Customer Reviews

So What If I'm Broken

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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Alexandra,Gone written by Anna McPartlin w takes place in a Dublin suburb and is about how two families cope with the disappearance of Alexandra who one day just disappears. Of course her husband Tom is the automatic suspect but as the story progress's you realize that this is not the case. This contemporary story jumps from character to character which makes the story flow together. The story is sad and at the same time humorous. The main character Jane (who was a childhood friend of Alexandra's) trys to be the rock in her family, raising her son without the father and running a gallery and managing her sister Elle's career. She also has to deal with their always drunk and cantankerous mother Rose who lives in a basement apartment in her home. When an elevator breaks down she finds herself with Alexandra's husband Tom and ends up helping, along with Leslie (a fellow passenger in the elevator who has demons of her own) in the campaign to find what happened to Alexandra.
Tom has done whatever was needed to try to help find his wife to no avail. His in-laws have had a tough time with their daughters disappearance but go on with their daily lives the best they can.
This is a story of love and loss,new friendships and old, and how family dynamics can affect each member of that family. Underneath this often downright funny novel is the dark shadow of what really happened to Alexandra, (this would be a spoiler so I won't say).
This was a fast read and I enjoyed it very much.

I loved Alexandra, Gone. Reading the blurb, I had expected the book to be dark and with a greater focus on forensics because of Alexandra's disappearance. Instead, I entered this world of Jane, her sister Elle, their friend Leslie, their new friend Tom, and the rest of Jane's off-kilter family. Getting to know these people, what and who they love, their vulnerabilities and hopes, and their stories and strengths was full of laughs and surprises.

In Jane, Elle, and Leslie of Alexandra, Gone, Anna McPartlin created such warm, witty, and fleshed out characters that the book reminded me of close friends that I miss. Despite the tragedies that occur, the book celebrates life and friendship. I highly recommend Alexandra, Gone to someone looking for a witty, unusual, and upbeat read.

ISBN-10: 1439123330 - Paperback
Publisher: Downtown Press; Original edition (April 13, 2010), 368 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Alexandra, Gone is sadly beautiful. It is the story of four people who get trapped in an elevator and end up coming together because of the missing Alex. Jane had lost all contact with Alex after Alex went away to college while Jane stayed home to raise her son. So it was quite the shock to see her old friend's face on the missing poster. (This is a truly great scene. Jane has a panic attack on the stopped elevator so Tom tries to make a poster resemble a paper bag for Jane to breathe into.) From there Tom, Jane, and the other two (Jane's sister Elle and a woman who offers her website services) form bonds as they search for Alex. But there's more than just the search for Alex as each of the three women have their own issues and Tom struggles through life without his wife. By the end I had shed a few tears for these deeply moving characters. I am particularly haunted by an early childhood memory of Elle's.

This book was a little hard for me to get into. There was something about the writing that made me have to struggle with it at first, and then once I did, it was easier to read.

This was a deep book--it's definitely not something you'd want to read if you were looking for a happy, uplifting or fluffy book. But it was definitely interesting. A lot of issues were brought up--teenage pregnancy, missing people, suicide, cancer, mental illness.

The way the characters were all integrated took a little while to figure out, but then it was neat to read about how their lives intertwined.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for a thought-provoking story.

In Dublin, thirty something Alexandra Kavanagh disappears. Her husband Tom is stunned with his loss as she had no reason to vanish in his opinion, but if something bad happened to her he does not know and cannot seek closure.

Tom runs to into Alexandra's best friend when she was growing up, Jane Moore on a stick elevator. Jane muses to the time when the pair drifted apart in their teens when she became pregnant. Now seventeen years since giving birth, she is a single mom, running an art gallery, her volatile mom, and managing her sister Elle's painting career. Tom is taken aback by her energy as Jane urges him to search for his wife. Jane, and the other stickees (Elle and reclusive web designer Leslie Sheehan) join Tom on an Ireland-wide quest, but nothing new surfaces re Alexandra, Gone. However, the group finds separate solace as the sisters resolve their traumatic pasts, Leslie comes out of her hermit existence to make friends and Tom moves forward with his grief.

This is an interesting character study of four people seeking the missing connection that binds them. Each member of the quartet comes across unique with issues, but the bonding of friendship enables all of them to move on. Ironically the prime link Alexandra never is fully developed as insight into her is inductive through for instance songs she enjoyed. Thus the entertaining story line lacks any tension re Alexandra, Gone, but instead the humor and tautness come from the foursome's personal problems.

Harriet Klausner

This story has elements of familiarity but are presented in a way that I didn't feel bored or lose interest in the story. The main character is not Alexandra, though she is the title of the story. Instead, we meet in more detail, her husband, a former best friend and her sister, and one other woman. These four converge in an unexpected way (a bit coincidental) and ultimately impact one another rather significantly.

There is a saying that people enter one another's lives for a reason and when that reason is filled, they will move on. Jane, the former best friend, is explored in most detail. Her life has not been what she thought it would be, due to an unplanned teenage pregnancy. She is not bitter though and makes the best of her world. Her relationship with the men in her life, her son's father and also Tom Alexandra's husband, are revealing, as Jane learns about herself through them. She discovers an inner strength and also learns about putting herself first. As a woman, I found her journey heartbreaking at times, but also admirable.

The other two main female characters, Elle and Leslie, are polar opposites. Elle is Jane's sister and very selfish. Leslie is alone in the world and for many years, lived the life of a hermit. As each of them finds her true self, the two also become good friends.

Tom is more of a secondary character, though as the husband, he is featured often. There is just less dimension to his story. Jane's mother and son are also featured, yet they are there as supporting characters to Jane.

Though the title states Alexandra, Gone to reflect her disappearance, the story is much more about how the other characters are lost when we meet them, and then how they get found. There are guided questions at the end of the book, should the reader want it for a book club.

The disappearing-person-who-brings-people-together is a popular theme, and there isn't anything particularly notable about this effort, but the characters are likable, believable, and engaging. The story never becomes sappy or overly predictable, given the hackneyed subject matter. If I have one complaint, it's the overuse of song lyrics as a running theme, which I thought became tiresome and seemed a bit adolescent.

Alexandra Kavanagh disappears on day in Dublin and her husband Tom is determined to find her. He bumps into Jane, a childhood friend of Alexandra and from that encounter he gets help from Jane's sister Elle and another woman Leslie. ALEXANDRA GONE by Anna McPartlin is not really a story about the search, but more or less a study of four individuals; their problems and friendships. An entertaining story of lives intertwined and not a missing person drama.

I really liked this book. The title would suggest that it is about Alexandra, and it is to an extent. But the real story involves the other characters and what they go through while trying to find Alexandra. Really the character Alexandra is just a catalyst to pull all of the other characters together. Not to say that Alexandra isn't part of the plot, because the entire book revolves around finding her, but she's not part of the main stories.

This book reminded me a bit of a Maeve Binchy novel. Even before I read the author bio, and realized that McPartlin also lives in Ireland. I guess it's a similarity in Irish authors, but luckily Maeve Binchy is one of my favorite authors so being similar to one of her books is a good thing (at least in my opinion). The writing is similar and the dialect is the same. While this story doesn't have a Binchy style happy ending it is still very similar.

There was really only one character that I connected with, and that was Leslie. I too have lost family to cancer, and like Leslie am scared every time I go to the doctor that they will find something. Even though I didn't really have a personal connection with the rest of the characters I still liked every one of them. Jane is the levelheaded one. She keeps everyone else "in line" so to speak. Elle is the one that adds drama and excitement to the story. Tom is the one we all want to feel sympathetic for. The rest of the characters help the plot along, but I didn't really feel anything for them. They were just kind of there.

The writing was very good. It was humorous, touching, and romantic. Everything in the story was believable. I didn't feel as if any of the characters were fake, and the dialog was real. There were a few twists that I didn't see coming. And while I knew how the story would end I didn't expect it to take the path it took to get there.

Overall this was a great book. I liked the characters, the plot, and the writing. It's very readable, and I think I could read this again.

This is probably a four-star book on the basis of the craft, the plot, the writing, the ideas. However, I ended the book not really caring about anyone in the book very much, and not having enjoyed myself very much, and not having much to think about. If fiction doesn't make me think, entertain, or make me care, then it's pretty much a failure for me. If I were rating it in terms of how much I enjoyed it, learned from it, or valued it, I'd give it 1 1/2 stars.

However, there is nothing wrong with the book, really. When I write a short outline of what happened, and list the characters, it sure looks to me like I should enjoy it. In the end, however, the pieces never really came together for me, so what I ended up with was a novel where nothing is really wrong with it, it's all done very skillfully, and it totally failed to engage me.

My sense is that if the book grabs you in the first 50 pages, you'll most likely enjoy it all the way through. I just never got hooked, and so I ended it with a very much "meh" reaction to the whole thing.