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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
Whew! This book. I related so much with this whole book. Catholic guilt is real, y'all. So is fear of conflict, passive aggressiveness, anxiety, and emotions. I spent some time exploring Maine and the coast last year and this setting brought back many memories. I also feel like this is what I would read if certain family members were asked to write about their experiences and observations in prose over a time period. It was an easy read and a great start to the summer reading.
I struggled with this book. I've loved J. Courtney Sullivan's work, but this one ultimately fell flat. What she hit on the NOSE -- almost uncomfortably so, if one has been in those situations before -- is family conflict, and the barbs that we throw at each other, the long silences, the pain inflicted.
The plot, however, left me underwhelmed.
The plot, however, left me underwhelmed.
This is my favorite of Sullivan's novels, having read the first three in a short span. I thought she did a great job showing family relationships through each person's eyes, and in a sympathetic way. It made me think about my own family and how one person trying to do the right things can be a potential relationship-ending slight to another. I felt for all the characters even when they were at odds with each other.
It's interesting to me that in the reviews I read, other readers thought Kathleen was the most likable character when to me it was the opposite. It's great that she is sober and sees how her mother impacted her life in a negative way, but she in the novel she was blind to how she was still behaving like an alcoholic. Her daughter needs to read "lifeskills for adult children," stat.
It's interesting to me that in the reviews I read, other readers thought Kathleen was the most likable character when to me it was the opposite. It's great that she is sober and sees how her mother impacted her life in a negative way, but she in the novel she was blind to how she was still behaving like an alcoholic. Her daughter needs to read "lifeskills for adult children," stat.
Great characters. I enjoyed everyone's individual point of view so much. A great female, generational family story. My only gripe is the character of Claire, besides being a bit blasphemous, she had no voice in the whole book and truly served no purpose. Why have her there at all? Excellent sophomore effort for Sullivan. I enjoyed this even more than Commencement.
This multigenerational story of an Irish Catholic family from the Northeast that vacations in a house and cottage on the coast of Maine was a very satisfactory way to end my "summer" reading. Told through the point of view of four different members comprising three generations, the details, arguments and conversations all rang very true to me.
HERE'S THE THING about this book: it is stupidly long and it feels like nothing happens. I am actually a-ok with books in which nothing actually happens, but things do happen in this book, it just doesn't FEEL like it, because by the time you've read about the same thing happening to each of the four narrators, you don't get a more complex picture of what happened, you actually get a kind of reflection of what happened. The most dramatic (both actually dramatic and built-up) plot point is a memory, and everything else is sort of presented at a calm, walking pace.
That said, I finished Maine, and I missed it. I missed the characters and the story. Possibly BECAUSE nothing really happened, BECAUSE the pace is so steady and slow, I felt like I could have kept reading about these four women and their families for so much longer. It was like reading a serial or a soap opera--not a bad thing.
That said, I finished Maine, and I missed it. I missed the characters and the story. Possibly BECAUSE nothing really happened, BECAUSE the pace is so steady and slow, I felt like I could have kept reading about these four women and their families for so much longer. It was like reading a serial or a soap opera--not a bad thing.
Read my full review on my blog.
I enjoyed Maine, just as I did its predecessor, though with less guilt this time. I see now that Sullivan's depth was not a fluke in her first book. Her stories are rich and deep. They deserve to be marketed as more than women's books. In preparing this post, I was a bit surprised to see so much hate on Goodreads. While some valid points are made there, I tend to disagree. This book is worth reading.
I enjoyed Maine, just as I did its predecessor, though with less guilt this time. I see now that Sullivan's depth was not a fluke in her first book. Her stories are rich and deep. They deserve to be marketed as more than women's books. In preparing this post, I was a bit surprised to see so much hate on Goodreads. While some valid points are made there, I tend to disagree. This book is worth reading.
Too much poor character development… absolutely no real story and a complete absence of any type of conclusion.