11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rare gift, August 18, 2003
Every once in a while a book comes along that inspires us and moves us to tears all at the same time all the while making it hard for us to tear our eyes away. That's what this book did for me: It gave me the gift of an equally rare and wonderful reading experience that will resonate within me for a long, long time.
The Song Reader is the story of two sisters who are seemingly alone against the world. Mary Beth is the legal custodian for her younger sister, LeAnn. Mary Beth supports them both as a waitress and a Song Reader, which if you're anything like me and associate a certain year with what was playing on the radio, or your favorite song with a paticularly happy time in your life you will understand the concept of song reading. Through these girls' indescibably strong bond they somehow make it work, but their life certainly is not without struggle and pain. Mary Beth doesn't understand LeAnn and vice versa and it's the unanswered questions and years of bottled up anguish that [possibly may] tear this family apart.
I am a [fan] for a coming of age story, but this one is a cut above all the rest. LeAnn is struggling with her feelings and finding her place in the world. Both she and her Sister, Mary Beth are honest, hearwrenching characters that will take up residence in your heart and mind for a long time.
Lisa Tucker has out done herself on her first time out. She has important things to say and a very unique way of saying them. If she hasn't already, I'm sure she will soon become quite an important strong voice in cotemporary fiction. I am anxiously awaiting another wonderful novel by Ms. Tucker!!
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Let me add my voice -------, February 28, 2004
in praise of Lisa Tucker's first novel.
Tucker's story winds around the "gift" that big sister Mary Beth has been given in a small southern town. Mary Beth, a waitress raising her younger sister and a small adopted son, is a caretaker by nature. She discovers a unique talent, "reading people's lives". Unlike a fortune teller, MaryBeth talks to others about the songs that are important to them, and have been important to them throughout their lives. Mary Beth does "readings" and keeps charts on everyone who comes to her for help, and her advice, gained through an analysis of the lyrics that keep popping up in a client's head at odd moments. To Mary Beth ..."I have a calling in life" .. and her help is usually so on track that a large following in their little town relies on the premise that their own songs are not random, but rather that they have meaning just waiting to be uncovered; something that, it seems, only Mary Beth can do.
It's an interesting premise, and it is background music to the story told by LeeAnn, Mary's Beth's adolescent sister. To LeeAnn, the gift inspires others and puts their little family in the heart of the town....
"... wishing I could go back to when the music was like a spirit moving through our town, giving words to what we felt, connecting us all."
As the tale unfolds, parallel secrets about a prominent town citizen are uncovered through song reading, leading Mary Beth's reputation to tarnish, and her spirits to unravel. At the same time, secrets of their own family -- why their father disappeared, and what role their deceased mother played, are covered up by Mary Beth, who thinks that she is sheltering LeeAnn from knowledge that will hurt her.
Eventually, unhinged by the responsibility for both the family and the town's opinion, Mary Beth begins to fade, and it is then that LeeAnn takes over the indomitable spirit that has kept them going for years.
Although based on a unique and whimsical premise, Tucker's book is really about relationships, the bond between sisters, and about never giving up, no matter how difficult the terrain of your life. Tucker writes lyrically and well, bringing each and every character to life, including the mystical father figure, who finally comes to be a part of their lives again. Both sisters in the tale finally find the one thing, the love between the two of them, that will give them "the strength to handle all the rest".
I so look forward to more from this author, and highly recommend this lovely debut.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is the best!!!, April 25, 2003
By A Customer
I bought this book yesterday and finished it this morning, and the entire time, I was telling myself, slow down, make it last, but I just couldn't do it. The story is just too interesting! Mary Beth & Leeann pulled me into their lives and I felt like I was right there with them each step of the way. They are both such great characters! I rank them both right up there with Susie in The Lovely Bones. In a lot of ways The Song Reader reminds me of The Lovely Bones. For one, I found out about both of them in Seventeen magazine. . .but deeper in, they're both told from a girl's point of view, and told as the girl looks at the rest of her family. Also they both have a lot of sadness but also lots of hope. I can't imagine anybody not being touched by what these two sisters go through, and the love they have for each other.
It's a great story, and it also has the song reading!! A double treat when you pick up Tucker's novel. How did she think up something as unique as song reading? Everyone who hears about it tells me they have to get this book!
I highly recommend this book to every man, woman, and child (over 12 or 13, not for language or graphic sex but just to understand it) in America. Buy The Song Reader, I know you won't be disappointed!
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