Customer Reviews

Where River Turns to Sky

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This amazing novel is rich in so many ways! I laughed and cried. It will steal your heart, take your breath away. Peopled with characters so real and wonderful you'll want them to show up on your porch for tea, this is the story of six incredible strangers who come together in a tumble-down mansion in a tiny town and attempt to avoid winding up in a nursing home by living TOGETHER and by turning their final years into a grand adventure. This book will make you want to get up and sing, dance, shout out the window that life can be grand right down to the very end. Although the novel deals with issues we will all have to face sooner or later (death & dying, aging), Mr. Kleiner handles the subject matter with humor and love and compassion. The novel reminded me of a wild combination of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, Waking Ned Divine, and Field of Dreams. The movie version would be gorgeous.

Our book group's favorite novel of the year! Everyone should read this incredible story...then spread the word to anyone who might one day be old! This novel will change the way you view life. Read it, NOW!

This amazing story and Kleiner's cast of characters will linger in your mind long after you've turned the final page. I sat for a long time, stunned, smiling, tears drying on my cheeks. It's a tale about real human beings who choose to live together in a huge old house, where they share the joys and trials of life. Together these women and men discover that getting older is not the terrible event our culture has painted it to be--but is just part of the life journey. Ultimately, these folks discover how powerful community can be. Kleiner has created a story that will capture your heart and restore your faith in the human race. I'm giving this novel as a gift to friends and family, young and old. This should be required reading for all of us--especially us baby boomers--so that we can "do" old age differently--with zest, with joy, in community!

I did not want this book to end! I felt I was there with them, wanting these people to succeed, witnessing miracles happen even if they were small. I felt like I knew George and Clara, understood them and would've liked to have known them. I will not look at older folks the same way again. I am passing this wonderful book around to all my friends and hope they too will see what we all take for granted. I cried as I finished this book (not a normal reaction for me) because it was ending, happy for the survivors and missing the ones gone on around.

A trove of richly developed characters, led by a gruff but kind-hearted octagenarian named George Castor, pull and push themselves into an alliance against living in a rest home. George Castor resonates in the reader's heart, his many burdens, and his noble effort to overcome them, begging the question: Has our fast-paced culture raced beyond our ability to appreciate and care for the aging among us? This is a wonderfully entertaining and emotionally satisfying book with unmistakeable message...Everyone needs family, and no one should have to die alone, especially of old age

This is, quite simply, a wonderful book....full of heart, love and soul! What more could a reader ask? A must read for anyone who loves good literature.

I enjoyed Gregg Kleiner's lively writing style, and I applaud his novel approach to solving the problem of our society's lack of adequate care for the elderly. I think the book is very much in the activist tradition (and style) of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Edward Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang. Hopefully the book will reach a wider audience and inspire the aging baby boomers to work together to solve the problems of being old as they worked together to end the Vietnam war and change the world.

I was afraid I wasn't going to like this book but after about 50 pages, I couldn't put it down. The book speaks of love of nature and others. I found myself laughing out loud on a plane and wanting to tell all to read this book.

What drew my attention to this book was that the author is from Oregon and the book takes place in Oregon. What kept my attention is that the characters and the scenery are so memorable and vivid I feel as if I can talk to them, touch them, smell what they smell and see what they see - I sometimes felt as if I was spying! A couple messages from the book - live life to its fullest and don't give up.

"I have never written a 'fan' letter to an author before, but I hope the author reads this web page because I want him to know how very much this book touched my heart. I began reading with some skepticism, wondering how it could hold my attention to the end; but by the time I finished, I was in tears having loved these characters for all their humanness and charm and even their flaws. This is a book about love, and all of us should be fortunate enough to find love like this in our old age. Thank you for a real gem. What's next, Gregg?

I really wanted to like this book and it sounded sooo promising.
I love books about unusual people who don't do what is expected and strike out on their own for answers. But, there was never any satisfaction for the characters and me as the reader. I kept wanting George to find some peace, even if it was just the peace that comes from doing what's right for oneself. The book left me feeling like I had just enjoyed half a good meal and the rest of the meal was taken away. Satisfaction from completing the meal never set in.