God-Shaped Hole (Paperback)

~ (Author) "That's all the ad said..." (more)
Key Phrases: Thomas Doorley, Los Angeles, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the brief prelude to this conventional contemporary love story, a fortune-teller predicts that Beatrice Jordan (then 12) will meet a soul mate whom she'll lose to tragedy. Fifteen years later, lonely and feeling like an outsider in her hometown of Los Angeles, this self-professed "cynical but lovable...chick" impulsively answers a personal ad in a weekly newspaper. Jacob Grace is two years her senior, a freelancer with a novel called Hallelujah in progress; Beatrice's work as a jewelry designer gives her life meaning, as do music, books and sex, not necessarily in that order. Both of their fathers hers a workaholic lawyer, his an alcoholic author decamped, and they still feel abandoned; they also both feel that music is "a cosmic language" and that people are "all searching to fill up" the titular hole in their souls. Jacob renames Beatrice "Trixie" and takes her for a midnight swim in the frigid Pacific before they bed down in her apartment. Their ensuing relationship is sensuous, but marred by her jealousy of his former girlfriend, his fondness for taking solo sojourns without notice and their shared antagonism toward their fathers. Beatrice comes across as bright but brittle, independent but superstitious, sophisticated but trailer-park profane. Jacob is Byronic, misunderstood and (of course) destined for tragedy. For readers compelled by bedroom athletics and the self-destructive tendencies of free spirits, and unopposed to prose that's not much better than competent, this first novel offers some appeal.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Beatrice "Trixie" Jordan, a lonely, 27-year-old jewelry designer living in Los Angeles, responds to a personal ad from a man "seeking a friend for the end of the world." The man is Jacob Grace, a 30-year-old writer. They fall madly in love and believe they are soul mates. Abandoned by their fathers, they spend much of their time helping each other come to terms with their feelings. After enduring some emotionally desperate times, they hope better days are ahead and plan to leave L.A. and spend the rest of their lives together. However, when Beatrice was 12, a fortune-teller told her that her true love would die young. First-time novelist DeBartolo, writer and director of the film Dream for an Insomniac, has written an edgy story of love and fate rife with expletives and sex. This is a love story in which a happy ending isn't guaranteed. Some readers may be unfamiliar with some of the pop-culture references and may not appreciate the frank and brutally honest tone, but overall this is an engaging first novel. For public libraries. Samantha J. Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 329 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark; First Printing edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570719586
• ISBN-13: 978-1570719585
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #288,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saving Grace, October 25, 2002

By	Christian "Writer/Human" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This is a love story. A true, dyed-in-the-wool love story for the twenty first century. This love story is depicted realistically, with the young woman protagonist making bad choices based on who she is and where she came from rather than a glossed-over, Hollywood version. For these reasons, this book rocks!

Beatrice "Trixie" Jordan was only twelve when a carnival fortune teller predicted that she would meet her soulmate, only to lose him to tragedy. That portentious pronouncement follows Beatrice into adulthood.

A jewelry-artist with her star on the rise, Beatrice meets Jordan Grace, a man two years her senior. It's immediately apparent that the pair's trajectories are following the same arc. And for the reader, an excellent tension-builder, for we know that this is Beatrice's doomed soul mate. Their lives together makes both of them more happy than they've ever been...and we know that a love like theirs happens rarely. That's why we want that long-ago fortune teller to be wrong, for their love to prevail over all.

When a story is so well-written that it engages my emotions on an incredibly deep level, deep enough for me to get angry at Beatrice for being such a fool...I know the writer has me hooked.

Tiffanie DeBartolo does an excellent job of making her characters believable and complex, with tough choices that ultimately affect their lives in profound ways. "God Shaped Hole" is one of those books that only comes along once a decade--but manages to remain in the hearts of anyone who is lucky enough to have read it. Buy this today!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hole in Our Souls, January 4, 2003

By	A. Firestone "AJF" (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't begin to express how deeply this book effected me. I yelled at the text; I let my tears slide down my face to the pages below. Tiffanie DeBartolo has written an amzing work. The reader knows head on that the protagonist is headed for heartbreak and misery. Still, it's impossible to put the book down. The two main characters are plausible, and most people could relate them to others in their lives. These are characters that have a deepseated need for eachother, but for reasons unknown, must be seperated. We all search for someone or something to fill the Hole within us. This book takes a look at how another person can fill that space and leave a chasm when taken away.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetic, raunchy, funny, touching, June 3, 2002

By	Andrea Wheeler (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

DeBartolo, Tiffanie
God-Shaped Hole

6/2/02

Beatrice Jordan doesn't fit into LA, her family, the world. But she finds someone who fits her perfectly, and she fits him. They fall in love in their own crazy way, have a falling out, get back together again, all the while plotting their escape from "Hell Aye". At first the characters seem pretentiously weird but as I got to know them I could see that they were real people in real lives.

The writing is poetic, raunchy, funny, touching. Only the predictable ending kept this from being 5 stars for me.