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shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition
This was okay - maybe a little too dreamlike and literary for me. Lark is coming of age in 1950's West Virginia. She is the primary caregiver for her severely handicapped brother Termite. The chapter perspectives bounce between Lark and Termite and a couple of the adults, including Termite's soldier father who dies in the Korean War. Most of the action is inside the character's heads. The author does a good job (I presume) describing what's going on inside the head of a dying soldier and inside the head of a disabled, blind child unable to talk. Makes for some tough reading at times but the story does eventually come together.
alspears's review against another edition
3.0
This is a well-written, and richly imaged book. I just didn't particularly care for the story. Which makes me feel unsettled, as if I'm somehow being unfair to it.
cseibs's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written, with great sensitivity. The characters feel authentic. Phillips presents them with honesty and without being overly sentimental. Wonderful.
ktoumajian's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked the structure of this book, the mirrored settings of the Korean train tunnel and the train tunnel in West Virginia where Lark and Termite spend so many afternoons and from where they ultimately begin anew. I loved the writer's use of language and description, though the musings of Termite, a handicapped 9-year-old who experiences his environment in a completely unconventional way, were hard for me to get through. Lark, his sister and caretaker, was such a rich, beautiful character, and I was very much drawn into her story while the storyline of her father in Korea was much less convincing. The book really picked up steam in the final third which focused on Lark and her unfortunate mother. Not sure I understood the ghost and spirit references but I did really love the West Virginia characters and the family they forged for themselves, which is what this book is ultimately about.
lavoiture's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't think I would like this when I started out, but it was a really lovely story.
amycrea's review against another edition
3.0
This is getting raves all over the place, but I found it really uneven--parts were amazing, other parts were meh. Overall, worth the read, but glad I got it from the library.
susanbrooks's review against another edition
2.0
Intertwining tale of an American soldier in Korea and the family of his girlfriend and the son they have.
Did not do it for me.
Did not do it for me.
emilyisreading2024's review against another edition
4.0
Although something about the story kind of dragged for me, the writing is really lovely.
sloatsj's review against another edition
2.0
Not bad, but not great either. One of those books that -when you're reading it- you think "actually I could be reading Dostoevsky, or William Faulkner, or George Eliot," or, in my case, that Saul Bellow book I bought a year ago, never having read Bellow, but having read, now, Jayne Anne Phillips.
The story is okay; the writing is good, though I must admit the "poetry" of it bored me, as did the tunnel scenes in Korea. I had trouble connecting with the characters. The storm was anticlimactic. The immutable goodness of Lark could have come right out of Dickens. Could she do wrong? Nope, she was born to do good, by Termite! Whatever. Just not my thing, I guess. Great cover, though.
The story is okay; the writing is good, though I must admit the "poetry" of it bored me, as did the tunnel scenes in Korea. I had trouble connecting with the characters. The storm was anticlimactic. The immutable goodness of Lark could have come right out of Dickens. Could she do wrong? Nope, she was born to do good, by Termite! Whatever. Just not my thing, I guess. Great cover, though.
robynryle's review against another edition
3.0
This started slowly, but I did enjoy the attempt to get inside the head of Termite and see the world from his perspective. The writing--lyrical and stream of conscioussness like--got in the way of me caring and identifying with the characters at time. But I did enjoy the story.