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Man and Wife - Tony Parsons

Advantages: Poignant, compelling, authentic, true to life
Disadvantages: Couldnt think of any

...be an excellent continuation of Man and Boy in that it shows how clearly that meeting the next love of your life is never the end of the story. Parsons highlights the problems asociated with "blended families" in an innovative and compelling way. From the first page, where Harry is describing his marriage ceremony to Cyde, you immediately feel drawn in, you could be sat with the other guests watching the ceremony. There are so many moments that make ...
...the end where Cyde does a pregnancy test and Harry states "...... perhaps for the second time in my life, I knew why I was alive". I for one got goosebumps all over. I loved everything about this novel, the characters were authentic and it gave terrific insight into a man's mind, which is clearly helpful if unsettling to any woman. In short, if you are a big fan of chick lit, but would like to read something from a "boys" point of view, this book, ...

Sue030 05.10.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Man and Wife - Tony Parsons

Everyone has their off days

Advantages: Explores moral arguments of euthanesia, warm portrayal of small town america
Disadvantages: Slow, poor characterisation

Mercy focuses on the issue of euthanasia, and the balance of love within a relationship. The storyline follows two couples, Allie and Cam McDonald, and Jamie and Maggie McDonald. Cam McDonald is the police chief of Wheelock, Massachusetts and has been married to Allie for 7 years. Allie runs the town flower shop, and spends her day thinking of ways to make her husbands life easier. Allie is completely devoted to Cam, and there is a clear imbalance ...
...their early relationship increase the sense that she gave up a lot of her own personality to be the perfect wife to Cam. This made me feel quite uneasy, and loose respect for Allie. I do not believe this was intentional on the part of the author, as Allie increasingly appears to be the central character and has a strength of will towards the end that comes from nowhere and is hard to believe. Allie however seems like a good woman, trying her best ...

Dinah93 19.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mercy - Jodi Picoult

Great Expectations to the rescue!

Advantages: well written; interesting characters and plot
Disadvantages: unnecessary ending

This book opens with so much praise from critics that it's initially a challenge to find where the story begins. It is recommended by newspapers from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, magazies including 'Saga' and 'Good Housekeeping', and it was part of Richard and Judy's Book Club, and it was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. In some respects, that makes this a daunting read. Not because I think it will be too worthy or challenging, but ...
...book is so massively hyped up. How can it possible be as good as these thirty million people are suggesting? My inner sceptic folded its arms as I started to read. 'Everyone called him Pop Eye. Even in those days when I was a skinny thirteen-year-old I thought he probably knew about his nickname but didn't care. His eyes were too interested in what lay up ahead to notice us barefoot kids.' The first paragraph immediately illuminates several key ...

brokenangelkisses 19.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

For the Sake of Art

Advantages: So moving it will pluck your heart stings.
Disadvantages: A bit difficult to get into the yiddish worldview.

...Chagall but Asher replies: “No, my name is Asher Lev.” It was then Asher had his first inclination that his father was not too happy about his remarkable gift. His mother gradually recovers and asks permission from the Rebbe to go to college. (It was unusual then and even now for women to study in some Hasidic communities). Asher goes to the local Ladover Yeshiva and stops drawing. His mother asks him why he has stopped and he replies, “I hate it, ...
...to paint the same way my father wanted to travel and work for the Rebbe. My father worked for Torah. I worked for – what? How could I explain it? For beauty? No, Many of the pictures I painted were not beautiful. For what, then? For a truth I did not know how to put in words. For a truth I could only bring to life by means of colour and line and texture and form.” He does become a famous artist and his work is exhibited but his family will not come ...

Freespirit 01.08.2003 · Read full review
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Review of My name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok

SHOOT FOR THE MOON

Advantages: Well written, great story, great characters
Disadvantages: I wanted more at the end

I've come to relish reading a new Paul Auster book. I know I will be engaged and challenged in equal measures. Although grounded in reality featuring real characters his stories seem to have a hypnotic quality and a dimension with breaks out of the often mundane events that are presented in the plot. Paul Auster is a successful writer whose other works include 'Oracle Nights' (2005), and 'The New York Trilogy' (1988) as well as the scripts for the ...
...'Moon Palace' first published in 2004 is the story of three men from different generations all linked though fortune and fate. Marco Stanley Fogg is the pivotal figure of the story; we see events unfold through his eyes. Fogg is a student in his 20's in the late 1960's. Never knowing who his father was his single mother brought him up. When his mother dies prematurely before he is in his teens he moves in with his uncle Victor, a professional musician ...

Mauri 30.03.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Moon Palace - Paul Auster