Audrey Niffenegger did it. She wrote my newest favorite novel, a novel I long to read again and again to discover more treasures and greater understanding with each review.
The Time Traveler's Wife was a book club selection for my reading pals and I and I was so thankful to have a group to discuss it with as it brought forth questions, concerns, tears and interest into realms I'd never even considered. I'm not one to ponder time travel on a regular basis, but Niffenegger managed to build a book based on a long sought after scientific thought that beautifully molded together love, distance, longing, family and even ethics into a portrait that crossed all boundaries of time and space.
The author's eloquent chapters sweep the reader along on visits to the future and the past. The reader rises and falls with the hopes of creating a family and learning to love through time and knowing although we seem to think we have complete control of our futures, we can't change the past where our futures were written.
I recommend this book to anyone, but especially to someone looking for a little romance, someone looking to get a little lost in time, and someone not afraid to cry openly while turning the pages of what will be a book passed along to friends in the years to come.
Friday, July 20, 2007
The Love Season leaves a chill in the air
This book had me from hello. Elin Hilderbrand's story stretches over the course of three decades but is slammed into a little more than 24 hours on Nantucket Island in the summer time.
This is the first work of Hilderbrand's that I've read and I admit, I didn't want to put it down. Her descriptions of Marguerite's work as a chef nearly conjures the meals she created before your very eyes and for your taste buds to enjoy. Her deft handiwork at engaging women - one in her very late teens and the other over 60 - is stellar. The average reader identifies with both - not feeling one is too young or too old, but that the story each has to tell is one that will touch the reader's heart.
Hilderbrand does an excellent job of constructing her main characters and building her plot, but don't get too comfortable with those peripheral characters who make BIG appearances only to fade out and be forgotten in the rush for the author to finish the day and thus the book.
Although the book is hard to put down, I found I wanted to throw it when it all ended. The conclusion was anti climatic, disappointing and weak from an author who demonstrated such literary prowess through the previous 290 pages. Nothing is solved, only an age-old story of love and forgiveness is revealed and the reader is left to wonder if that is even enough to right the wrongs made over the course of a day and several decades. I am not a reader who likes to be left to wonder and Hilderbrand left me to do just that as she shut off the final light in her main character's home. What a pity she couldn't have kept a night-light on somewhere, or even lit a candle to illuminate a more encompassing set of circumstances at the books close.
It must have been a gusty Nantucket wind that blew the candle's flame out and shut this interesting novel too early.
This is the first work of Hilderbrand's that I've read and I admit, I didn't want to put it down. Her descriptions of Marguerite's work as a chef nearly conjures the meals she created before your very eyes and for your taste buds to enjoy. Her deft handiwork at engaging women - one in her very late teens and the other over 60 - is stellar. The average reader identifies with both - not feeling one is too young or too old, but that the story each has to tell is one that will touch the reader's heart.
Hilderbrand does an excellent job of constructing her main characters and building her plot, but don't get too comfortable with those peripheral characters who make BIG appearances only to fade out and be forgotten in the rush for the author to finish the day and thus the book.
Although the book is hard to put down, I found I wanted to throw it when it all ended. The conclusion was anti climatic, disappointing and weak from an author who demonstrated such literary prowess through the previous 290 pages. Nothing is solved, only an age-old story of love and forgiveness is revealed and the reader is left to wonder if that is even enough to right the wrongs made over the course of a day and several decades. I am not a reader who likes to be left to wonder and Hilderbrand left me to do just that as she shut off the final light in her main character's home. What a pity she couldn't have kept a night-light on somewhere, or even lit a candle to illuminate a more encompassing set of circumstances at the books close.
It must have been a gusty Nantucket wind that blew the candle's flame out and shut this interesting novel too early.
On Chesil Beach - not a place I want to be
Ian McEwan does it again with his enchanting story telling. His words read like a lyric to a song you don't want to end. On Chesil Beach is a quick read, engaging and true but at the end of the story, the beach is not a place you want to be.
Don't look for a happy ending or even a level of understanding to how this short novel of McEwan's ends. Enjoy the ride, stop and re-read the passages, savor the moments he paints on the paper. It's much like an amusement ride. The end is back to the beginning of understanding just what defines love and a working relationship and it may be something you have to replay, repeat, or reread to understand.
Give McEwan's book a chance. His artistry is worth the time, just don't expect a superhero ending or anything with warm fuzzies. McEwan is much to real and true to human spirit to spoil his prose with fantasy.
Don't look for a happy ending or even a level of understanding to how this short novel of McEwan's ends. Enjoy the ride, stop and re-read the passages, savor the moments he paints on the paper. It's much like an amusement ride. The end is back to the beginning of understanding just what defines love and a working relationship and it may be something you have to replay, repeat, or reread to understand.
Give McEwan's book a chance. His artistry is worth the time, just don't expect a superhero ending or anything with warm fuzzies. McEwan is much to real and true to human spirit to spoil his prose with fantasy.
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