Scan barcode
vegprincess's review against another edition
3.0
At times this book was more like 3.5 stars but I gave it 3 for "overall." I didn't like the book as much as I thought I would. I think it could have been a little shorter and there were a few points in the book where it kind of dragged along. I really didn't care for Eveline, the heroine of the novel, as she was bland and weak and didn't generate any emotion in me. I can hate a character and love a book but I couldn't even hate Eveline because she was just too "blah". I did enjoy the writing style, though, which is why I can say I liked the book. Thayer Hamann does have a way with language. I'm thinking that maybe my expectations were too high (one of the blurbs on the back of the book said that this is basically the next Catcher in the Rye. Eveline is no Holden Caulfield)or it just wasn't the right time for me to read it but the book just didn't resonate with me. To be fair, I'll probably read it again and maybe I'll feel differently.
doritobabe's review against another edition
Listening to the 50 page rule. This book didn't captivate me in 2011 when I bought it, nor does it captivate me now.
Putting away (again) for a rainy day...
Putting away (again) for a rainy day...
anniewill's review against another edition
2.0
There was so much about this book that irritated me. I ended up forcing myself to read it because I had a mild interest in what happened to Evie- quite possibly one of the most annoyingly self absorbed female characters I have ever read. If there was a man in the book who was not in love with her----and not just "in love" with her; completely entranced by her beauty and sexuality----I didn't come across him. Even the gay characters were enraptured with her!
And, why? She was so dull and depressing and dreary, as were her male love interests. Oh.my.god. Make the torturous relationship with Rourke just end already! Who cares? Really, Evie? Just because the relationship ended (in a way in which I never quite understood why), doesn't require you to drift through life as if in a coma for the next three years. And, why is she with Mark? Why is she so dependent on men? Why isn't her mother (an ardent feminist) more interested in her relationship choices? Why is she such a pathetic character? Annoying.
Although Evie is a few years older than me, I was coming of age about the same time she was and honestly, I didn't know any women like her. I just can't imagine it!
I think this book could have used a good editor (a common complaint I have with current literature)- someone who could have knocked off at least 200 pages of HTH's superfluous writing. Man, that woman likes her own writing. And I found some of her supposedly wise insight laughably naive and obvious. Sheesh.
I found myself thinking that maybe this is a book for young women. I imagine HTH revisiting this book in her forties and cringing at the writing. At least, I hope she will have matured as a writer and will find her "insight" cringe worthy. I certainly did.
alexisrt's review against another edition
1.0
Many reviewers have commented on the "beauty of the language" in this dense, 600 page novel. The problem is that Thayer Hamann does not know when to hold back. My patience officially snapped on p.271.
"Say it, he said, the words caught at the base of his throat. No one.
No one, I said, I swore, but you.
I said it because it was true. There was no one but him, and there never would be. I loved him with pain and with something greater than pain, with a barren ache that pealed not in the heart but in the desert dry alongside it. I knew it was so even then: if in his arms I was a woman, beyond them I was nothing."
You may say that this is really not that bad, and quite possibly, I could find worse examples if I cared enough to find them. The real problem, however, is that there is 600 pages of this. The prose, and Eveline's internal monologue, wind up choking the book. In 600 pages, largely consisting of Eveline's internal monologue and musings, I should have a sense of her as a character. I don't. She remains vacuous and passive, reacting to the men around her while spouting platitudes about the female condition. I have no idea why men are irresistibly attracted to her. I have no idea why she and Rourke have The One True Love. In fact, I know very little about Rourke at all. Or Eveline's parents. Characters like Kate simply drop out of the story.
The plotting? Well, there's a plot, though it's not exactly 600 pages worth of plot. It's not helped by Thayer Hamann's technique of explaining events 200 pages later, making me say, "Oh. So I didn't miss the explanation for what happened back there. Now it makes sense."
The only thing worse than reading this novel would be to have read the unedited vanity press edition.
"Say it, he said, the words caught at the base of his throat. No one.
No one, I said, I swore, but you.
I said it because it was true. There was no one but him, and there never would be. I loved him with pain and with something greater than pain, with a barren ache that pealed not in the heart but in the desert dry alongside it. I knew it was so even then: if in his arms I was a woman, beyond them I was nothing."
You may say that this is really not that bad, and quite possibly, I could find worse examples if I cared enough to find them. The real problem, however, is that there is 600 pages of this. The prose, and Eveline's internal monologue, wind up choking the book. In 600 pages, largely consisting of Eveline's internal monologue and musings, I should have a sense of her as a character. I don't. She remains vacuous and passive, reacting to the men around her while spouting platitudes about the female condition. I have no idea why men are irresistibly attracted to her. I have no idea why she and Rourke have The One True Love. In fact, I know very little about Rourke at all. Or Eveline's parents. Characters like Kate simply drop out of the story.
The plotting? Well, there's a plot, though it's not exactly 600 pages worth of plot. It's not helped by Thayer Hamann's technique of explaining events 200 pages later, making me say, "Oh. So I didn't miss the explanation for what happened back there. Now it makes sense."
The only thing worse than reading this novel would be to have read the unedited vanity press edition.
beansbookclub's review against another edition
5.0
2023 Bean has already shelved this book for a re-read this year. 2018 Bean read it in February. Here's what she thought:
I dove fully into Eveline's confusing, self-denying, lovestruck, heartbroken world and came out the other side completely out of breath. This novel is for sure for people like me--those who think deeply, feel deeply, and love deepy--people like Eveline. I think I can say, looking back on the novel now, that I saw myself in Eveline. I can't find words to explain the profundity and the intense emotion intertwined in the pages of this book.
"The men are talking, catalogin the ravages of nature--earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, mudslides, plagues, killer bees. I wonder, why do they expect to earth to remain passive as we pave it?"
"The woman Rourke awakened in me was not gifted with delicacy or political cause; she came in an atomic rush, possessing nothing more than instinct and courage."
"It's a mystery, the way time for us was wrong when time is right for so many useless things, when things that should be impossible are in fact possible. There are machines that divide atoms, jets that fly at the speed of sound. Flags on the moon. And yet, we could not be together."
"He breathes in. 'The first time I saw you,' he says, 'it was like seeing a river. Something that could be touched but not held. Something there but already gone. I never wanted anything so much.'"
“The first time I saw you,” I say, “I had a premonition. I had the feeling I’d found the thing I’d always been waiting for. The next time I saw you, it was the same. And every time after it’s been the same.”
His hand reaches for me.
“I don’t want to lose you again.”
“You won’t,” he says. “You can’t.”
I dove fully into Eveline's confusing, self-denying, lovestruck, heartbroken world and came out the other side completely out of breath. This novel is for sure for people like me--those who think deeply, feel deeply, and love deepy--people like Eveline. I think I can say, looking back on the novel now, that I saw myself in Eveline. I can't find words to explain the profundity and the intense emotion intertwined in the pages of this book.
"The men are talking, catalogin the ravages of nature--earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, mudslides, plagues, killer bees. I wonder, why do they expect to earth to remain passive as we pave it?"
"The woman Rourke awakened in me was not gifted with delicacy or political cause; she came in an atomic rush, possessing nothing more than instinct and courage."
"It's a mystery, the way time for us was wrong when time is right for so many useless things, when things that should be impossible are in fact possible. There are machines that divide atoms, jets that fly at the speed of sound. Flags on the moon. And yet, we could not be together."
"He breathes in. 'The first time I saw you,' he says, 'it was like seeing a river. Something that could be touched but not held. Something there but already gone. I never wanted anything so much.'"
“The first time I saw you,” I say, “I had a premonition. I had the feeling I’d found the thing I’d always been waiting for. The next time I saw you, it was the same. And every time after it’s been the same.”
His hand reaches for me.
“I don’t want to lose you again.”
“You won’t,” he says. “You can’t.”
hal3sta's review
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
modern_analog's review against another edition
4.0
A thoughtful and well written book. It took me a few months to get through this one, not because it's not compelling, but because at over 600 pages in hardcover, it's not the easiest book to toss in my bag for when I have a few minutes to kill on my commute.
The story centers completely around the observations and articulations of Eveline, a precocious and artistic girl on the brink of womanhood. At times it can be a bit overly sentimental, particularly with regard to her discovery of love, but I suppose at 18, it does feel like you are the first one to have such intense feelings. Heartbreak also has a profound effect on Evie, who becomes more of a passive bystander in her own life after her breakup with Harrison Rourke. The book feels like it is on the brink of something major happening, a la Catcher in the Rye, but that transformative event never really comes, and the story continues as it does.
While enjoyable, I definitely feel like the book could have been edited down to a less cumbersome page count, as the author does seem to fixate on certain internal musings that go on far too long and are ultimately inconsequential to the story arc. But then again, that is the reason it comes off as intensely personal, almost diary-like account of Evie's experiences in figuring out who she is.
The story centers completely around the observations and articulations of Eveline, a precocious and artistic girl on the brink of womanhood. At times it can be a bit overly sentimental, particularly with regard to her discovery of love, but I suppose at 18, it does feel like you are the first one to have such intense feelings. Heartbreak also has a profound effect on Evie, who becomes more of a passive bystander in her own life after her breakup with Harrison Rourke. The book feels like it is on the brink of something major happening, a la Catcher in the Rye, but that transformative event never really comes, and the story continues as it does.
While enjoyable, I definitely feel like the book could have been edited down to a less cumbersome page count, as the author does seem to fixate on certain internal musings that go on far too long and are ultimately inconsequential to the story arc. But then again, that is the reason it comes off as intensely personal, almost diary-like account of Evie's experiences in figuring out who she is.
maryhurrr's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
rleibrock's review against another edition
2.0
I give up--I can't finish this book. Initially I loved the writing but after awhile I got tired of the laborious plotting and finally I got sick of Eveline and her close-mouthed, passive way of moving through life. By the time I got to the "big reveal" about Harrison I was just annoyed. Annoyed with her reaction ("It was my fault!") and annoyed that there was still at least another 150 pages to go in this melodrama. Sorry, but I'm over it.