Customer Reviews

Summit Avenue

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A beautifully written novel, combined with impeccably accurate and interesting historical content! Novels timed at the turn of the century, about women loving women, are rare. Even rarer are those that are realistic, interesting, and of high quality - this book is on the mark in all three of those areas. I appreciated the twists and turns, and particularly the study of a relationship with a large age difference. Mary Sharratt is a truly gifted writer. I often found myself crying. Both feeling and relating to the emotions of the characters so intently.

From a local and historical perspective, I particularly enjoyed the story. I work in Minneapolis, right in the area referenced in the novel. From my office I look out to the beautiful, Stone Arch Bridge and St. Anthony Falls. I have also lived near the Summit Avenue area in St. Paul and it is dear to my heart. How rich it was to imagine the Twin Cities area, where I have lived my entire life, as it was at the turn of the century; and this time envisioning a story that could have been mine - a woman working through her sexuality, and falling in love with a woman.

I expected the typical morbid ending so often portraid in gay-themed literature and movies. I was pleasantly surprised that the ending leaves room for hope, and for a sequal! My hope is that there will be one!

Sharratt's first book is a wonder; she manages to combine highly refined prose with a lush sensuality. Against her backdrop of history and fairy tales, Sharratt weaves a tale of the magic of everyday life. A book to become lost in.

Summit Avenue is beautifully written, magical and very wise, and has much to say about the inner life of women. This book feeds the soul.

Mary Sharratt's new book , Summit Avenue , is a great novel about a German immigrant to the USA . Kathrin Albrecht, a German teenager when her mother dies, emigrates to the USA to start her American dream. The historical detail about Minneapolis is very fascinating, and the reader gets a better understanding of the living conditions of young female immigrants to the USA in the beginning of the 20th century. The details about Germans in the USA during WW1 are interesting. Also very fascinating is the use of fairy tales throughtout the book. The book is divided into 3 sections, and each section has a fairy tale that forms the backbone of this specific phase Kathrin goes through in life. The fairy tales are vry different from the fairy tales one reads a lot these days -- they are full of original images, and do not have a happy ending. They have nothing in common with the happy endings we know from Walt Disney. The real end of the book however is very beautiful, full of hope and love.

Mary Sharratt's moving and poetic novel is a paean to the healing power of story in its most timeless form as fairytale. Kathrin, an impoverished young German immigrant arrives in pre-World War I United States to find work in the industrial mills of Minnesota. She is of course, also The Beautiful Mill Girl of fairytale. Driven by both literal and figurative hunger, she soon leaves the mill to work for an enigmatic older woman, a beautiful sorceress, as a translator of German tales. As her own story unfolds, fairytale becomes a thread to follow through a disorienting, sometimes frightening labyrinth. When her life unravels, torn apart by the conflicting demands of inner and outer life, longing and conventional morality, it is through story that she mends and makes amends, reweaving body and soul into a new, triumphant, surprising whole.

I'm not often lucky enough to come across a book that has such subtle and complex underworkings and is also so compelling -- a literary page-turner. It's a beautiful piece of work with endearing and unforgettable characters. If you love fairy tales and have an open mind, don't read too much about it; just read it.

This appealed to me on a variety of levels. It was told in 1rst person, by a woman who was an immigrant, coming of age in an alien society. It was a historical novel that offered insight into America's shift from Old World to New World Values (not always a good thing!) and taught me something about people's attitudes towards WWI. It's also a love story and the intertwining of Kathrin's story with the fairy tales was wonderful. It's definitely character oreintated--the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace--but a great read.

This novel is complex and ambitious, at once a historical novel, a highly unconventional romance, and an exploration of the fairy tales that illuminate and transform the heroine's journey. This haunting story will linger with you long after you have finished reading it.

It's refreshing to finally find a novel that tells you something new about a city that you already know. Fascinating is the journey back to the Twin Cities' past, the view of Summit Avenue from a historical perspective. Particularly unique is the foundation of traditional European fairy tales on which the novel is based and the lyrical style which envelopes it. Unlike many historical novels, the strong points of Summit Avenue include a fast-paced plot, believeable, larger-than-life characters and a surprising story line. This is not your usual sappy historical romance novel, but a strong story still full of contemporary relevance. Kudos to a first novel well-deserved of the accolades it's already received.

SUMMIT AVENUE is a great pick for book discussion groups, because different readers can find many different things in the book. It explores archetypal psychology, working class women in the early twentieth century, fairy tales and women's inner lives and dreams. It's also a love story and a spiritual quest. There's plenty there for both the mind and the heart and soul. Highly recommended.