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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lost in Translation,
By
This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)
As I read this book, When Madeline Was Young, I felt as though I was lost, wandering through a forest, searching for something - a beautiful butterfly, a perfect flower, a mystical cottage. But there's nothing there. It's just a forest full of a confusing tangle of leaves and vines and nothing mystical at all. And that's how this book is written. It is a tangle of thoughts and words, spread from the first page to the last. Nothing special at all.
I've read all of Jane Hamilton's books. I loved The Book of Ruth. Adored A Map of the World. They were both wonderful and I will always have positive comments for them, but I doubt I will ever buy another book by Ms. Hamilton. It's not that I want a "formula" book. But I do want to read something that I can relate to and I don't relate to this at all. I don't like Mac, the narrator. His mother is just plain strange and not endearing or believable at all. I can't stand Buddy, his cousin. The rest of the characters I barely know and, quite frankly, don't want to get to know. Perhaps I've changed since her first book came out. Perhaps the author has. But whatever the differences, my love of Jane Hamilton's books has ended. Sadly.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What?,
By Reader (Seattle) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)
The writing was very disjointed in my opinion. I had to read and re-read many sentences to figure out what the author was trying to say. It was a struggle to read. No likeable characters. I made it to the part where it was introduced that Madeline slept with the ex-husband and current wife. Give me a break! I moved on immediately. Too many good books waiting for me to waste time on this absurd tale.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Enough "There" There.,
By Paprikash (East Coast) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When Madeline Was Young: A Novel (Hardcover)
What Gertrude Stein said about Oakland -- there's not enough "there" there -- is true for "When Madeline Was Young." There's just not enough to grab onto in this book, which I very much wanted to like. I'm a big fan of Jane Hamilton, but this book just doesn't have enough plot points, or enough characterization. It's a novella, not a novel, an intriguing idea without any real development, just a series of incidents set in different decades. For a terrific read about the effect of a mentally disabled sibling on a family, I strongly suggest Sue Miller's "Family Pictures."
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