Scan barcode
mmjm1's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly, I remember loving it, but I don't remember what it was about! Maybe it's time to reread!
proseandpostre's review against another edition
4.0
Astonished at just how much I came to enjoy this book! Were the characters flawed, yes! Did I want to shake most of them 99% of the time, also yes! BUT they were written in such a way, that although I felt that, I kept coming back for more, completely and utterly enthralled with the people of Atkinson. The reason being that we know, and are, someone who at some point needed to be shook by the shoulders. Morris takes you into this small Vermont town and makes you feel what many people there feel, makes you yearn for things to get better, for things to stop, for people to grow...
I am a sucker for books that end happy, with all the problems resolved, and all my questions answered...this isn't one of those books, and yet...
I truly and thoroughly enjoyed it, from start to finish. Morris made me feel like a visitor, like I'd walked in on everyones life and was permitted a front row seat, but my time there had an expiration. It's like I left and they kept on with their lives...
I wonder what they've been up to.
I am a sucker for books that end happy, with all the problems resolved, and all my questions answered...this isn't one of those books, and yet...
I truly and thoroughly enjoyed it, from start to finish. Morris made me feel like a visitor, like I'd walked in on everyones life and was permitted a front row seat, but my time there had an expiration. It's like I left and they kept on with their lives...
I wonder what they've been up to.
jamieh2024's review against another edition
4.0
For some reason I did not make a journal entry on this book other than the fact I really loved it and the date I read it. I will obviously need to revisit this one soon.
maryfrances_odea's review against another edition
1.0
I absolutely hated this book. It was a long book - destined to be a "summer read" but frankly none of the characters interested me in the least. I wanted to like them or hate them or something, but really couldn't bring myself to feel anything.
By the time I finished, I yearned for some sense of closure and din't find any.
By the time I finished, I yearned for some sense of closure and din't find any.
amymo73's review against another edition
4.0
So I bought this book last year because it's set in Vermont and I was going on a fall vacation in Vermont. Hey, it made sense in my head at the time. And it has an Oprah sticker on it. Not that an Oprah sticker is infallible (do we need to relieve "A Million Little Pieces" or the problematic "Three Cups of Tea"?) but generally she has some good picks. At least they're good reads.
Anyway, I digress.
As I listed this book on Goodreads I took a peek at some of the reviews, and the bulk of the ones that came up for me were 1-star reviews. Some people, it seems, HATED this book. Too slow. No action. Hate the characters.
But I picked it up. And ... really liked it.
Here's the thing: There isn't a character in here that I absolutely love. I have problems with everyone. Every. Single. Person. But by the end, I don't really hate anyone, either. Which may be the point. There's so much going on in people's lives, so much history even with young people, that nothing is very straightforward. Everyone has flaws (and then some in this book), but what I liked was being able to see them whole -- the things that I understood, the things I liked, the things I hated yet felt compassion for them anyway. (There is a good chance I'm just a sap, by the way).
Of all the characters, I'd like to spend some time on Marie, the mother at the center of much of the story. She is so complicated. Well, maybe not so complicated. She gets pregnant young and marries Sam and they have two more kids, but Sam is a drunk and that ends in divorce and lots of continuous drama. She was never going to depend on a man, or anyone, ever again. Then walks in Omar Duval, who is a huckster with a soft side at times. She falls for him, believes his soap-selling scheme will be the answer to her problems, agrees to marry him, basically feels great until it all unravels at the end. (Oops. Spoiler alert. But really, if you're reading this and don't think there is some big unravelling of Duval and his scheme, then I don't know what to tell you.)
But at the end of the book (Big Spoiler here) when the neighborhood gets together to pitch in and help repair her falling down house, she is disgusted. She sees it as pity, as charity, and she is not a charity case. But wait, it was OK for Omar to come in and take care of her? But not her neighbors? She always thinks people are talking about her, badly, and by the end I just want to shake her and say NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU THAT MUCH! TAKE WHATEVER HUMAN KINDNESS YOU CAN GET.
But she would probably think that was pity, too.
Anyway, I digress.
As I listed this book on Goodreads I took a peek at some of the reviews, and the bulk of the ones that came up for me were 1-star reviews. Some people, it seems, HATED this book. Too slow. No action. Hate the characters.
But I picked it up. And ... really liked it.
Here's the thing: There isn't a character in here that I absolutely love. I have problems with everyone. Every. Single. Person. But by the end, I don't really hate anyone, either. Which may be the point. There's so much going on in people's lives, so much history even with young people, that nothing is very straightforward. Everyone has flaws (and then some in this book), but what I liked was being able to see them whole -- the things that I understood, the things I liked, the things I hated yet felt compassion for them anyway. (There is a good chance I'm just a sap, by the way).
Of all the characters, I'd like to spend some time on Marie, the mother at the center of much of the story. She is so complicated. Well, maybe not so complicated. She gets pregnant young and marries Sam and they have two more kids, but Sam is a drunk and that ends in divorce and lots of continuous drama. She was never going to depend on a man, or anyone, ever again. Then walks in Omar Duval, who is a huckster with a soft side at times. She falls for him, believes his soap-selling scheme will be the answer to her problems, agrees to marry him, basically feels great until it all unravels at the end. (Oops. Spoiler alert. But really, if you're reading this and don't think there is some big unravelling of Duval and his scheme, then I don't know what to tell you.)
But at the end of the book (Big Spoiler here) when the neighborhood gets together to pitch in and help repair her falling down house, she is disgusted. She sees it as pity, as charity, and she is not a charity case. But wait, it was OK for Omar to come in and take care of her? But not her neighbors? She always thinks people are talking about her, badly, and by the end I just want to shake her and say NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU THAT MUCH! TAKE WHATEVER HUMAN KINDNESS YOU CAN GET.
But she would probably think that was pity, too.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
4.0
4 STARS
"Songs in Ordinary Time is set in the summer of 1960 - the last of quiet times and America's innocence. It centers on Marie Fermoyle, a strong but vulnerable woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for the dangerous con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice, seventeen - involved with a troubled young priest; Norm, sixteen - hotheaded and idealistic; and Benjy, twelve - isolated and misunderstood, and so desperate for his mother's happiness that he hides the deadly truth only he knows about Duvall. Among a fascinating cast of characters we meet the children's alcoholic father, Sam Fermoyle, now living with his senile mother and embittered sister; Sam's meek brother-in-law, who makes anonymous "love" calls from the bathroom of his ailing appliance store; and the Klubock family, who - in complete contrast to the Fermoyles - live an orderly life in the perfect house next door." (From Amazon)
What a family saga should be! I loved this story of a family and it's dysfunction in the South.
"Songs in Ordinary Time is set in the summer of 1960 - the last of quiet times and America's innocence. It centers on Marie Fermoyle, a strong but vulnerable woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for the dangerous con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice, seventeen - involved with a troubled young priest; Norm, sixteen - hotheaded and idealistic; and Benjy, twelve - isolated and misunderstood, and so desperate for his mother's happiness that he hides the deadly truth only he knows about Duvall. Among a fascinating cast of characters we meet the children's alcoholic father, Sam Fermoyle, now living with his senile mother and embittered sister; Sam's meek brother-in-law, who makes anonymous "love" calls from the bathroom of his ailing appliance store; and the Klubock family, who - in complete contrast to the Fermoyles - live an orderly life in the perfect house next door." (From Amazon)
What a family saga should be! I loved this story of a family and it's dysfunction in the South.
reytru1065's review against another edition
3.0
An enjoyable book with a really good cast of characters. I was a little disappointed in the ending but overall a great read.
kandicez's review against another edition
3.0
This was one of those books that just start and stop at a random slice of life. I like more of a STORY! I want a big event, a life shaping happening, something other than ordinary.