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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Jung at Heart, April 10, 2003
Ann Packer's THE DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER is a fascinating exercise in philosophical meanderings. While reading the novel, after finishing its last page, even when typing a review on-line, one can't help but wonder "What would I do? How would I react to my finace's paralysis?" Heavy ponderings, deep moral discussions, and unfortunately, a rather shallow literary style and character development.This was an odd reading experience for me. Mirroring the heroine's crisis of ethics and morality--Should she stay with her crippled boyfriend or forge a new life?--it was almost as if the author, too, was trying to flesh out a novel while typing it. Every page seemed to cry out, "What if I wrote a book about a girl who had to decide whether to stay or go?" According to the book flap, the author is an award winner and an accomplished short story writer. Perhaps that's the problem she encountered here. The conceit of this book is terrific--challenging the heroine and reader to examine what is right vs. what is doable. However, it doesn't survive a nearly 400-page treatment. The characters are all one-dimensional. Even heroine Carrie Bell, who literally appears on every page, never grows beyond a fetching Midwestern girl who dated too young and too exclusively, and who sure loves to sew. I imagine her need to mend and to alter, to measure and to seam together, is a metaphor for her desire to reshape and re-examine her past and future decisions. Perhaps in a 40-page short story, that would be a strong, though somewhat corny, device. Here, in a novel format, the constant excursions to the fabric store and her sit-downs behind the sewing machine are clunky and embarrassing. It's especially hokey because so many times the outifits that Carrie is supposedly creating sound positively horrid and outdated, yet her old and new crowd of friends christen her the next Betsey Johnson cum Stella McCartney. Not very likely from the really stodgy descriptions of her ensembles. I don't know how to position a book like this. It's not really serious literature, and it's not tempestuous enough to be a romance novel. It's sort of a "chick flick" meets Freud or Hume (or name any other philosopher/shrink of your choice). I suppose that's the genius of this book. I can't say it was well written, but at least it was written. For all those armchair authors out there, take inspiration from this novel. You don't have to create realistic characters, clever dialogue; you don't have to have memorable scenes or appealing supporting players. As long as you throw in some recognizable brand names, a few "hip" slang words, and some nontraditional traditional characters (a gay best friend, a gay roommate, a gay black fashionista), you can get published. The true key to this book's success is the philosophical quagmire it dares to wade into: Are we all put on this earth to be kind to others or kind to ourselves? Are we supposed to sacrifice our happiness for others or do we learn how to share a little while losing a lot? This is a great book for a philosophy curriculum or a local book club. It will definitely get you thinking. Or, if you've just dived into analysis, this could be a conduit for self-examination and a pleasant way to fill your 50 minutes on the couch. In terms of being a well-written, entertaining book, it floats somewhere between being a YA novel about growing up and cutting ties with home and a Ladies' Home Journal bit of fiction. The people who populate the pages are all types and never go beyond that. The ultimate decision between Carrie's injured boyfriend, who was growing tiresome to her even before the diving accident, and her new New York City lover, Kilroy, an older man who loves to play mind games, practices head trips, and seems to be a bit of a control freak, is a ghastly Hobson's Choice. The heroine has to contend with whether she should spend her life as a nursemaid/martyr or a protege/emotional punching bag. Great dilemma. Pick up this book if you want to think about your own role in this tortured melodrama. Perhaps it will inspire you to start your own manuscript or your own game of "What If?" Just think--maybe if you come up with a brain-teasing moral quandry and keep at if for 300 pages, you too can get a literary agent, and what if . . .
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