Book Description
Miriam Swanson is thoroughly provoked and she doesn't mind letting you know. Twenty years ago her husband Charles, a powerful attorney with one of the last remaining white shoe law firms in New York, dumped her for a younger woman nearly half her age. Obviously it happens all the time and it's not exactly news, but what's fascinating is to watch Miriam evolve from pathetic to spectacular. Perfectly proper Miriam's great metamorphosis results from the arrival of a little red neck school teacher, Liz, from Nowhere, Alabama. Liz is Miriam's tenant along with Kevin, a 50 something gay man who is Miriam's best friend. Liz is everything that Miriam is not: young and thin. They constantly clash. Then finally, she meets a man named Harrison who changes her into a gal named Mellie.
Miriam spins out from the revolving door of her postured life as a Manhattan quasi socialite while she thirsts, no, starves for recognition. How did she become what she hates the most and what does she endure to realize it? And where are the answers? It takes a few spins, dips and one spectacular fall until Miriam gets her head on straight. Then in a whoosh she's off to see her mother in the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivans Island, deep in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Customer Reviews:
Still her fan.......2007-09-23
This one was better than the previous one but not as good as her earlier books (Sullivan's Island, Plantation). I know you can do it, Dottie, so keep on writing! But give us more of that "South Carolina moon " atmosphere.
Just not a Dot Frank fan, I guess!.......2007-09-07
Okay, here it is...loved "Sullivan's Island," haven't liked anything she's written since. STILL too many exclamation points (see my review of "Pawley's Island). Characters and plots unbelievable (main character, Miriam, a middle-aged uptight lady, has wild naked sex on beach with someone she just met, years of estrangement from her sons are overturned in an instant with everybody loving everybody, etc., etc.) and bad editing in places (in one spot a character is called "Laura," I believe and then later in the paragraph is called "Diane." There was some line about "are they regular or decaf," that I read three times and still don't get. Mirian is irritating and selfish but overnight does a complete 180 degree turnaround. It's pretty bad when the best character in the book is a parrot. I love South Carolina and would like to love this author but I just can't. Read Mary Alice Monroe instead, folks, for a Southern author who creates believable characters in plausible situations that might actually occur in real life. Oh well, at least this one didn't have the usual black servant found in most of this author's works.
A delightful and refreshing story.......2007-08-29
Dorothea Frank has created another wonderful story and I just thought Land of Mango Sunsets was just a great read. The characters are clever and appealing especially Miriam Swanson. Actually, I felt that she gave all the variety of splendid characters real feelings that I could relate too. This is a great book to take to the beach and read. It's an easy read and with the wonderful descriptive scenes of South Carolina, that Ms. Frank portrays you feel like you are roaming around in the beautiful state. I hope I haven't given away too much of the story for those who haven't read it. In summary, it's a delightful and refreshing story with humor, romance, a bit of mystery, and some valid issues concerning our environment. Highly recommend.
Another refreshing Women's Fiction story is Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. This is a stunning Women's Fiction that gives a breathtaking view in the fascinating life of Zoie Baker. This heroine is determined to build a swimming pool for the local kids by gathering aluminum cans. Unique cans that she stumbles on, i.e., Nehi, Mountain Dew, etc., takes the reader on a glorious journey in the life of Zoie from World War II where she meets Nat, a Marine, through the 1980's. This gripping story will keep you up to read just one more chapter. Check it out it's just a wonderful story. All 530 pages. You too won't be disappointed! Bye.
Touching and funny with great characters.......2007-08-11
A story about a woman of a certain age that finds herself challenging some long-held assumptions and habits. The story is filled with quirky, fun characters and will have you both laughing and crying. A very touching story with enough twists and turns to keep your interest.
The Bird has the Best Lines.......2007-08-06
As usual, Dorothea Benton Frank, presents her readers with a colorful cast of characters (bitter ex-wife, Miriam, flamboyant Kevin, damaged Lisa, and mysterious Harrison to name a few), but this time she's also added an irrepressible parrot named Harry who adds his own brand of charm and charisma to the mix. The main character, Miriam has numerous issues with her mother, her children and the circle of friends she cultivates in New York society. She travels to her childhood home in Sullivan's Island to find some sort of peace only to find her proper southern mother's gone "back to the earth" to the point where she's raising her own goats and chickens.
Hilarious and witty as always, there's also plenty of Frank's disarming dialog and descriptive prose that her readers have come to know and appreciate.
This is one of DBF's best novels and is worthy of being read in one sitting.
Book Description
Few Americans today, black or white, know about the incredible life of Cathy Williams. From her beginnings as a slave in Independence, Missouri, to her enlistment with Company A, 38th U.S. Infantry, in November 1866, the story of this remarkable woman deserves to finally be told. By disguising herself as a man and assuming the name William Cathay, Williams became a "buffalo soldier," serving in one of the six black units formed following the Civil War. Her story tells us much about prevailing attitudes toward both race and gender in post Civil War America.
Customer Reviews:
Fact or Folklore?.......2003-05-03
There is greater awareness because of the magnitude of this book and
its message. And I'll wager that there are few Americans today, Black
or White, who know about the incredible life of Cathy Williams. This
remarkable story now has a voice.
Once a slave in Independence, Missouri, Cathy Williams lived and
worked in the 'big house' as a servant to its mistress. And though
being a house servant carried greater privilege and status than
that of the field hand, Cathy began to resent the menial tasks she
performed as much as she resented her masters.
After the death of her owner, and having the good fortune of not
being sold to pay debts, Cathy realized that the fundamental premise
of slavery was a lie and this life was not her chosen destiny. So in
November 1866 she disguised herself as a man, used the name William
Cathay, and enlisted in Company A, 38th U.S. Infantry and became a
Buffalo Soldier. As the first and only African American woman to
serve in one of the six black units formed following the Civil War.
Interestingly enough, Williams was able to become a member of the
Army without detection of her sex, and it was imperative that she
keep her true identity unknown. Her adventures took her from Missouri
to the Mexican border where she served for nearly two years. After
her military career Cathy did not envision returning to her roots in
Missouri, plus her heart was now in the West. So she married and
created a life for herself on the Western frontier, as a business-
woman in Trinidad, CO.
There is much contention surrounding the validity of Cathy's story.
Historians claim Tucker's only source about Williams' alleged service
as a Buffalo soldier is based on a newspaper account published in
1876 and that there are no official records in existence to
authenticate her Civil War service. Some believe it was easy for
Williams to get discharge certificates from the 'real' William
Cathay and pass it off as her own. And that 'Far too many of the
speculations about Williams are colored by a 21st century
"politically correct" perspective'.
Yet others offer a more positive analogy, "Phillip Thomas Tucker the
prize-winning author of The Confederacy's Fighting Chaplain tells
this remarkable tale of Pvt. William Cathay of Company A, 38th U.S.
Infantry, who in fact was a big-boned, 5' 7" black woman named Cathy
Williams. This is a unique story of gender and race, time and place.
Tucker's work is a recommended read that reaches across categories,
from American, African American, and military history to Western and
women's history." -- Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ.
Regardless of the controversy, this was a fascinating story presented
more in the vein of a documentary than a novel and it allows readers
to experience a non-traditional, non-typical life for a 'Colored'
woman in the 1800's. Tucker uses this storyline to captivate and
educate, and he introduces a believable character who unknowingly and
unintentionally charted a course for the role of today's women in all
branches of the military. This story vividly brings to life another
chapter of our colorful history.
Reviewed by aNN Brown
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Review For Cathy Williams Book.......2002-07-20
I just finished this wonderful book....enjoyed it very much..One can see all the truly great research that went into this book...This Missouri Author Phillip Tucker has written about 25 Civil War Books..All have best good sellers...I would recommend everyone reading his books....Dr. AJ & Janet Canpbell
interesting and well written.......2002-06-15
I found this book to be interesting and very enjoyable. It is an example of how one woman turned adversity into her triumph. I would recommend it highly.
A Seriously Flawed Book!.......2002-04-06
This is a book that should, at best, have been an article in a scholarly journal or popular magazine. The great majority of the text is what politely might be termed "fluff." There is so little actually known about the subject of the book that the author has filled his pages with generalities and speculations to lengthen to story. The first three chapters deal with Cathy Williams' supposed service with the 8th Indiana Infantry Regiment, which is based exclusively on a newspaper account published in 1876. Tucker admits "no official record existed of her Civil War service" yet takes that article at face value and attempts to find support for it. One aspect of the tale should serve to show how weak it is. Williams claimed to have been with the regiment during the Red River Campaign in 1864. This was patently impossible because, at that time, the unit was home on veteran furlough. Tucker apparently did not research this or chose to ignore the fact since it contradicts Williams' tale.
Again, there is no proof that the person calling herself "Cathy Williams" for the newspaper story had, in fact, disguised herself as a man and served as "William Cathay" in the 38th U. S. Infantry after the Civil War. The woman whose tale was published might easily have gotten the discharge certificate from the real William Cathay and then claimed it as her own. Tucker's six chapters on the service of William Cathay are also almost exclusively "fluff." They are replete with "probablys" and "might haves" since not one scintilla of evidence exists to describe Williams' activities if she actually had been in the 38th U. S. Infantry. Far too many of these speculations about Williams' feelings and thoughts are colored by a 21st century "politically correct" perspective.
Finally, in talking about a doctor who examined Williams and found her in good health, Tucker writes: "It is possible that he had not served in the Civil War or in any Indian War like Cathy Williams, and felt that he was less of a man upon meeting a female veteran of two wars." This and other comments that follow reek of "politically correct" psychobabble and impugn the reputation of a man about whom Tucker knows nothing. He too easily points a finger at "racism" and "sexism" as the reasons for denying Williams' pension application, when the truth is that there simply was no evidence to support her claim. Oddly, Tucker fails to cite Williams' pension file found in the National Archives even though it is available to any researcher. His only source is a journal article about Williams' alleged service as a Buffalo soldier.
Amazon.com
Jess Walter, a reporter whose first novel fictionalized the true crime story of a serial killer in Spokane, Washington, (Over Tumbled Graves) has penned a riveting, elegiac thriller about a middle-aged man who wants Spokane police detective Caroline Mabry to witness his confession to a crime that hasn't yet been discovered. As Clark Mason writes the long story of a childhood friendship gone horribly wrong, readers will shudder, remembering their own tortured adolescence and revisiting it in that of Eli Boyle, whose physical and social awkwardness made him a natural target for his peers. Back then, even Clark joined the crowd in making fun of Eli. But he also showed him some kindness--enough to make Eli agree to let Clark turn his fantasy game, Empire, into a high-tech start-up years later, and to bankroll Clark's run for Congress. But when the technology boom goes bust and Clark's dreams run out of steam, Eli makes a last, frightening bid for what he's always wanted--revenge on those who made his childhood hell, including the woman Clark has loved since high school. Walter's abilities as a prose stylist and his sense of narrative tension shine through in this extremely well written novel, which is far stronger than his first, but shares its deep sense of time and place. --Jane Adams
Book Description
In this fiendishly clever and darkly funny novel,
Jess Walter speaks deeply to the bonds and compromises we make as children -- and the fatal errors we can make at any moment in our lives.
While working the weekend night shift, Caroline Mabry, a weary Spokane police detective, encounters a seemingly unstable but charming derelict. "I'd like to confess," he proclaims. But he insists on writing out his confession in longhand. In the forty-eight hours that follow, the stranger admits to not just a crime, but an entire life: a wry and haunting tale of poverty and politics, of obsession and revenge. And as he writes, Caroline pushes herself to near collapse, racing against the clock to investigate not merely a murder, but the story of two men's darkly intertwined lives.
Customer Reviews:
Funny, sad, appalling, and oh so true........2007-06-16
Astonishingly well-written, laced with humor and insights. A little known gem of a book. It is a story within a story, a coming of age story within a mystery.
In the second part of the book, an interesting riff on BLOOD MERIDIAN (which is to say, on human nature and war) is combined with a riff on Jean Sheperd's IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH (a.k.a. "RED RYDER NAILS THE CLEVELAND STREET KID" or CHRISTMAS STORY).
The kid protagonist is conscripted and made to fight another everyman, his nerdish and autistic doppelgänger named Eli, and both are drawn into a BB gun war. The true geology of this kid/autistic existence is based not upon stone but fear. One of the best mini-parables of war I have found lately, and the writing is consistantly keen throughout the novel.
This makes me wonder why I had not heard of it before.
If, like me, you enjoyed this novel and are hungering for more, you might also enjoy Nanci Kincade's AS HOT AS IT WAS, SHE OUGHT TO THANK ME and Michael C. White's A BROTHER'S BLOOD, which also feature female protagonists and beautiful writing.
I see that Jess Walter has a few other highly acclaimed novels, so I have now sent for TUMBLING OVER GRAVES, CITIZEN VINCE, and his latest novel, ZERO. What a find!
Compromises and betrayals.......2005-07-04
This is an out-of genre novel inhabiting a mystery, so well-written that it is impossible not to identify with the murderer as he dictates his "confession" on yellow legal pads, the detective in charge, Caroline Mabry, waiting to find out exactly what crime was committed and the identity of the victim. To the confessor, Clark Mason, this is "a story of weakness not of strength". But he is judging his life from the perspective of childhood, when betrayals are more devastating, leaving scars that never heal. Clark sits in an interrogation room in the Spokane P.D., scribbling page after page, a sad tale of personal transgressions and human flaws that have led to the death of another. This is Clark's burden, his presumed guilt for actions taken and not taken, for the attachments that have brought him to this dark place, a history of disappointments and failures as a friend.
Clark Mason straddles the line of acceptance as a young boy, half of him firmly entrenched on the side of the misfits, those unfortunates who draw the jeers of more popular kids. Clark cannot help but feel sorry for Eli Boyle, a boy who is constantly tormented by his classmates. As the years drag by, Clark outgrows his earlier awkwardness, though Eli never does, forever the brunt of bullies' practical jokes. Even after losing his eye in an accident, Clark recovers and goes on to hold class offices, driven to find acceptance. Because of their early bond, Clark works with Eli, teaching him how to dress and act and the direction of Clark's life is determined by this close friendship with the gawky youth.
Caroline Mabry cannot determine exactly who the victim is, and for reasons even she cannot understand, will not pressure Clark or force a confession before he is ready. Instead, she lurks around the fringes of the purported crime, contacting people who have been close to Clark, making sure that all of them are, indeed, alive. This unbidden empathy for the troubled man confuses Carolyn, but she follows her instincts, holding out against all the principles of police work.
The beauty of this novel is found in Clark's honest portrayal of his own life, one laced with poignant revelations, a gutsy clarity that comes from nothing left to lose. His is not a glamorous world, nor is Spokane more than a city of origin, but Clark's journey from child to man is littered with regrets and poor choices, the weight of his past burdening the present. For all his flaws, Mason is an extremely sympathetic character, his attachment to Eli another example of a generous nature. Peppered with an assortment of oddballs and misfits, Walter lays out a human landscape where life fails to deliver on the promises of youth. These are ordinary people struggling to survive when the days have lost the bright luster of success and what remains is simple, unadorned reality. All things considered, Clark's dark night of the soul is a solitary journey, one he is committed to finish with some degree of honor. In the end, "maybe it is all we can do sometimes to save ourselves". Luan Gaines/2005.
Chilling story.......2004-07-16
Fantastic story, well-written. The people who move through the story are very flawed, yet they held my interest. The tone reminds me a bit of Keith Snyder's books, with milder wry humor.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man rules all..........2003-11-18
Outstanding novel told from the aspect of the main character flashing back on pertinent events in his lifetime that have led up to his current crisis. Told in a similar style to John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany", yet immensely easier to read. The plot flows more smoothly and maintains your interest throughout.
The story begins like your average detective/crime novel, but quickly becomes a flashback story as the main character - in attempt to write a confession - tells the story of his life and the life of the dead body discovered by police.
The title of the book comes from the old saying: "In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man rules all." The author manages to incorporate the saying into the story in a way that will startle and move the reader. An outstanding effort with twists and turns around every corner.
CLEAR - EYED.......2003-07-03
Jess Walter's second novel, LAND OF THE BLIND, transcends the form and formulae of the police procedural mystery. The central character who has confessed to a homicide says, "There aren't even names for some of the crimes we commit". While ostensibly about murder, it is those unnamed crimes which most interest Walter and, through him, the reader. LAND OF THE BLIND reminds me of John Irving's SAVING PIGGY SNEED.
Caroline Mabry is a police detective in Spokane Washington who has been relegated to swing shift because she is burned out. Patrol officers bring in an apparent derelict caught breaking into the long-vacant Davenport Hotel who has told them he committed a murder. The one-eyed "loon" refuses to give either his name or the name of his victim, but says he will write out a confession for Caroline. Ensconced in an interview room, he starts filling page after page of a legal pad. We read segments of this confession (which begins in fifth grade) as it is written. Caroline has agreed to wait until it is finished, but cajoles from the confessee the name of one of the people who figure in the confession. Armed with that, she starts to unravel the story backwards from the present as the confession gradually unveils the past. Despite its static form, Walter keeps the story's suspense building right to the final page.
He does a marevlous job of showing the cruelties of childhood and adolescence played out in the poor Empire Road district, which is "pinched like an ant farm" against the Spokane River. The social landscape of Spokane and the cultural divide between it and Seattle are thoroughly explored. Even though a central character says "Spokane is Kmart and Seattle is Nordstrom", Walter's heart clearly belongs to Spokane. He jibes contemporary Seattle with, "We turned every gas station into a coffee shop, and by the time I left Seattle you could get four hundred flavors of coffee, but you couldn't find a decent gallon of gas".
In LAND OF THE BLIND the one-eyed man leads us over moral terrain where sins of commission and omission perpetrated by Jess Walter's characters may remind us uncomfortably of our own.
Average customer rating:
- excellent!
- I love this writer...
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Never Look Back: A Novel
Betsy Brannon Green
Manufacturer: Covenant Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 United States
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ASIN: 1577349822 |
Customer Reviews:
excellent!.......2003-08-03
Betsy Brannon Green has done it again! This book was wonderful. I didn't want to stop reading it. The story is about Sydney Lovell, who after several years of marriage, is devastated when her husband asks her for a divorce. She takes her three children and moves in with her grandmother, but she can't forgive her ex-husband, Craig Cochran, for what he has done. While working as a waitress she meets Cole Brackner, a single, attractive man and develops a friendship. With his help she begins to forgive Craig and heal from the pain she has been experiencing, but soon Cole has problems of his own as he is pressured to sell his property. When he resists, his tires are slashed, horrible rumors emerge about him, and his cattle are poisoned. As he and Sydney come closer to the truth they find themselves fighting forces that are willing to do anything to keep the truth from being known. Betsy Brannon Green has written another amazing book and I urge all who enjoy a good page turner to try it out for themselves.
I love this writer..........2003-03-25
One of my co-workers suggested this book. She told me I was like the main lady character...LOL I am!! It was so much fun to read.
Average customer rating:
- A quick interesting read - I recommend it
- Gardens and Life
- Strangely wonderful
- Beautiful language, but leaves you wanting
- Courageous and poetic story of Longing, Loss and Faith.
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The Lost Garden: A Novel
Helen Humphreys
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0393051838 |
Book Description
Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own.
This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. She will inspire the girls to restore the estate gardens, fall in love with a soldier, find her first deep friendship, and bring a lost garden, created for a great love, back to life. While doing so, she will finally come to know herself and a life worth living.
Customer Reviews:
A quick interesting read - I recommend it .......2007-02-02
I enjoyed the story. I little peek into a time a past.
Gardens and Life.......2006-07-26
This is the story of a shy horticulturist in England during W.W. II, who leaves her labortory to direct a team of Land Girls, who grow vegetables for the war effort. Her personal growth is perceived and entwined with her relationship with garden plants. A pleasure to read for anyone who loves plants. Suzanne Love Harris
Strangely wonderful.......2005-01-17
This is a nice quick read, but it isn't pointless. The book opened my eyes to a lot of things that, even though the book takes place in the 1940s, still pretain to now. The end was sad, but it left me content in a akward way. I would say that if you have the time read the book because it is very well written, with a good story to back it.
Beautiful language, but leaves you wanting.......2004-04-26
This is a quick read and is full of beautiful language and imagery. The characters are interesting and the discovery of the garden keeps the reader engaged. The intersection of real books is an interesting technique, gardeners and readers of Woolf won't be disappointed. The end comes rather suddenly, and leaves you wanting more. The garden's function in the end and the narrator's relationship to it is rather disappointing
Courageous and poetic story of Longing, Loss and Faith........2004-01-24
It is the summer of 1941. WWII makes London a more dangerous place to live every day as bombs destroy sections of the city. The main character is Gwen, a lonely 35-year-old woman living in London and working in a laboratory. Her occupation as horticulturist provides her the opportunity to volunteer to lead a Land Woman's Group - several young girls who will plant gardens for the good of the war effort on a beautiful estate somewhere in the English countryside. A group of young Canadian men live nearby on the estate as they await orders to be sent into combat.
Gwen discovers a secret garden that was created in honor of longing, loss and faith. She becomes friends with Jane who is waiting for news of her soldier fiancé reported missing. And she has an attraction to Raley, the CO of the Canadian men.
The language is poetic and often quite lovely. The story is pretty good, but not great. There are a few flaws in the novel. The voices of Gwen, Jane and Raley are too similar. I thought the novel started off a bit pretentious, but as it continued, I found myself admiring the turn of a phrase or a clever metaphor. The author seems to bear her soul in this novel and I found it refreshing and courageous. This book was short, but so full of sadness. This book will linger in my memory.
Book Description
A stunning, major achievement from Joyce Carol Oates, "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation). A haunting story of the powerful spell Niagara Falls casts upon two generations of a family, leading to tragedy, love, loss, and, ultimately, redemption.
A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children -- a seemingly perfect existence.
But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder, and, eventually, redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the landscape, and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s.
Set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. As in We Were the Mulvaneys, a "darkly engrossing novel" (Washington Post Book World), she examines what happens when the richly interwoven relationships of parents and their children are challenged by circumstances outside the family.
The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted, and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists.
Download Description
"
A stunning, major achievement from Joyce Carol Oates, ""one of the great artistic forces of our time"" (
The Nation). A haunting story of the powerful spell Niagara Falls casts upon two generations of a family, leading to tragedy, love, loss, and, ultimately, redemption.
A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. ""The Widow Bride of The Falls,"" as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children -- a seemingly perfect existence.
But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder, and, eventually, redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the landscape, and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s.
Set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. As in
We Were the Mulvaneys, a ""darkly engrossing novel"" (
Washington Post Book World), she examines what happens when the richly interwoven relationships of parents and their children are challenged by circumstances outside the family.
The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted, and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists.
"
Customer Reviews:
Environmental concerns.......2007-07-25
What is the lure of Niagra Falls and what is the cost of a Love Canal suit? Joyce Carol Oates is a fabulous and prolific novelist. If this book were written by anyone else, the person would be famous.
Six feet tall, twenty-one hours married, Gilbert Erskine throws himself into Horseshoe Falls and Ariah Gilbert becomes a widow. Gilbert had been a Presbyterian minister. The couple had driven to Niagra Falls from Troy, New York.
Joyce Carol Oates is a genius, superb at portraying the subjective states of her characters. She leads us, her readers, to identify with them. She doesn't observe boundaries. For her, in her writing, boundaries don't seem to exist. Intensity is derived, (and she is realistic here), from the shock of experiencing extremes, i.e. an ordinary person encounters something extraordinary.
It goes without saying that the widow-bride is alone. It is honeymoon season at Niagra Falls-- June. The Falls give normal people fantasies of heroic roles. Bereft, Ariah Erskine resembles a figure in a Winslow Homer painting. She keeps a vigil at The Falls, awaiting the discovery of Gilbert's body. Dirk Burnaby is a young lawyer who waits by The Falls with Ariah.
Later Dirk follows Ariah to Troy. They marry and go to live at Luna Park, Niagra Falls. A son, Chandler, is born. Seven years later another son, Royall, is born, and still later, a daughter, Juliet.
Dirk Burnaby has learned that his wife is excitable. He ends up taking on the Love Canal case. Locally it is known as the Olshaker case. Dirk learns to his horror that his own family has a connection to the Olshaker tragedy. The case consumes him, he feels as if he has entered an underworld. He is snubbed by colleagues. His mistake is that he has failed to gauge the moral rot of his adversaries.
Later, Ariah, a widow again, is a red-haired graying woman giving piano lessons. The children are one, four, and eleven when she moves to her current house. Subsequent events show in interesting detail the adroit control of the author in relating the Burnaby story used to illustrate her themes of compulsion and loss.
Compelling beginning........2007-07-23
"The Falls" is an excellent starting point for enjoying Oates fiction. It is relatively easy to read and has a compelling beginning, in its tale of the aftermath of a disastrous honeymoon night. Another particular strength of this novel is its portrayal of the deep emotional ties that bind mother and children despite a very flawed mother. The historical dimension is an added plus; the history of the city of Niagara Falls, while unique, is also a reflection of the history of many US industrial cities. At the same time, I wish I had read this novel before visiting the Falls.
No one would describe Oates' prose as elegant, but she provides an emotional wallop without being maudlin, some very effective images, and she can be wordy without being dull. One thing that bothered me is the apparent total dependence of Ariah's sexuality on alcohol. For a strikingly different novel abut a failed honeymoon night, in style as well story, see Ian McEwan's "On Chisel Beach".
Loved it - Haunting.......2007-06-13
I loved this book - listened to it on tape.
There were several storylines left undone....Royale's encounter with Nina, Chandler's parentage, Ariah's family, etc.
Those threads left many possible storylines.
Way too long.......2007-04-14
I "read" this book in audio form, and it was just way too long. Not really exciting, nor gripping. That said, I did finish it, hoping for a astonishing closing.--It didn't happen. It follows a woman and her family from her pre-marriage days, into her early 60's. The main character gets stranger and stranger, yet her children still have unfailing love for her. Which is admirable. But it isn't a novel you finish and say, "Wow. That was great" and pass along to someone else. Don't waste your time.
as compelling as the falls themselves.......2007-04-11
For me, this was a compulsive read; I hated to put it down, and I longed to get back to it. The Falls ... and its surrounding landscape (the rapids, the Gorge, the whirlpool) ... is as much of a character as the people in the novel. Oates's descriptions of Niagara are dead on gorgeous, haunting, and compelling. At least for me, the most dramatic part of the novel is the beginning, with its suicide, but the narrative that follows is solid and interesting as Oates explores dark family relationships, fears, and compulsions. The story ends somewhat apruptly, but yet, I'm not sure it could end differently. The epilogue, however, redeems what could have been unsatisfying, providing a capstone to the lives of the Burnaby family.
Book Description
Akin to Alice McDermott, Regina McBride has crafted a gem that explores exile and memory, and the ways in which passion transcends time and distance.
She tries to remember her mother's voice and the pitch and treble of it passes through her; the rhythm of it so clear that for a moment they are...connected by frail strings.
So begins The Land of Women, and we are swept into Fiona O'Faolain's last summer in Ireland, the season of her burgeoning sexuality. It is a time, too, when mother and daughter step toward friendship among the voluminous gowns they make for local brides. Yet that giddy summer also delivers betrayal. Fiona's journey from the shame that ended her girlhood takes her to Santa Fe and to Carlos Aragon, a restorer of antiquities, whose ancestry is mysteriously linked to hers. As he explores their pasts with the precision of an artisan, Fiona must face her excruciating memory.
In The Land of Women the past lives in the present, and physical and emotional geography touch.
Download Description
"Akin to Alice McDermott, Regina McBride has crafted a gem that explores exile and memory, and the ways in which passion transcends time and distance. She tries to remember her mother's voice and the pitch and treble of it passes through her; the rhythm of it so clear that for a moment they are...connected by frail strings. So begins The Land of Women, and we are swept into Fiona O'Faolain's last summer in Ireland, the season of her burgeoning sexuality. It is a time, too, when mother and daughter step toward friendship among the voluminous gowns they make for local brides. Yet that giddy summer also delivers betrayal. Fiona's journey from the shame that ended her girlhood takes her to Santa Fe and to Carlos Aragon, a restorer of antiquities, whose ancestry is mysteriously linked to hers. As he explores their pasts with the precision of an artisan, Fiona must face her excruciating memory. In The Land of Women the past lives in the present, and physical and emotional geography touch. "
Customer Reviews:
A bit lost in this land.......2007-08-04
Expate Irish Fiona leaves her mother Jane who has slept with her boyfriend. Ends up in the American Southwest (huh?!) and meets Carlos Aragon- who has a passion for Spanish ships wrecked off the coast of Ireland. Get the connection? It's a long time making it. Well, just an OK read. 4- at best.
Definitely Worth Reading.......2006-08-06
I picked up The Land of Women on a lark and I'm glad I did. This is the first book by McBride that I have read and was quite affected by it. McBride is an extremely talented writer -- very nuanced descriptions with almost a rhythm to the writing.
The relationship between Fiona and her mother is extremely complicated and mutlilayered, and McBride illustrates it perfectly without cliches or being excessively overt.
The story has a sort of haunting quality that McBride totally pulls off. I can't wait to read her other novels.
A Troubled Landscape.......2003-08-16
Fiona O'Faolain is a troubled young woman, struggling with issues from her childhood, a difficult relationship with her mother Jane, and with her father Ronan, who never married her mother but flitted around the world always out of reach. And with Irish mythology. And with the mysteries of dress-making, working with cloth, with colors and textures. And with the haunting memories of her first love, Michael, her awakening, and the terrible way it ended. Now she is living in Santa Fe, lost as it were in haunting memories, and unable to pick up with her life.
That is the plot in a nutshell. The story weaves back and forth in time. It is written in an elevated "literary" style, long sentences laden with adjectives, intense descriptions of colors, odors, textures, fabrics and fastenings. It is as though the author were painting the scenes rather than writing them. Sometimes it becomes just a bit overdone, over-wrought. The young girl's emotions are portrayed, lived and relived, almost to hysteria.
Still, author McBride is a talented writer and she manages to make it work. Somehow she manages to bring together different worlds and cultures and characters to create a unified story. You may not grasp all the symbolism, at least not all at once, but you will enjoy the experience. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
An exploration of myth and mysteryý.......2003-05-31
In her second novel, McBride once again uses the lyrical imagery that so infused her first novel, The Nature of Water and Air, lifting the Land of Women into the realm of mythology. In a subtle exploration of romantic love, McBride also tackles the bonds between a mother and a daughter and how they determine lifelong affection or loss. Fiona remembers the scent of her mother, "the pale smells of her mother's skin and hair, a smell like new muslin washed in salt water and left to dry in the wind".
In the case of single mother Jane O'Faolin and her only daughter, Fiona, their early relationship is clearly a product of a lonely life in a beachside cottage and Jane's youth in a nearby orphanage. Yet their lives are filled with the bounty of nature and the wildness of the ocean, as Jane makes her living sewing exotic dresses for brides-to-be, pouring all her energy into these fantastic works of art. And Fiona has a similar talent, musing over the lush and sensual fabrics that so inspire her imagination. Sharing this creative gift allows mother and daughter another language, one that speaks in sensation and beauty, without words.
With only the occasional presence of a father, as a child, Fiona's primary relationship is with her mother. As years go by and Fiona emerges into young adulthood and sexual awareness, she discovers that the wild and moody Jane has feet of clay. Through her own selfishness and carelessness during this delicate time, Jane betrays her daughter and Fiona flees across the ocean to her father in New Mexico. There she lives among the muted shades of a desert landscape, yet haunted by the memories of Ireland.
When Fiona receives news of her mother's death, she is drawn back into the haunted a past she has so long denied. Thus, Fiona has ignored her own sexuality that has closed like a flower. Then Fiona meets Carlos Aragon and her latent sexuality reawakens. He muses about a place in Spain, Galicia, "where the terran changes to verdant green and the air is charged with salt from the sea, as a piece of Ireland has seeded in the shore of Spain". Carlos has an ancestor, once shipwrecked off the shores of Ireland, who was reputedly rescued by three women. From the mythological Land of Women, they loved him back to health. The returning sailor could never forget that love for the rest of his days, always longing for that love
Haunted by night after night of erotic dreams, Fiona must find a way to open her heart to her long repressed experiences as a young woman at the blush of first love. Exploring the truth of her own female power, Fiona is overwhelmed by intense feelings, as well as the warning behind the allure of this awakening: "Paradise costs; it cannot be entered recklessly". And Fiona has paid dearly for the heady rush into the secret places of romantic love.
With skillful narration, McBride smoothly blends Fiona's Irish memories with the Spanish flavor of New Mexico. Although Ireland is sea damp and mist shrouded, the thoughts that visit Fiona in the dry air of the desert are at home in this place, enhanced with cultural appreciation and nostalgia. Through Fiona and Jane's relationship, McBride explores the earliest bond between a mother and daughter and addresses the reluctance toward the changes wrought by the onset of maturity. The flowering of Fiona's sexuality is handled with delicacy and an elegant description of the young woman's response to her physical awakening. If Fiona can acknowledge the simple early adoration of her impetuous, needy mother, and the past may be put to rest. Unrealized childhood dreams are not easily relinquished, but this sensitive and sensual novel is a tribute to the nature of passion in the Land of Women. Luan Gaines/2003.
Book Description
In the end it is people, not places, that are haunted.
Tommy Keeday is a talented student at a boarding school for gifted Navajo teens, located in the vast high desert of western New Mexico. When he is suddenly seized by an illness with bizarre and frightening symptoms, his family believes he is possessed by a chindi, the hostile spirit of a dead ancestor. But Julieta McCarty, the principal of Oak Springs School, is unwilling to accept either a traditional Navajo explanation or a conventional medical diagnosis. In desperation, she calls on Seattle-based parapsychologist Cree Black.
Nothing in Cree's training as a clinical psychologist or her experience as a paranormal investigator has prepared her for the dangerous task of helping this brilliant boy in whom two spirits seem to battle. Is Tommy Keeday just a sensitive but troubled teenager, or is he suffering from an exotic brain disorder? Or is there truth in the terrifying Navajo legends of witches, skinwalkers, and malevolent ghosts? As Cree and her associates struggle to find the answer, it becomes apparent that there are secrets in the pasts of Tommy and the people around him, and that his fate can only be decided by exposing these unresolved longings and regrets.
Drawing on in-depth research and personal experience, Daniel Hecht's latest novel, the second in the Cree Black series, is a thrillingly plausible supernatural mystery, a passionate love story, and a thoughtful exploration of Navajo culture and identity in modern America.
Customer Reviews:
Careful Writing Pays Off.......2006-03-27
Some time ago I picked up City of Masks, Hecht's first Cree Black story and was more than pleasantly surprised. In the supernatural genres, it is an unusual author who spends time carefully developing characters and setting, rather than pushing ahead on bare plot. Hecht has done an excellent job with Cree Black in creating a psychic investigator whose initial exposure was a visitation by the ghost of her husband at the moment she died. She is a talented empathy as well as one who can speak for the dead, and her experiences have left deep scars. In company with he co=workers Edgar Mayfield and Joyce she makes up a team that specializes in hauntings and possessions.
In Land of Echoes one of Cree's old mentors brings her into the case of a young boy who attends a boarding school for gifted children that serves the Navajo reservation. Tommy's situation has gotten steadily worse and Julieta McCarty, the school's principal must either resolve the situation or hospitalize the boy. The Navajo believe that ghosts are evil and dangerous and Tommy is not only a threat to himself, but also a danger to the school. It is up to Cree to unravel a tangled web of motivation and history in order to bring the ghost to closure and resolve the present day conflicts that stand in her way.
Hecht relies on solid writing and research to make his stories work. I don't know how familiar he is with Navajo culture, but he captures the conflict between the old and new on the reservation perfectly, without ever overplaying the card. In the same way, the author delves into the psychology of his characters without ever turning this into a psychological thriller. One of the reasons I like this novel is that, as complex as it is, there is no wasted writing. Pacing is excellent as well - Hecht takes the time to make sure that events develop steadily, without the frantic action that is often used to cover up a lack of real plot.
If you haven't run into Daniel Hecht yet, let me recommend him. All of his novels are enjoyable and well written.
Five Stars From the Ghosthunter.......2006-01-26
This is a wonderful novel. As a Certfied Ghost Hunter and author of "Ghosthunting Illinois" and "Ghosthunting Ohio," I can say that Dan Hecht really knows his stuff. His heroine, Cree Black, and her team of paranormal investigators, use all the principles, theories and equipment employed today by serious paranormal researchers. Reading this novel is very much like being on an actual paranormal investigation. Believe me, I should know.
Hecht doesn't need to resort to cheesy bloodied ghosts and other ridiculous entities to strike fear in the reader's heart. His research into actual cases and investigative methods makes the novel all the more spookier; this could have been real. I am also well acquainted with Native American culture and I was glad to see that Hecht treated the subject with respect and authenticity in this novel. Don't miss this one. It's a great read.
A terrific story and true Southwest experience.......2005-07-17
If you love the desert and enjoy a good, and scary, mystery, you will LOVE this book. I couldn't put it down. What a great story. I fell in love with the desert setting and really felt like I was there. With it's supernatural aspects, I recommend you don't read it if you are alone, or in the desert..
Fast-paced and involving. Highly recommended........2004-08-10
Parapsychology fans will relish the return of Cree Black, who becomes immersed in a case of spiritual possession which will test all her resources and draw them into a dangerous New Mexican desert confrontation. A talented Navajo student falls ill with violent seizures attributed to the spirit of a dead ancestor, involving Cree in a dangerous world of spreading possession which keeps Land Of Echoes fast-paced and involving. Highly recommended.
Falls short of earlier novels.......2004-07-28
It's enjoyable. It's an okay read, but it just doesn't have the vision of some of his earlier works i.e Babel Effect.
Average customer rating:
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Jamaica Kincaid: Where the Land Meets the Body
Moira Ferguson
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
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