After This

Good Read

This was a good book for reading a few chapters, putting it down for a few days and then coming back to it and picking right up where you left off. It was a very touching story and I enjoyed it immensely. This author has incredible charater development and it's easy to picture the people and places so easily in your mind.

. . . worth reading especially if you favor learning about almost all the characters in a novel!

While I definitely felt this was a book to remember and reflect on, and would recommend it, though not for a "rainy day" (literally or emotionally), I would have liked it to continue letting the reader know more of Mary Keane. I enjoyed being let in on the characters who peopled her world, but the story left me unsatisfied in terms of Mary's specific ongoing thoughts of how her life evolved since first praying for "contentment". I particularly thought McDermott had a gift for depicting the behavior of her characters, but also so much more. . . their most intimate psychological rationale for the choices in behavior they made. The fine tuned depiction of their human quirks, spontaneous actions, as well as conscious afterthoughts and subsequent behavior, made me aware of her ability to understand human nature and lent her writing much credibility. I definitely would consider reading other Alice McDermott books!

But what happened?

McDermott starts to bring up several interesting topics, but never explores them. Just when you think you are going to get to the heart of a situation she glosses over it and changes gears. I liked the characters and I thought I liked where she was going, but she never ended up going anywhere. Or maybe it is that she tried to go every where and got lost each time.

An Avid Reader

I was excited to read this book by Alice McDermott because I loved Charming Billy. What a disappointment it was. There was no plot -- it was very disjointed. I forced myself to finish it just because I hate not to finish a book I start, but it was a big effort.

A disappointing read.

I regretted buying this book after reading the first few chapters. The characters are stiff and the chapters are disjointed. I kept reading hoping it would get better but it never did 'grab' me. By the middle of the book I forced myself to keep reading simply because I had spent money on this and was going to see it through to the end. This was the first book I had read by this author and I think it will probably be the last.

Slow Start, Slow End

I selected this novel because Jane Hamilton was quoted as saying that it was the best book she had read in a decade. I was disappointed. There was a consistent lack of story and character development. 'It' and 'they' were just 'there.' The one word that comes to mind with the total effect is distant. I felt a wide separation between the characters and me throughout. I did not miss them or want more of the story when it ended.

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No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.