, grapples with her emptiness and past, and finds a love that gives her the option of a life of sweetness and joy----if she has not waited too late for this to become her life long reality.

Skating, and memories of her mother, take Elizabeth on a journey of great intensity for the reader. Deborah Joy Corey writes with such a fluidity of function and style that even the most mundane story line could become a masterpiece. Though in reality, it's the greatness of what Ms Corey has chosen to write about that completes the superiority of this book. Somewhere in the middle of this book, one of the characters makes a profound statement concerning tragedy and choices: saying that the person has a CHOICE to make when tragedy happens--be destroyed, or be glued together. So many books of dysfunction and disillusionment seem to leave each person to some unknown "fate". Ms. Corey gives the reader an opportunity to experience personal responsibility and choices within a fictional world in this beautifully written story that can be enjoyed again and again.

In Portland, Maine, last week with 4 friends from college days who wanted 'to shop,' I ducked into the nearest bookstore, bought this book, settled into a worn old leather chair, and nearly finished the book by the time my friends returned to find me. Thank god for the salvation of a good book!
It's difficult for authors to write about sex. Most of the time, they come off sounding either like a Victorian maiden or a sly pornographer. But Deborah Joy Corey has written a book with a goodly amount of sexual interaction - and not a single line comes across as crass, voyeuristic, prurient, or sophomoric. It's absolutely beautiful writing.
The central story is Elizabeth's, a girl with parents both frustrated by their own demons. Tragedy is something they can't cope with, and soon Elizabeth find herself living alone and going rapidly downhill in a small town on the coast of Maine. She falls into the arms or clutches (depends on your viewpoint) of a much older man, an architect from New York. He's running from his own demons and finds a kind of warped salvation in his relationship with Elizabeth - but he, too leaves her.
I won't say more - but there's redemption, temptation, salvation - and a quiet love overriding everything in this lovely book.

I don't know where this little gem of a book was hiding, but I certainly am glad that I found it. I was immediately drawn to the main character, Elizabeth and found myself rooting for her in her desire for a family life and then later on through her trials with love and loss. To me this book is about the choices we make and how everything that happens to us leaves it's mark on us somehow.

The book is about a girl who lives in a town in a remote area of Maine. During the winter her pond freezes and her mother enjoys skating on it. One winter during a "Freak" accident her mother is hurt and the author ( in first person) writes how all of this affects her and her family.

After alot of misfortune, she does find love from two very unlikely sources. One at first almost makes you feel sickened, then the other a more normal relationship.

After so many years and the author trying to get her life together, the first "love" comes back and the second love has to rescue him.

I enjoyed this book, but sometimes it became alittle confusing because the author remembers things and memories, but not always in sequence to what is happening in the story.

We were already on our way to an impromptu wknd @ the beach and I had to stop @ the library for a few novels.. I don't know why I chose this one. The book jacket synopsis really drew me in I guess.

This is a very awesome novel, loved the characters and remained unabashedly concerned with what would happen to them! The author's descriptive narrative of the New England coastline was mesmerising as was the story itself.

I am definitely going to read it again.

I enjoyed this book a lot once I got into it. I found the beginning a little slow and seemed not to be going anywhere, but I stuck with it and slowly a love story of kind developed. It was a strange love story between a teenage girl and a man certainly old enough to be her father. The book is well worth reading!

THE SKATING POND by Deborah Joy Corey is a story written to the emotions and soul of the reader. It works its way into your mind, and haunts you with its meanings and consequences. By writing this story in first person, Ms Corey allows the reader to fully experience the happenings and people in the life of the main character, Elizabeth. These things are felt and viewed by Elizabeth in the presentation of the story, but the judgments about these things are left up to the reader. After looking for love in all the 'right' places, Elizabeth finds only pain, disquiet, and abandonment - she then turns to a place where she receives great passion and greater pain. Eventually, Elizabeth makes choices, grapples with her emptiness and past, and finds a love that gives her the option of a life of sweetness and joy----if she has not waited too late for this to become her life long reality.

Skating, and memories of her mother, take Elizabeth on a journey of great intensity for the reader. Deborah Joy Corey writes with such a fluidity of function and style that even the most mundane story line could become a masterpiece. Though in reality, it's the greatness of what Ms Corey has chosen to write about that completes the superiority of this book. Somewhere in the middle of this book, one of the characters makes a profound statement concerning tragedy and choices: saying that the person has a CHOICE to make when tragedy happens--be destroyed, or be glued together. So many books of dysfunction and disillusionment seem to leave each person to some unknown "fate". Ms. Corey gives the reader an opportunity to experience personal responsibility and choices within a fictional world in this beautifully written story that can be enjoyed again and again.