Customer Reviews

The Tall Pine Polka (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is the kind of book you save to give to your sister or best friend. It's a great read, very interesting characters. Both the men and the women are three dimensional and grow throughout the book.

Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can appreciate the movie ambiance. Lankvik gets it down pretty well, with a good understanding of the peculiar hold that tinseltown sometimes gets on folks. Yet, it isn't one of the nine million Hollywood noir books that have gone on so tediously elsewhere. The people are real people, in Hollywood or in Minnesota.

I found myself thinking about the book all during the workday, wondering if it would be possible to sneak away to read one more chapter before night time. Now that's a book!

If you like the small-town, everybody-knows-your-name ambience of Jan Karon or Fannie Flagg novels, then you should give "The Tall Pine Polka" a whirl. Lorna Landvik's latest novel focuses on the residents of a small Minnesota town: their loves & losses & lessons they learn. As you might expect, there is a cast of eclectic, eccentric townfolk: coffee-shop owner/former battered wife Lee, orphan/souvenir shop owner/soon-to-be-Hollywood-starlet Fenny, delightful lesbian couple Miss Penk and Frau Katte, shoemaker-with-an-unrequited-love Pete, and sexy Native American newcomer Big Bill, to name a few. Interspersed - to great comic effect - are some California residents, too, as the plot revolves around the making of a Hollywood movie in this small town and the when-worlds-collide effect on the residents and filmmakers. Sure, the book's a little corny from time to time, and there are an awful lot of coincidences and tie-backs (a la a Seinfeld episode), but it's hard to beat a novel as spunky, fresh and ultimately upbeat as this one.

The story revolve round a group of lively coffee-lovers in a small town, the Tall Pine. Central to the story is the lovable Fenny Ness and her friend Lee. A summary of the story will not do justice to the book as all the characters in the book, no matter how small their roles were, made the whole book came alive. The story brought in Hollywood, romance and rivalry, and traces of tragedies, but through them all, the characters remained true to themselves and their beliefs. The whole book is so lively, so lovable that I found it hard to put down.

Reading the book, I felt as if I know Fenny, Bill, Lee and gang all my life, sharing their laughter and tears. It was as if I am part of Cup O¡¦Delight. It made me feel inspired and encouraged at the thought that there is some place in the world where faults are accepted, where rules can be broken gracefully and where love conquers all.

This is a well written, thoughtful novel. Although not as obviously funny as Patty Jane's House of Curl, it still contains unique characters and off the wall situations. It is well worth the read.

I loved Patty Janes House of Curl. I expected to read a funny, endearing third novel by Landvik. Disappointment would be a kind way to say how I felt about this book. I slogged through it hoping it would get better. What a mistake, I should have gone with my first impulse and headed straight to the used bookstaore to get rid of it. I'm on my way now.

I wanted to like this book but didn't. I have honestly enjoyed her other novels (Flame Lake, Angry Housewivies, House of Curl, etc..); however, I just could not get into this book

Lorna Lanvick has done it again! The characters become very good friends and it almost hurts when the book is over. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Michael Lee West, Faith Sullivan or Sandra Dallas. Oh by the way Ms Landvick, if you read this review would you please, please send me the recipe for O'Delight? I would give anything to taste a cup of coffee that knocks me off my seat!

I was very much looking forward to reading Landvik since I had heard many good things. Alas, my fellow amazon reviewers misled me. Yuck. I thought the book was pitifully underwritten, with shallow and extremely contrived characters. I found most of the humor to be insulting and the overall plot to be vain and simpering. I am hoping that "Patty Jane" is better, but I don't think I am up to reading it, just in case. I am deeply disturbed that Landvik is recommended in the same group as Michael Lee West. West is so superior to Landvik--as a story teller, as a satirist, as a slice-of-life writer--that the two should never be mentioned again in the same sentence.

I'm a fan of Landvik's and asked to be notified as new books of hers become available. This one will not disappoint! Although Flame continues to be my favorite of her books, this one provides a broad array of lovable and eccentric characters who all manage to make sense out of the messiness that often prevails in our lives. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and seeing how the lives unfolded and continued to intertwine with one another. Her description of the area makes me want to go visit the place and enjoy a cup of O'Delight!

I truly enjoyed this book and couldn't say enough about it to my friends and family. I am from small town Northern Minnesota and can say it was pleasantly described to the rest of the world. Lorna Landvik sure has a way with her stories and I can't wait to read more by her. I also highly recommend "Patty Jane's House of Curl"!