Blessings

Wonderful, poignant book!

This book will be one that you will reach for even after it's over. The story is beautiful and the characters are flawed in an endearing way. I read this in snatches (small children at home) but it was wonderful and SO easy to "get back into.":-) At one point it made me cry and my 4 year old couldn't understand how a book can make you cry - keep the tissues handy. It is a story you will be glad you read! The book makes you feel like you are there - beautifully written and incredible descriptions of a home past it's prime.:-) Enjoy and pass it on - well worth the read!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

True Love Unfolds Secrets

This is another great piece of writing from Anna Quindlen who is dependable whether in columns or novels. Her characters are real, her descriptions of love are honest and the story unfolds with secrets wrapped within secrets. There is emotional truth on every page and an ending that speaks to enduring love and decency.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

This book is very good. The story skips from Lydia's past to her present alot. But the storyline of Skip and Faith is wonderful. I wish the ending would have been different but oh well.... Wonderful story!!!!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fails to deliver

I bought the book on a whim, and I was greatly disappointed. I finished it, but it was tough. The idea is riveting, but the author fails to deliver the twists with a dramatic flare. Therefore, the portions where readers should be shocked, fall with an anticlimatic bang. Another problem was the description in the book. She described the scenes to the point of obsurdity. At times I found myself reading on and on about chairs.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

BORING! BORING! BORING!

I have started this book FOUR times, and cannot get into it! Quindlen needs a good editor, who will separate the wheat from the chaff...break up some of the rambling sentences, for starters. One sentence was 50 words long, another was 83! An 83 word SENTENCE! That's ludicrous! Yes, I found the book so boring that I resorted to counting words in sentences! I don't know HOW this book ever made the NY Times Best Seller list!

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Reader enhances writer

Joan Allen meets Anna Quindlen: what a great match. Previous reviews are of book only, but the combination of Allen's reading of Quindlen's text makes something very special indeed.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

unbelievable premise

It was difficult to believe that the caretaker would want to raise the infant and the author failed to explain this. Also there was too much going back and forth from the past to the present which made the reading choppy. I was disappointed since I had just finished reading Black and Blue by the same author and thought that was very good.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

beautiful life lessons

Blessings tells the story of Lydia Blessings, an old woman who lives by herself in a large house with her namesake. She has a new gardener/handyman named Skip who lives in an apartment above the garage, and a cantankerous maid named Nadine. One night Skip finds a newborn baby in a box lying on his doorstep. At first he tries to hide her from everyone, but eventually everyone at Blessings knows about the baby. Soon they all begin to see their own lives transformed by the influence of this tiny, innocent creature. Lydia especially finds her own heart softening, reliving past memories of her own childhood, as well as her daughter's childhood.
The main message I found running through the book is no one is an island. We all must have interaction with other human beings in order to survive. Indeed, if we truly want to thrive, the only way to do this is to cultivate meaningful relationships with others. Faith, the baby left on Skip's doorstep, is the physical embodiment of this message. She literally won't survive unless Skip takes care of her. Lydia is the emotional embodiment of the message. She seems to be a recluse, hiding in her house, hardly daring to even go outside. And yet, she will peek through her windows with binoculars to watch what goes on outside. She needs social interaction, but denies herself of it. But as the story progresses, Lydia opens herself up bit by bit to her friends and family, and finds healing for her own heart.

OK

Ultimately, Anna Quindlen has proven she is a better observer of life than as a novelist. I think Blessings is the epitome of this truth. Blessings was not a bad novel, as it was overwrought with sometimes seemingly unimportant past recollections with characters, especially with Lydia Blessings. Skip Cuddy was the most fascinating of the characters, exceeding my expectations. As with what Quindlen often discusses is the relationships with our family and how that inevitably interacts with the quintessential question 'Who am I?' An irritating aspect of this novel was that Quindlen wrote in highly stream of conciousness mode of skipping from the present tense into the past tense. Disappointing, but I will still read Quindlen.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

out of character - totally unbelievable

Bad characterization. Our disbelief with the character caused us to mistrust the rest of the plot - and abandon the book after the fourth chapter. We are glad that we only borrowed the volume, and not bought it. Waste of money and time. If you are so naive as to believe this plot and characterization, then go ahead and buy.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Estate Planting

After a slow start, I was very impressed by this book. From the reviews and description on the book jacket, I was afraid that this would be Anne Tyler Lite. While I like her writing very much, this book was much deeper than what I have read by Tyler, if not as intimately written as Tyler's books. Like Richard Russo's Empire Falls (one of my all-time favorites) the book deals with a wealthy matriarch living in a large estate. But unlike that book, which held the old lady up as an enigma, Blessings gets into her mind by having her help her groundskeeper raise an infant left on his garage/apartment doorstep (the baby was obviously left there to be taken care of the rich owner of the estate). The most interesting parts of the book are the flashbacks into her own life that explain what forced her out of Manhattan debutante life and into lifelong exile at her family's country estate. At time the book reminded me of Ian McEwan's Atonement, but never actually reaches the heights of that book.

Anna Quindlen Rocks!

Wow. This was an excellent book. Anna Quindlen keeps a wonderfully soft grip on the reader with her extraordinary character development and perfect pacing. I loved the book. I loved the characters. Most of all, I loved the subtext of the book for its definition of family.

A Blessing to Read!

My first contact with a Quindlen manuscript. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. There were some spots that dragged (Lydia's past). Lydia, Skip, Jennifer, Nadine - all strong character developments. Reminded me of 'The Lovely Bones'. Same lyrical style as Belva Plain. A predictable story line but revelations on family, love, loss, and redemption make it a worthwhile read. Readable on a rainy day with a good cup of coffee.

I agree, BORING!

I've enjoyed Anna Quindlin's columns in the NY Times, but haven't really liked her books so far...keep hoping that she'll be a little more realistic in the future. (But, in saying that, I was very disappointed when the baby in the story was returned to her birth mother!)

One to help you sleep!

I like to read to wind down before I go to sleep at night, most books take a week or two, this one took me three months, I just couldn't get into it, and I can't start a new book until I finish the current book I'm reading. Pretty boring. Sorry.

Boring!!!

I hate not finishing a book, but this one I just can't stay awake while reading it! Sorry, way tooooooo boring!

Touching but difficult to finish .

The story line reminds one of Driving Miss Daisy - the elderly widow of the estate - the sympathetic household help - the deep secrets that both Mrs. Blessing and Skip Cuddy hold inside. The small infant brings out long hidden warmth in the main character . Very touching as a novel - interesting - but difficult to stick with to the end.

'Mixed' Blessings

The lessons of love and living are nicely and neatly portrayed, and the way in which older people relive and relate to the past is done with great understanding. It is in the action that this book has its weakness. The response of Mrs. Blessing to the scene of the crime in her home does not ring true, and the wrap-up of the story just rushes forward from there without the careful attention to detail and description that made reading up to that point enjoyable.

Disappointing

It was difficult to believe that a young man wanted to raise a baby that he found on the steps to his apartment. The story seemed far-fetched and I had a hard time finishing the book.

Disappointing

I started to read the book and had a hard time continuing. It was hard to believe a young man would want to raise a baby that he found on the steps to his apartment. Come on -- it was too unbelivable and turned me off. I had a hard time finishing the book.