Customer Reviews

Weeping Willow: Volume One: Welcome to River Bend

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not quite sure how to describe Weeping Willow. It's a good story about a guy who falls on hard times, yet is determined to bounce back, but it's the humor, unusual characters and folksy story telling that drew me in. Just when I got pulled into the story waiting to see what happened next, the authors would break into the story with their own comments and completely throw me for a loop. Some of the comments they made were kind of silly, but some were hysterical and well timed. I kept thinking what's wrong with these guys. Don't get me wrong, they're harmless enough, but I have to wonder how they come up with some of the stuff they say. In a nutshell, Weeping Willow might not be the greatest book I've ever read, but it certainly is fresh and one of the most unusual and left me wanting more.

The online story serial that this book contains is wonderful. It covers the life of one Lee Harris following his painful (for him) divorce and move to a small town. While reading it, I laughed out loud each and every time. It's well-written, well thought out, and incredibly funny. I can guarantee you'll want to read all of the more recent installments, and highly reccomend it to anyone! It does cover some adult themes, so children would probably be better off not reading it; however, teenagers of all ages (you know...13 to 98 or so) will enjoy it immensely!

Sue is wrong. Weeping Willow is the greatest literary work of all time. I've never read anything so utterly engaging, nor have I seen humor used so deftly. The weight of the characters is nearly tangible; although my all time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography "Cash" by Johnny Cash, Weeping Willow is the only work I've read where I honestly wouldn't be surprised to run into one of the characters in real life.

This book is one of the most unusual and funniest books I've read in a long, long time. The humor comes at you from many angles - in the telling of the story, from the characters and from the writers themselves. It is so rich with detail and "real" characters that I will be sure to read it again. There were so many times I empathized with the main character, noticing the similarity in his situations and mine. And when they happened to him, I realized just how funny they were and that made me feel better about my occasional unfortunate circumstance. If you want to feel lighter about the woes in your everyday life, then you must read Weeping Willow. I'm glad I ordered it!

I instantly recognized Geoff and Steve as an amazingly creative duo. Their style of writing is truly unique as it wraps the fiction with humorous interjections straight from the authors to give the feeling as though they're telling the story in person. I have love-hate relationships with books such as these largely due to my inability to put them down once I've started. The multidimensional crafting of each character creates truly dynamic personalities forging an intimate bond for the reader with each one. Everyone has been Lee at one time and everyone has a Twain in their life. A great book is one that makes the reader part of the story and yearning to meet the characters in real life. Weeping Willow is one of these books.

This book is an intelligent, sophomoric, cerebral, nonsensical treasure! I read it twice, consecutively, and laughed out loud both times. Mention of Space Food Sticks, Twister, and Speed Racer sent me on a very pleasant trip down memory lane(that's a cliche for sure - find many more that are really funny in Weeping Willow). The authors' bantering and interjections make this a unique, very enjoyable read. I fell in love with Weeping Willow, its characters, and the authors. This book is a keeper!

Weeping Willow: Welcome To River Bend is a tale of an accountant, Lee Harris, who finds himself stuck in River Bend after a painful divorce. Lee decides to stay and befriends a series of unique characters. The story flows smoothly and hilarity ensues in each "installment" both from the story, and from the authors interjections. The humor is brilliant but down to earth and the situations can be relevant to anyman (woman) in anytown. I can't wait for the next "installment" to be published.

This is easily the most entertaining story I've read in a long time. The characters are endearing and realistic without being mushy and I found myself attached to pretty much all of them. The authors are brilliantly funny, but in a smart way- the story itself could stand on its own if the authors suddenly decided to quit telling jokes (which you hope they wouldn't).

The authors interrupt the story with side dialogues of their own (in bold or italic print), which are a creative and hilarious element that I've never seen before. They banter back and forth about plot points, beer, sexual orientation, fire, grammar, tents, and whatever else seemed to pop into their minds as they went along. It gives the whole book a living feel, like a stream of conciousness story but much more coherent.

If I were to simplify it, I'd say it's "About Schmidt" meets "Family Guy," except that it's a book and not a cartoon or a movie. Give it a try and you might agree, or you might not, but you'll have fun regardless.

Being the kind of person that can't sit still long enough to read a recipe for boiling water, reading a novel is usually out of the question. But I did find myself drawn to Weeping Willow and at times couldn't put it down. I was frequently laughing out loud, often startling my slumbering dog.

I thought the fourth wall, if you will, commentary between writers Geoff and Steve within the book a unique device that almost became a subplot of its own. Perhaps at times it may have been a touch contrived, but it almost always made me laugh, and I would occasionally scan ahead to see when the next tidbit would appear. And taking it one step further by having the characters actually refer to the writers of the story we're reading was also a clever comical touch.

On the surface the story is rather simple, yet you care about the characters and can certainly relate to their experiences. Some characters at times became almost caricatures, but still left you turning the page to find out what happened next.

My only real negative would be the frequent use of words even Daniel Webster wasn't all that familiar with. At times that did take me out of the story, as I had to either re-read the passage to understand the use of the word, which I can normally do successfully, but in a few instances I actually had look it up. That being said, I now feel far more ubiquitous with a sense of omnipresent liquidity©, having read Weeping Willow.

All in all I highly recommend giving it a read, as it will definitely leave you with a smile on your face and a prodigious vocabulary once completed.

Grandiose story about an everyman who gets a pulse after bouncing out of an accountancy numbing dredge of the big city life, and landing in a 21st century version of Mayberry.

Entertaining enough to become cable television's version of 'Ed', and witty enough to breeze past the comparisons.

The hero's adventure is nudged along by idiosyncratic town folk whose off-center charm mirrors that of the authors, whom the reader meets through strategically random blurting of conversation on what they wrote, what they would have liked to write, and each other.

The story is great, but the characters (fictional and authorwise) keep you reading, and wanting more.

(This product is not unsafe, nor does it have any defects that could cause injury or death, though at times you may laugh so hard that you fart.)