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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtaking, July 21, 2004
This collection of novellas is breathtaking. No other living author today writes with such beauty about the silences and yearning between individuals and those they love, hate, and forever long for. Bausch carefully crafts the pulse points of pain in each of his characters as they strive for even the thinnest threads of hope and redemption. What makes Bausch such a courageous writer is his willingness to risk tenderness in his stories. These aren't cynical diatribes on the futility of postmodern man--these are flesh and blood characters, yourself and people you know, who struggle each day for a glimpse of kindness and generosity, even though they may have failed a dozen times. After reading this collection, you feel your soul shimmer just a little bit brighter, because love, however flawed, is still possible.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the many states of marriage, January 11, 2005
My experience is that even a very good marriage fluctuates through many states, some of them not very positive. In so far as the three different novellas which comprise "Wives & Lovers" are about any one thing, it is that experience. The longest of the 3 novellas, "Rare & Endangered Species", is by far the most satisfying. Bausch does not have anything novel or brilliant or terribly witty to say, and his characters are not novel or brilliant or terribly witty, but Bausch makes fine art out of the ordinary. In "Rare and Endangered Species", Bausch expands the cast of characters beyond the families of immediate interest. He achieves some of the effect of those novels which depict the intertwining lives of a small town, and it certainly makes for good reading, but it does not seem quite developed. In shorter works I sometimes am too aware of the author at work, the characters do not take over the writing, and I felt this way about the two other novellas. The construction of the first novella is interesting: it climaxes, quietly, with an event (the grandmother's death) that occurs in the middle of the few weeks depicted. In the third novella, the motel owner, a totally ordinary women whose ex-husband turns out to be a serial killer, is the one character who is sympathetic.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful study of human emotions..., November 10, 2004
Rarely do I ever rate books 5 stars, but I simply had to in the case of this book. The novellas are wonderfully composed. Bausch manages to weave very detailed stories in what is seemingly a brief and fleeting moment in the characters lives. The expressive use of emotions was quite overpowering. For the most part these were real situations that people encounter: the death of a parent, the birth of a child, alcoholism, suicide, media frenzy, etc... Even if you yourself had not actually experienced these life events, chances are you know someone who has (except probably the serial killer situation but I found that to be more about society's fascination with the macabre). Artfully and intuitively written, this book is well worth the read.
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