22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The heart of a family, August 25, 2011
The Call called me, only faintly at first with its terse log-like entries. So this is going to be a book about a country vet who delivers goats, sews up a horse that listens to classical music, and relates to a zebra? It is. And more.
I've been inside the head of David Appleton and the heart of the Appleton family. A heart that holds lots of love and laughter, but is also pulled, twisted, and strained. Murphy knows about families and knows how to tell their stories--very well. Despite its unusual abrupt style, she brings the Appleton family fully to life, not only David and Jen, but the three children. Nights are cold; snow falls. Parents bicker. Children come out with the unexpected. Family dinners are so delicious, that I flipped to the back vainly hoping for recipes. Ah, the pork chops! Oh, the gypsy soup. Outside of the household, Murphy has captured many of the small town's 600 quirky residents in brief but colorful sketches. She has an eye; she has an ear; she has a true voice.
I quickly answered the call of the book and sank into full-time reading. Then, the tragic accident that almost rends the family took me with a jolt. It mirrored a decades old episode in my own family's journey so closely and clearly, that I almost shut the book, but I persevered. Glad I am and I can testify that account of the Appletons' suffering is pinpoint accurate.
A fine book. How fine? I immediately ordered one of Murphy's children's books for my five-year-old granddaughter. Now I'm off to make gypsy soup.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Takes Your Breath Away, September 3, 2011
This review is from: The Call: A Novel (Kindle Edition)
The Call captured me from the beginning; cast in the form of veterinarian "calls" with ACTIONS, RESULTS, it at first is charmingly funny. David Appleton is quirky, to say the least. He wonders about the lights in the sky, and considers them a spaceship (as does the whole family). Can they get away from their rural life? The story is really about how they all come to love and appreciate what they have. Much of it is just funny, and as the entries in the log book expand to WHAT THE WIFE SAID to WHAT I SAID TO THE SPACEMAN DRIVING HOME, I was completely drawn in. Sometimes David seems clueless, and even then Murphy manages sharp little observations about how we live, as when David's wife tells him that Panko bread crumbs aren't the same as regular bread crumbs: "How could a thing like bread crumbs go from being simple to complex?" The writing is deceptively simple, plain even, but every word rings true. One of my favorite novels of the year.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Call, September 8, 2011
Written as a journal, this is the story of the daily life of a country veterinarian in rural Vermont. It may sound boring or even stupid as you read the entries. The call he gets from his clients, what he does, what his wife makes for dinner or what his kids say to him or not say to him when he gets home. But somehow, they all weave together into a quaint story of his life. As a reader, we get to learn about such a life and the importance of family.
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