Customer Reviews

Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains

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

 

 

"Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains" is an impressive first novel. Theobold Moon is aptly named-bland yet strangely comforting-devoted to his daughter Josephine, and oh so protective of her. Theo is eventually forced to face a stinging reality. His off-sider Jersey provides the perfect foil for this odd couple as the live out their existence in the harsh Arizona environment. Running in tandem with the desert story, is another saga beginning in the ice and snow of Europe, when a Slovakian shoemaker and an ice cream man fall in love. In a series of strange yet believable events, the lives of these people become entwined and the ending- though shocking is nevertheless handled deftly and with compassion. Elderkin tries a little too hard in the first section of the book where some of her descriptions are a little "overloaded" and maybe one event that occurs seems contrived, but I loved reading this book. Elderkin's prose is refreshing in that it is direct but not harsh; poetic without losing the thread of the plot, and above all warm without being sentimental.(There are touches of wry humour which add to this warmth). This novel is rich in detail, and reaches deep inside us because it is about love and sacrifice- joy and disappointment. It is about life.

"Sunset over Chocolate Mountains" by Susan Elderkin gives us a peek into the lives of some unconventional people we wouldn't normally meet except, perhaps, by rubbing shoulders with them in the street. Even then, we might say "sorry" and pass on. Similarly we get a look into life-styles that most of us don't get a chance to experience, and into different environments that, perhaps, we'd rather not visit.

But these backdrops don't spoil a good yarn and it's not a gloomy novel, far from it. The author has gift for descriptive analogies that are quite vivid. it's a well-constructed story and after a few pages you get to know and empathise with the characters, finally sympathising with them because of their trials and tribulations.

She interestingly weaves the separate stories of her characters in and out with mystery, speculation,surprises and coincidences and she cleverly brings them all together at the end. When I came to the end of the novel I had the same good feeling that I get when I've successfully completed a crossword puzzle.

Don't be put off by the opening paragraph--or even believe it. There might be such oddballs living in the Arizona desert, but I haven't met one yet!

The good news is that this novel contains some fine prose and strong characterisation. The descriptions of the Arizona desert are so vivid they make you want to jump straight into your own ice-cream van and head for the nearest arroyo.

However, the book ends at the point where all the interesting questions are lined up ready - and not a single answer is offered! Perhaps that was intentional: maybe there is a second volume already half-written; or maybe we need to take up the quest ourselves. But after recently reading Protect And Defend I found this a stark contrast. Protect And Defend takes on some major themes and digs through the possible answers in heroic detail. Chocolate Mountains raises important questions but leaves it there.

For all that, it is a thoroughly good read, leaving you with a powerful desire to visit the deserts the author so evocatively describes. Nor will you forget the characters in a hurry.

Beautiful use of language combine with an intriguing set of characters to make this book a delightful surprise from begining to end. My own copy has already been enjoyed by my mother, my sister and a friend in her seventies all of whom found it the perfect book into which to escape. Layers of evocative description draw you into an unconventional world that nonetheless subscibes to its own particular logic thereby rendering the incredible credible. A compulsive read: involving, inspiring and imaginative - as novels should be and so rarely are.

This is simply a wonderful book. I found myself quietly smiling during most of it just from the sheer pleasure of reading it. I actually had to slow myself down from reading it too quickly so I could savor the story.

For once, all of the descriptions quoted on the back cover are accurate; heartbreaking, quirky, marvelous, impressive.

The scenes in the desert were so engaging that I resented the switch to the cold hills of Slovakia, and then got so caught up in that setting that I didn't want to go back to the desert.

I though this was just going to be a light story of a comically absurd character. But I was surprised by the level of human drama that enfolds as the story develops. The ending was surprising and dramatic. I thought that the characters were well realized if maybe a little overdrawn. It left me satisfied but wanting more.

This is not high literature and won't be studied by students of the same, but it was a much more engaging book than many other attempts at combining comic drama and absurdity.

I could hear the author thinking this to herself as I waded through the mire that is Sunset over Chocolate Mountains. Let's see: fat people, trailers, abandonment issues, rape, men unable to commit to relationships, pointless violence, mysterious foreigners, Oedipal relationships, political repression, death, mental disfunction, drunkards, out of wedlock pregnancy, ice cream and shoes. Oh, and men that drink their own urine. Sounds like a month's worth of talk-show topics. None of the characters were remotely attractive or likeable (with one small peripheral exception who flees the disfunction, much as I wished I could.) Alas, it was my book club's selection of the month, so I struggled onward -- only to find that half abandoned the book in disgust. Books like these are why God created libraries: if only I had borrowed instead of wasting hard earned cash.

Yes the prose about the desert was lovely but a story has to be much more and I am not sure what the point of this was. A lot of long pointless descriptions of Theobold Moons daily ablutions do not fine literature make. A story of unusual people who's lives cross over to what end?--the so-called enigmatic ending was more like the publisher lost the last chapters. All through this book I kept asking is this supposed to be a story or pieces of a puzzle which add to nothing. Yes, we solve the mystery, as if it wasn't obvious...and now. And now???

I read this book for a book report and it was interresting, but not captivating. I feel for some of the characters and some of the things that they do, but sometimes I wanted to burn the book. Susan Elderkin clearly wanted to confuse her readers and then tell them the ending half way through.

I am an avid reader, and I do agree that her character descriptions were good, but the book overall was not suspensful, nor was it intriguing. I've read it 5 times combing it for things for my book report and character profiles, and you find something different every time because of the great detail she uses. So if you're into detail, this book is great. If you want something suspenseful pick up something else. I personally enjoyed "The Cabinet of Curiosities" much more than this book...leave this one and go buy the other...you'll be much happier in the end.

I read this book for a book report and it was interresting, but not captivating. I feel for some of the characters and some of the things that they do, but sometimes I wanted to burn the book. Susan Elderkin clearly wanted to confuse her readers and then tell them the ending half way through.

I am an avid reader, and I do agree that her character descriptions were good, but the book overall was not suspensful, nor was it intriguing. I've read it 5 times combing it for things for my book report and character profiles, and you find something different every time because of the great detail she uses. So if you're into detail, this book is great. If you want something suspenseful pick up something else. I personally enjoyed "The Cabinet of Curiosities" much more than this book...leave this one and go buy the other...you'll be much happier in the end.

As the title suggests, this is a frivolous novel by an author of little depth. Basically, it is fluff.

For the serious intellectuals (those seeking philosophically penetrating literary works), this novel is NOT for you.

Fans of soap operas and made-for-tv movies, however, might want to give the book a go.

The plot (centered around Theobald Moon and his daughter) is unrealistic and the description/detail is drippy. As a new novelist, Elderkin goes into elaborate (yet over the top) descriptions of everything, including flatulation.

As a student of literature, I found this novel dreadful.