The View from Mount Joy: A Novel [Paperback]

Lorna Landvik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

When teenage hockey player Joe Andreson and his widowed mother move to Minneapolis, Joe falls under the seductive spell of Kristi Casey, Ole Bull High’s libidinous head cheerleader. Joe balances Kristi’s lustful manipulation with the down-to-earth companionship of his smart, platonic girlfriend, Darva. But it is Kristi who will prove to be a temptation (and torment) throughout Joe’s life.

Years later, Joe can’t believe that life has deposited him in the aisles of Haugland Foods. But he soon learns that being a grocer is like being the mayor of a small town: His constituents confide astonishing things and always appreciate Joe’s generous dispensing of the milk of human kindness. The path Kristi has charged down, on the other hand, is as wild as Joe’s is tame. But who has really risked more? Who has lived more? And who is truly happy? As Joe discovers, sometimes people are lucky enough to be standing in the one place where the view of the world is breathtaking, if only they’ll open their eyes to all there is to see.


Praise for The View from Mount Joy:

“A delightful journey . . . full of humor and poignancy and the potential for joy in everyday life.”
–The Charlotte Observer

“Deeply satisfying . . . Bursting with the same deliciously deadpan dialogue that is now a Landvik trademark . . . [The View from Mount Joy provides] quite possibly Landvik’s most lovable character to date.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Pervaded by the same tenderness readers loved in Landvik’s other books The View from Mount Joy . . . Should inspire interesting book club discussions.”
–St. Paul Pioneer Press

“[Landvik] has an easy, engaging narrative style laced with humor.”
–The Boston Globe

“Landvik’s latest homespun homage is pure bliss.”
–Booklist

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Joe Andreson is one of the most likable guys a reader could hope to meet. From the popular, high-school hockey-playing all-star jock introduced in the first chapter to the circumspect father and dedicated husband portrayed in the twenty-sixth, watching Landvik's lovable hero navigate the predictable passages and surprising minefields of life is pure joy. The only child of a single mother, Joe defines himself primarily through his friends, two of whom will play pivotal roles throughout his life. As a new kid in Minneapolis' Ole Bull High School, Joe is instantly taken under the wing of bohemian art student Darva Pratt, though he's secretly in love with Old Bull's manipulative "Miss Popularity," Kristi Casey. As high school leads to college, which leads to careers and family, Joe's life will be indelibly linked to these two women in touching and terrifying ways. Once again displaying her genuine affection for Minnesota's salt-of-the-earth people and offbeat customs, Landvik's latest homespun homage is pure bliss. Haggas, Carol --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345468384
• ISBN-13: 978-0345468383
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lorna Landvik is also the author of the bestselling Your Oasis on Flame Lake and Patty Jane's House of Curl. She has worked as an actor, a comedian, and a speed typist in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and their dog, Petunia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EASY, SMILE PROVOKING LISTENING, October 23, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The View from Mount Joy: A Novel (Audio CD)

Film and television actor Robertson Dean slips easily into the persona of Joe Anderson. Dean's voice is low with a slight sibilance that makes the character, a regular fellow, even more attractive and accessible. This voice is warm, inviting conversation, perhaps confidences.

We're introduced to Joe as a teenager. His father has died so he and his mother move to Minneapolis. It's always difficult for a teenager to make new friends but Joe has a lot going for him as he's an ace hockey player. He also has someone he's going for - Kristi Casey, head cheerleader. Less attractive and sexually active is Darva, his good friend.

Joe had hopes of becoming a star on ice but life does take those twists and turns and he winds up a grocer, albeit a popular and inventive one. He's happy with what he does and enjoys his relationships with customers. Kristi, on the other hand, isn't content. She's a striver as a tele-evangelist with eyes for our nation's capital.

Both Darva and Kristi will turn up from time to time in Joe's life which keeps listeners wondering what will happen next.

The View from Mount Joy is easy and often laughable listening as we go through the years with this guy named Joe.

- Gail Cooke

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And a Joyful View It Is!, September 6, 2007

By 

Terry Kalil "remote reader" (Minnesota Northwoods) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The View from Mount Joy: A Novel (Hardcover)

I laughed, laughed again, laughed louder and longer as the book raced by. Please don't let it stop, I want this story to go on indefinitely! Lorna Landvik's latest is a true laugh riot, except when it's poignantly sad and a bit heartbreaking.

Now, I admit I'm a card-carrying member of the Lorna fan club dating back to Patty Jane's House of Curl but her latest rivals Angry Housewives as the best yet. As the story opens, we're all back in high school in the early 1970s. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd swear Lorna and I must have been in the same class doing the same insane things. How did we ever survive unscathed?

Book clubs who have enjoyed Landvik's earlier works will find much to discuss in Mount Joy -- religion, politics, family, friends, food, travel and children all abound.

Finally, I really want to shop at Joe's grocery to win a contest, view Darva's art, have a tea party with Flora and hate Kristi and every other high school girl just like her. Terrific cast of characters that we've come to expect from Ms. Landvik. Don't miss the reference to Patty Jane and the description of the waitresses at diNapoli!

I couldn't read this fast enough and I hated to see it end. Now I'm already waiting again!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, April 12, 2008

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The View from Mount Joy: A Novel (Hardcover)

THE VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY by Lorna Landvik
Rating: 4 Stars

April 12, 2008

Late last year I read THE VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY, Lorna Landvik's latest novel, and as with her past novels, I loved it. I've been a fan of Ms Landvik for years now, and for me she rarely disappoints. In this most recent novel, the story revolves around Joe Andreson, who started out in life full of promise. He was on his way to becoming a professional athlete and did well in school.

He had a lot of friends, including a new best friend, Darva, who was a social outcast, but the two become best friends. It's Kristi Casey, the school's most popular girl, that gains Joe's affections, however. Kristi is the opposite of what Darva stood for, and as the years pass, Joe begins to find out what Kristi is really all about.

Things don't quite work out for Joe, and he ends up working at a local grocery store, a job that ends up being his career as he approaches middle age. Through Joe's eyes, the reader will see the truth behind Kristi, a girl who grows into a woman who is selfish and manipulative. At the same time, Joe continues his friendship with Darva, who by now has a child of her own, and he lives out his days at the grocery store, wondering why his life turned out the way it had. Kristi flits in and out of his life, for one reason or another, and it is intersting to watch this character change over the years, but was she really changing, or was her new life just an extension of the old manipulative Kristi?

I found this book, along with all of Lorna Landvik's novels, engrossing. Her past few novels followed similar themes, in which the title character is not one that is considered a success story, or even popular, but there is always a lesson learned by the end of the book. Joe may not have reached the goals in life he had dreamed of as a child, but to those who loved him the most could truly say that he lived fully, and that he truly did achieve a highly successful life.