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Title: The Pains of April by Frank Turner Hollon ISBN: 1-931561-14-1 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A MUST READ !
Comment: "The Pains of April" was the most captivating read I have had in some time. The characters were always portrayed as someone I knew from my past. The writer is captivating with his imagery and imagination. The fluidity of his writing made this one of the most enyoyable books I have ever read. I laughed and cried as I read the revelations of a life in this book. Thank you Mr. Hollon. A MUST READ !
Rating: 5
Summary: Don't Kick The Bucket, READ THIS BOOK!
Comment: Reading Frank Turner Hollon's debut novel The Pains of April put me in mind of that classic Twilight Zone episode, "Kick the Can," in which an elderly man arrives at the conclusion that the restrictions of aging are wholly a function of action and attitude-and even succeeds in mysteriously transforming himself back to a childlike state. Hollon's anonymous narrator is more grounded in reality, but his tale, if more gritty, is no less hopeful, and ultimately even more transforming.
The short novel is an introspective account of a year spent in a nursing home. Being confined to such a place is not a terrible thing to the narrator. It's simply what his life has boiled down to, and there is no right or wrong about it. He isn't sad or lonely-except perhaps when thinking of his long-dead wife, who seems to have attained a kind of perfection by virtue of her irrevocable absence. But Hollon tempers this loneliness with clarity of vision, something the narrator, at this point in his life, treasures even more than love or companionship. Thus, nothing here is conventionally sentimental, and Hollon's prose is wonderfully saved from maudlin regrets or depressive appeals for sympathy.
Chief to his observations is roommate Weber, a man yet instilled with spirit, vigor, and the attitude of a pubescent rascal. Weber's lapses into lunacy-seeing herds of buffalo in the parking lot; telling stories about dogs trapped in trees-are counterbalanced with his desire to continue living a full-blown life, by staging "escapes" into the real world, to go fishing or to get hilarious, unlikely tattoos. Even his eventual 'descent' into the rear dining room (where only the profoundly infirmed take their meals) seems to be an experiment in living all angles of life.
As the narrator grapples with how he feels towards Weber's insurrection towards the regimented life in the home, avenues into his own life are traversed. Photographs become portals into both memories and conjectures; glimpsed scars become poetic guesses into not only the nature of lasting pain but the duty of forgiveness. The short, meditative episodes are both deeply specific, even quirky, yet carry a resonance that will speak to any reader, of any generation.
Though the narrator may be an elderly gentleman in a nursing home, this is no withered, plaintive voice bemoaning his final surroundings; this is no gloomy, baleful journey into twilight. Rather, he is paradoxically liberated by the weight of his life, and ultimately finds a kind of ironic comfort in the fact that he has lived a life providing him, at the end, with more questions than he had as a child at the beginning. And Hollon's insight into the nature of those essential questions-the formation of our lives around the speculations of who we are and what we should be doing with ourselves, and how-is blazing and precise and as hopeful as the first home run of spring training.
Rating: 5
Summary: Surprise, surprise!
Comment: Copyright 2002 by Diana Guerrero
This delightful little book was a wonder. It is the fictional journal of an 85 year old man who lives in a nursing home. Full of observations, reflections, and tales of his life, it is a fun and thought provoking read. The author was 26 when he penned this little novella, a fact that astonished me. Although some people report having an emotional reaction, mine was pure enjoyment.
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Title: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish ISBN: 0553382411 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 10 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The God File by Frank Turner Hollon ISBN: 1931561443 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
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Title: A Thin Difference: A Novel by Frank Turner Hollon ISBN: 1931561273 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Time Traveler's Wife (Today Show Book Club #15) by Audrey Niffenegger ISBN: 1931561648 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 17 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title:Feels Like Home ASIN: B00018D44U Publisher: Blue Note Records Pub. Date: 10 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $18.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $13.49 |
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