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Title: A Ship Made of Paper : A Novel by Scott Spencer ISBN: 0-06-018534-1 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.63 (41 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Great until the end, then stumbles
Comment: I loved this book and couldn't stop reading it-- until nearly the end, when the author does something so unbelievable -- an obvious structural device -- that it ruined the book for me. Then he does three more things like that. These outlandish events move the plot, but they not only strain credulity, they throw it on the floor and stamp all over it. Until then, the writing is wonderful -- everything is wonderful. Such passion. Such good writing. Such nuances of character. Scott Spencer understands romantic passion and family life like no other writer. He renders romantic love and familial love and the deep vagaries of the human heart. But he doesn't understand how badly a deus ex machina can ruin a story. I love the theme of obsessive love. (Another good novel like this is "Here On Earth" by Alice Hoffman -- a great read.) I feel sorry for Scott Spencer and I feel sorry about "A Ship Made Of Paper." It was almost a clear winner. Oh well.
Rating: 4
Summary: Endless Lust?
Comment: I read several years ago ENDLESS LOVE, a novel I liked immensely and was therefore eager to start this one. The novel is certainly an easy read. You can race right through it. It's all about Daniel Emerson's obsession with Iris Davenport and his pursuit of her come hell or high water as he rides out his passion in a fragile "paper boat," if you want to mix your metaphors. The characters for the most part are well developed although I thought Iris's husband may have been almost a stereotype. Spencer tackles head-on the dicey subject of an affair between a black woman and white man, certainly an area not every writer is willing to explore.
Having finished the novel, I was troubled by the character Daniel, however. Although his lover Kate continuously describes him as a good man, I'm not at all sure he is. I believe the moral question is this: does anyone have a right to insist on getting whatever he thinks he wants, no matter who gets hurt or destroyed along the way, in order that he can have an all consuming affair? There are of course similarities in Daniel and the young man in ENDLESS LOVE who, as I recall, in a fit of passionate love, burns down the home the young girl he's crazy about lives in. We may be able to forgive youth their folly. I'm not sure we can overlook as easily the sins of people entering middle age.
Having said that, if you accept the premise that everyone here gets hurt or destroyed, you'll find this compelling reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: This Ship Did Not Sink
Comment: I loved this book! I felt it was a magnificent exploration of race, gender, and forbidden love. I hated the character Kate from the first moment she appeared on the page and I felt sympathy for Daniel who had to raise her child and endure her drunken rages. His forbidden relationship with Iris grows out of their mutual emotional bankruptcy. His whiteness and her blackness seems to disappear after the first half of the novel as they grown closer. I would suggest this novel to anyone who love to read about the controversial and the forbidden.
The writing itself is concise. I never felt there were any useless sentences. I hope that he decides to write a sequel. I want to know what becomes of them.
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Title: Endless Love by Scott Spencer ISBN: 0880016280 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Known World by Edward P. Jones ISBN: 0060557540 Publisher: Amistad Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Wife: A Novel by Meg Wolitzer ISBN: 0684869403 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 14 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Evidence of Things Unseen : A Novel by Marianne Wiggins ISBN: 0684869691 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 11 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374166447 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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