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Title: Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore ISBN: 0-316-19645-2 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: June, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.45 (22 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, but that's about it, unfortunately.
Comment: I think that the author is very talented, but the book never clicked for me. I never made a true connection to the characters and the story seemed a little "rushed" (the book IS very small). The sex scenes between Nina and her brother-in-law were a little too frequent and a little over the edge for me, but I realize different readers have different tastes. I LOVED the author's style of writing and it was very visual, but the book is definitely not a "re-read" for me, nor would I recommend it to anyone. I think the author has great potential and the people who really enjoyed this book would probably also love any books by Alice Hoffman (check site for reviews). I like Alice Hoffman's prose as well, but she does a much better job with her storylines. I'll admit that the ending was pretty darned good in that I had to go back and reread the previous page just to make sure I got it right. :) Best wishes to Ms. Dunmore!
Rating: 3
Summary: ENDLESS MANIPULATIONS
Comment: ...and that applies both to the author's style and to the characters she has created. The two sisters that are the center of this novel ceaselessly engage in manipulating each other -- and neither one of them are very likable, which made it difficult for me to like this book any more than I did. One of them is simply mean-spirited, and the other has the sexual appetite (as well as the sensitivity, morality and intelligence) of a gerbil. The author is a skillful writer, no doubt -- but if I find so little redeeming in her characters, it leaves only the suspense inherent in the story to hold my interest. There was some degree of that here -- but the endless goings-on about food and cooking allowed my interest to slide even further, a little like mentally driving on ice.
I felt the need to force myself to pay attention to the more important details -- the result was a not-too-pleasant reading experience. That's too bad -- when I read the jacket description, I had high hopes for this novel. The only real aspect of 'talking to the dead' that I found within it was the brief introduction, a soliloquy by one sister lying on the grave of the other which takes place after all of the events in the story.
I can recommend Sheri Reynolds incredible novel A GRACIOUS PLENTY, or even Rhiann Ellis' AFTER LIFE as more entertaining and true to this novel's alleged subject matter.
Rating: 4
Summary: Tense, brittle, doomed
Comment: I liked this book a lot. I didn't expect everything to be explained, because Nina the narrator doesn't know all the answers (for example, about Edward's role in Isabel's life); I didn't expect to be shocked by plot twists--the whole book moves like a magnet to its climax and conclusion. The interest came for me in the gorgeous writing, and in the author's ability to sustain a terrible tension, a sense of gathering doom, like a summer storm rolling in slowly, but with stunning force. I enjoyed imagining Isabel through the eyes of the various characters; and imagining how Isabel's various mental troubles developed and manifested through life, while she remained (on the surface) a perfectly functional woman. We keep getting new information that changes that imagined course, right up to the end; so maybe it's the unwritten parts of the story that kept me fascinated. I didn't read it very quickly--I spent a couple weeks reading it in short sittings at the gym--maybe that helped me remember it as more attenuated, more impressive in the way its tone is maintained.
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Title: Your Blue-Eyed Boy by Helen Dunmore ISBN: 0316197475 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Until the Real Thing Comes Along by Elizabeth Berg ISBN: 034543739X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer ISBN: 0142001422 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch ISBN: 0312243359 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: With Your Crooked Heart: A Novel by Helen Dunmore ISBN: 0802137709 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 30 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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