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on August 30, 2015
What was the point of even writing this book????? No plot, week characters and boring. After hearing a very enthusiastic review on NPR I was intrigued to read this first novel by Pierpont. This book doesn't deserve a 1 star rating but that's the lowest one you provide. I even recommended it as this month's choice for my book club. The first thing I did at our meeting was to offer my most sincere apologies for everyone for having spent money on this book. Awful, awful, awful. DON'T BUY IT. Wait until you can buy it at a yard sale or thrift store.
on March 5, 2016
Ten thousand words wouldn't be enough to tell you why you need to read this book.
For the joy of the writing, the beautifully chosen spare words.
For the scenes, dreamily shifting past one another like trees seen through the fog as you pass them.
For the people, so flawed, so perfect.
It's a book I won't forget in a hurry. A book I'll read again someday. A book I'll go to when my own words go dead.
See for yourself.
For the joy of the writing, the beautifully chosen spare words.
For the scenes, dreamily shifting past one another like trees seen through the fog as you pass them.
For the people, so flawed, so perfect.
It's a book I won't forget in a hurry. A book I'll read again someday. A book I'll go to when my own words go dead.
See for yourself.
on September 26, 2015
Pierpont has style but I found it hard to sympathize or like the adult characters much. A story of a marriage shattered by infidelity (and the extra layer of pain caused by the fact that the couple's two kids are made painfully aware of the problem), the husband is mostly just egotistical and unrepentant, confused and vague. The wife does a typical narrative thing -- scoops up the kids and leaves the city for a country escape -- but doesn't grow much beyond angry and tired. The kids' stories are more interesting, and indeed more painful to read, but because Pierpont tells us halfway through the book what happens to everyone in a brief flash-forward, I found it hard to re-engage when the story picked up again in the present. I already know how all four people will end up; reading about them slogging through this rather stereotypical breakup was a bit of a chore. Full credit to Pierpont for strangely poetic, detached, richly colorful language -- her style is interesting. Maybe in her next book, her characters will be more layered and engaging.
on July 26, 2015
I saw that the professional reviewers said "lucious" and "insightful"... I don't agree with luscious and only partly with insightful. Her writing style mostly just annoys me...she never gets to the point. Her descriptions of the children are the most insightful part of the book, though even that part is slow. I could not empathize with the Deb character at all; any woman that puts up with the mistreatment she put up with from Jack, to me is not interesting or worth reading about. The descriptions of the place settings throughout the book are done well. Why not read Part Two? It tells ahead of time everything that is going to happen for the rest of the book. What possessed her to include that chapter? It ruined the book for me. I won't read another of her books.
on August 21, 2015
About a dysfunctional family, Mom, son, daughter and Dad who is an artist. Dad has an affair, mistress prints out all their communications and sends them to the wife when the affair ends.
The young 11 year old daughter opens the box the letters are in and reads them. Family falls apart.
No depth to the telling of the story, bounces around at times - past, future to present, not a smooth transition.
The young 11 year old daughter opens the box the letters are in and reads them. Family falls apart.
No depth to the telling of the story, bounces around at times - past, future to present, not a smooth transition.
on September 10, 2015
This novel had potential but it just got lost about the middle. I know the what happened but not the why. It left me feeling incomplete never getting past the surface. I like the why the story was put together in bits and pieces jumping between perspectives and time. But by the end I didn't really know the depths of the characters.
on August 10, 2015
I really wanted to like this book. I heard an interview with the author on NPR and immediately downloaded the book. Unfortunately, the writing style was difficult to follow. The author jumped around and seemed to start chapters in the middle of a thought. I also thought it was pretentious to make reference to other literary works without naming them. In this case one of the characters in the book was reading Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, but this author only mentioned the name of the main character of the Fountainhead. I thought it was pretty pretentious to not spell it out. It is not a very widely read book.
on October 29, 2015
I love reading and always appreciate good writing and a good story. Although this book started out well, the writing dragged on and it became anything but a fast read. But I continued on. Then, when I was ready to read another chapter, the book ended. I checked several times to make sure there weren't more pages that I missed. But it just ended. It seemed the author just basically stopped writing!! What a waste of time to spend reading this book. A real disappointment.
on August 11, 2015
The box sent to Deb turned out to be the most interesting part! Rapidly went downhill - no momentum, no build-up. The ending was divulged in the middle of the book. Disappointing!
