Customer Reviews

There Will Never Be Another You: A Novel

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

 

 

See can write about LA like no other writer. The layering of lives and the magic of living in an insane place like LA is central to this book. If you read Golden Days and liked it then you will love this one too. She is at the top of her form here. Her books always give me the feeling, that no matter how hard life is, that something really wonderful can always happen. Full of craziness and end of the world dread and most of all....hope. You will love this book. Clancy

This book is up there with the late Carol Shields "Unless." I just got it, the day it came out, and have read it three times and all my friends love it as well.

Why so great? It's pace is pitch perfect, the various voices work wonders and the ending is so gorgeous it blew me, a writer too, away. In addition, See is hilarious, generous, and writes as if it is easy, which we authors know is not so.

I don't think anyone here wouldn't simply LOVE this book. Go, Carolyn See, may you have great success with this masterpiece filled with love, prophecy, sadness and most of all, somehow you managed to be hilarious all the way thru.

You are my ideal writer. Thank you so much.

Smart, sophisticated and true-to-life in its treatment of characters' inner voices, See's narrative is a model of brevity and concision. There is a mood of wistfulness evident, for life in general and for these lives in particular. The opening's nostalgic mood reminds of Chris Isherwood's great A Single Man, while the story line of an epidemic that never quite arrives can't help but bring back a few flashes of DeLillo's White Noise.

But the tour-de-force is the linking together of the very sensitive scenes with kids, grandkids, couples both young and not so young, of characters of all ages in fruitless struggle and showing hopeless strength against the slow but inevitable pace of existence. What is past has really passed, See is saying. The foreboding sense of a passing plague, the sense of a passing end to things, these characters' angst embodying their sensitivities as each one must decide what to save of his/her life, what to try and take as each passes through the present.

As a father, I couldn't help but make my hero Edith's son Phil. That choice for me made Carolyn See's There Will Never Be Another You the perfect story of a father's responsibility--a "guy" book even. No matter age or gender, this book is a gift.

This was an unexpectedly good book. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I finished it in a couple of hours. It was a very real story with a strange twist. I thought about it a lot after I finished it. I am surprised it isn't on a best seller list. If Oprah was still doing her old book club it would be an Oprah pick for sure.

I find myself wondering if maybe the previous reviewers were relatives of the author or work at her publishing house.
I did not find this novel interesting or engaging. And yes, I did finish it. The characters were all shallow, self centered cliches, and the "plot" revolves loosely around some completely unbelievable espionage thread relating to biological terrorism. None of the characters seems able to engage with the world or with anyone in it in any meaningful way, they just drift off into thier own lonely, selfish, self imposed exiles. I found it sad and depressing.

Carolyn See's "The Handyman" is one of my favorite novels. As one Amazon reviewer put it, if you're an artist and/or seeking an authentic life you'll like it.

Maybe my expectations of See after that novel kept me from appreciating "There Will Never Be Another You." But I don't think that's the case.

I read through to about page 70 and just gave up. The characters all whine and complain. I didn't like a single one of them. They didn't need to be nice or perfect, just not whiny.

The clincher for me was the scene at the dinner table with one child swearing and another child slamming his hand on the table and both parents going on as if this is all normal. That scene alone made me hate those two characters (the adults, not the kids who are just reflecting the parents) for being so clueless.

I didn't even make into the major plot - if there is one. I just don't want to waste my time with these annoying characters.

Carolyn See has been unfairly treated by many reviewers over the years. Not sure what that's all about. Her other work is truly great. So it's with reluctance that I slam this novel. But it's unfortunately true. "There Will Never Be Another You" is not a good read.

Through the eyes of a savvy widow and her physician son, Carolyn See spins a compelling tale from the trenches of post 9-11 Los Angeles. As her characters deal with the eternal angst of troubled relationships, messed-up kids and the penalties of aging, threats of bioterrorism add a chilling element to the mix. Never flinching as she confronts our worst fears, Ms. See transcends the anxiety of today's world with wicked humor and page-turning narrative. And in the end she shows us that even in appalling times, we still have choices. We can laugh, love, and sometimes even dance.

This is a book you'll want to read more than once and share with good friends.

Centering on a group of characters all connected to the UCLA Medical Center, in Westwood, There Will Never Be Another You is a lingering and admonitory tale about people living on the edge, unhappy in their relationships and marriages, lonely for connection, yet also having to live with a post 9/11 mentality, the threat of further terrorist attacks - biological, chemical and even nuclear - never very far away.

Told in alternative voices, the novel begins on 9/11 with a confessional by the sixty-four-year-old Edith, who is lamenting the loss of her second husband Charlie after an extended illness. Edith volunteers at the Medical Center where her only son Phil works as a seasoned dermatologist. Phil is unhappy in his marriage to the stunningly self-absorbed Felicia, and whilst the couple is outwardly united in their care for their two children, Eloise and Vern, petty squabbling and bickering ultimately define their marriage.

Anxious to escape, but unable to figure out how, Phil finds solace in his vintage wine collection and drinking with his best buddy Jack, whilst the world around him steadily falls apart. A deadly virus or bacteria is breaking out in Los Angeles, purported to have started with monkeys, at first it only affected cats, and their carcasses have started appearing all over Phil's Westwood neighborhood.

Later, certain people are affected and in the eventuality of a catastrophic calamitous breakout, Phil being a trained dermatologist, is ordered to participate in bio-terrorism experiments and tests designed to evaluate and improve this city's response to medical emergencies from radical threats.

Meanwhile, Andrea, a sophomore at UCLA meets and falls in love with Danny, an Asian American, who is at the hospital to visit his father. A type of cross-cultural anxiety tempers their bourgeoning relationship, complicated by the fact that she lives at home whilst her father is dying of liver disease. As the world situation spirals out of out of control, with shadowy threats of chemical and biological attacks, author Carolyn See spins an eloquent tale of ordinary people adjusting, coping, and continuing on with the cycle of life because they have no choice in the matter.

The narrative spans almost ten years, from 2007 to 2016 and one might expect silence, the isolation and sadness to shut down all of these people. But during this time, the characters, although faced with the daily threat of annihilation, have gone on with their lives, having children and raising families. Phil realizes that the wayward and truculent Vern is the only person he really loves, and faced with the threat of his own life "being sucked away," he in desperation makes a decision that will irrevocably change his family.

Trying to live a life of normalcy in the face of seemingly inconceivable terrorist threats is the theme of the novel; and Phil and Edith's quest to understand and come to terms with the disquiet in their lives both personal and collective is at the heart of the story. Phil's efforts to free himself from the restraints of his job and his marriage end up turning him into a much better man, and although Edith eventually lets go of Charlie's memory, her old age is tinged with a feeling of regret that she could have done more for her grandson.

Eloquently written, There Will Never Be Another You speaks to the disquiet and uneasiness of our age and it's powerfulness and subtly lies in the fact that terror threats can appear just when you least expect them. World political unrest, the way global catastrophes reverberate throughout our lives, and the subsequent difficulties of daily survival in a post 9/11 world is obviously the canvas upon which the author delineates her characters.

See gives us a restrained and reserved reminder of the unstable world we are currently living in, nevertheless she also intersperses her story with a reflective message of hope and optimism, a type of cautionary testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Mike Leonard August 06.

A beautiful book and a heartfelt message to us from one of the most generous of writers. I gulped it down and I will go back and read it over again. You know, a lot of younger writers are full of surprises and twists. Their novels just scream, "I am fantastic!" But the novels of mature writers tend to settle down a little bit, they are more subtle, don't shout so much. But then they somehow change you on a submolecular level.

Read everything Carolyn See has ever written, she is amazing.

I've read many of Carolyn's books and "There will never be another you" is right up there with the best of them. Carolyn observes Los Angelinos as no other writer can. Every moment, though pulsing with the anticipation of impending doom, is still infused with a love of life and being in the moment fully. When I put the book down, after reading it in two days, I realized that, though newspaper headlines blare about impending doom, books like this can help me live with hope, humor, and attitude. Can't wait to read her next book!