Customer Reviews

Sweet & Crazy

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The emotional enormity of the events of 9/11 combined with the personal tragedy of the loss of her husband provide the backdrop against which Hanna Painter strives to maintain a seemingly normal life for her young son Pete...as well as for herself as she rediscovers her passionate side through the attention of next door neighbor, Thomas Winton. Dann deftly captures the dialogue and thinking process of young Pete, and that young child's filtering of events allowed this reader a chance to revisit and reassess thoughts and reactions to the events of September 11 and the aftermath. All in all, a satisfying afternoon of reading.

I loved the movie Mermaids (with Cher, Winona Ryder, etc.) so I was delighted to read the novel on which it is based as well as Patty Dann's new novel, Sweet and Crazy. Both are wonderful because the author has a huge heart, an uncanny ear for dialogue, and a sharp eye for poignant and funny details. Sweet and Crazy shows a newly-widowed mother with her young son and handsome neighbor in a way that makes us look at and appreciate anew the people who matter to us most.

Reading this book helped me think of my losses through the child's eyes. The writer did an excellent job about capturing the honest sweet words of the 4years old child reacting to the loss of his father. It also captured the widow's feeling about the new challenges in her life, the loss of a loving husband, her 4 years old child and the new romance. The story is capturing, in a very sweet and crazy way

Patty Dann has created a delicate miniature of a book; small, yet it covers monumental events, both in the narrator's personal life as well as in the topsy turvy world around her. Hanna, grief-stricken at losing her young husband to cancer and the stark reality that she must bring up her four year old son alone, is forced with little warning, into unknown territory. Now a "window," as Pete, her zesty little son puts it, in his unerringly honest way, adjusting is often painful but also contains some sweet surprises. Hanna's gradual acceptance of her forever altered life, with the gracious help of an unusual neighbor, makes for a satisfying, sweet and slightly crazy tale. It is a highly enjoyable book.

perfect, soft, real, gentle, very sad, very funny - beuatifully written. A+++++

There's lots of quirky, original dialogue in this book about how a widow and her young son cope in the months after the death of their husband and dad. One of the best things about Sweet & Crazy is how it captures not just the language but the thinking of a four- year old whose curiosity and startling honesty keep his mom focused on pancakes, training wheels and kindergarten instead of her Widows of the World reference book. As each month passes, Hanna and Pete change. Hanna begins a romance with her next door neighbor, a cooper in a colonial restoration. Pete becomes friends with a classmate from India whose family is touched by 9/11. The very human characters in this book do their best to cope with the challenges of life; some mundane and some monumental. The details are wonderful and this book will resonate for anyone who has kids, and anyone who has experienced loss, but still has to do the grocery shopping.

There's lots of quirky, original dialogue in this book about how a widow and her young son cope in the months after the death of their husband and dad. One of the best things about Sweet & Crazy is how it captures not just the language but the thinking of a four- year old whose curiosity and startlingly honesty keep his mom focused on pancakes, training wheels and kindergarten instead of her Widows of the World reference book. As each month passes, Hanna and Pete change. Hanna begins a romance with her next door neighbor, a cooper in an colonial restoration. Pete becomes friends with a classmate from India whose family is touched by 9/11. The very human characters in this book do their best to cope with the challenges of life; some mundane and some monumental. The details are wonderful and this book will resonate for anyone who has kids, and anyone who has experienced loss but still has to do the grocery shopping.

Sweet & Crazy is very funny and poignant at the same time. I was immediately drawn in by the narrator, Hanna Painter and her life as a young widow with her zany son. I especially enjoyed her relationship with her neighbor Thomas and the eccentric masseuse, Joya and how she deals with the challenges of raising a child on her own all against the backdrop of 9/11 in a small town in Ohio. Dann is the author of MERMAIDS, which was made into a movie with Cher and Winona Ryder and this will make a great movie too. It was a joy to read.