Customer Reviews

The Writing On The Wall

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

 

 

This marvelous novel combines deep insights into human suffering and redemption with painfully sharp awareness of the importance of speaking the truth and the impossibility of hearing the truth from our political leaders. The story begins with the events of 9/11 but actually gets more powerful as it veers away from current events and into the protagonist's struggle with her private demons.

Schwartz's storytelling pulled me through "The Writing on the Wall" as each new revelation unfolded. While the revelations happen quietly, they completely change the landscape of Renata's life. The connection to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers is an interesting corrolary to the losses that Renata has faced. The 9/11 attacks were huge and visible and the losses were known to all around the world. Renata's loss was similar (sudden disappearance of a loved one), but visible only to those directly affected. A thoughtful and thought-provoking story.

Another powerful book by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Reading this book helped me move the events of 9/11 away from the still unthinkable horror to the effect that day had on the lives of real people as they first made their way through the ash and dust on the street and through the days beyond that.

I loved the strength of Jack's love for Renata. I liked that he fell for her before he learned her many layered aches from the past and stayed with her ready to move through and beyond to their days beyond that.

I liked how the characters were able to rise to the occasion when they needed do, including Renata's mother who loved her enough to reject her offered fantasy and demand that her daughter live her life and overcome her losses in the days beyond that.

I absolutely loved and devoured Disturbances in the Field, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. In many ways, the theme is about the collapse of walls -- in the World Trade Center, and also the interior walls we put up to keep us from getting close to others. It's about how the tragic exterior events in our life can suddenly bring to focus the interior events that have kept us from moving forward. And, to a great extent, it's also about language -- how our words are often inadequate to communicate what we're really feeling.

For all those reasons, I wanted to give this novel five stars. It's an ambitious book and a book that has a lot to say. But, truth be known, I felt that the characters were not up to the task set forth for them. Renata's personal tragedy reads like something from Jerry Springer -- a dead twin sister, a kidnapped niece, an emotionally challenged mother, a lurid past. I didn't believe the relationship between Renata and Jack; both have been closed off for years and suddenly, the walls start disappearing just like that. I didn't feel Renata's easy forgiveness of Jack's infidelity was believable, considering her issues with trust.

And I felt that some of the conclusions were almost comic: for example, when Jack remarks how easy it is to get a parking space after the towers have fallen, Renata thinks, maybe he's a good soul who can see the silver lining in anything. I'd be more inclined to think that, in this instance, he's thinking of himself! Nor did I believe that Jack would be so unquestioning in his love as Renata -- a woman he hasn't known all that long -- shows so much instability (we, the readers, know why, but Jack does not).

In Disturbances in the Field, Lynn Sharon Schwartz got all the thoughts and feelings pitch perfect. Disappointingly, this one does not. I still look forward to her next novel.

A thoroughly enjoyable novel, with many challenging themes which twist in and out of the story line. The author obviously has done a lot of research: or observed 9/11 from not too far away. The theme of twins, the theme of incest, the theme of the attacks on the buildings are interwoven with great skill. The main character has a healthy disregard for the pious mouthings of the (un-named) US President and this alone gets full marks from me. But there is much to admire here - I have mentioned only a few aspects of the narrative. I will certainly be seeking out her other works.

Even though 9/11 and the days that followed it frame "The Writing on the Wall," it isn't exactly a novel about 9/11. It's a book about loss, love, and the need to stay connected to other human beings. The novel brings the events of September 11 to pulse-quickening life, then weaves them firmly into a poignant, compellingly plotted story. Remarkably, the characters are sharpened and deepened rather than dwarfed by the cataclysm that is their backdrop. Renata, the accomplished linguist whose story is the heart of the novel, is so fully imagined she almost walks off the page. Schwartz's assured voice, her humor, and her supersonic ear for language have never been better.

This book was excellent and I had a hard time putting it down. Schwartz took the setting of September 11 as a back-drop for a fascinating story about the narrator's very troubled life. It was very interesting to hear about September 11 from a New Yorker's viewpoint, and visualize how different individuals coped. But what was even more intriguing to me was learning about Renata's (the narrator) life story. The author nicely weaves Renata's history in between chapters from the current day. The narrator is quite lovable with her quirky way of using foreign languages to explain certain concepts and her various folders with different life stories saved up in them. (SPOILER ALERT!) Honestly what keeps me from giving it 5 stars is the lack of a neat and tidy ending. The reader is just left wondering what happened to Renata's niece and whether it truly is the girl she found wandering around after September 11. The author leaves open the possibility that Renata very well could have found her, but then just leaves it at that. At the ending of the book - although equipped with information enough to pursue further investigation into the girl's true identity - Renata just seems to let it drop. It aggravated me so much that I searched out whether the book has a sequel. Perhaps that is something the author plans down the line, but not having such an essential question answered by the time I finished the book is frustrating. I realize that perhaps the author meant to leave us wondering or left it to the reader to make their own conclusion. I realize some readers might even like this type of ending. But for me personally, it just felt like the story wasn't quite finished.

Must read for any serious reader. Very, or extremely difficult to get into, but once within impossible to put down.

I enjoyed this book and the personal view of someone witnessing 9/11 in NYC. I found myself aching for the plight the characters were in. Very good read - finished it in one airline flight. Only found the references to the main characters interest in languange to be distracting. Found myself glossing over those parts to get on with the story.

After the prologue I was excited about reading The Writing On The Wall. It seemed intelligent and I loved the use of words from other languages to fill in what the English language does not provide adequately (though the English language is one of the most descriptive languages on Earth). The novel is structurally written well. However, by two hundred some pages into the book I realized all that I read was a waste of my time. I wish I never even picked it up. The protagonist whines, but about the wrong things and when it is about the right things she is completely ineffective. For instance, when a rapist in the next room is admitting that he forced himself on a woman, she considers calling the police, but doesn't. She does nothing about it, so the rapist will eventually get away with it and the woman he raped will be imprisioned by his actions. He will go on to do it to more and more women because that's what rapists do. The main character made me sick. It would be appropriate if the author was trying to show us that yes, this is an empty irresponsible sexist, but I get the feeling I'm suppose to feel sympathy for her. That's what made me put the book down, even though this was assigned for a class.