Reviews

Clara's Heart by Joseph Olshan

elephant's review

4.0

I found this book to be well written and captivating, but rather disturbing. It is the story of David, who ages from 8 to 13 during the story, and Clara, the Jamaican housekeeper who is his best friend. David's parents have a troubled marriage and eventually they divorce leaving David spending more time with Clara than with his parents during the time the story takes place. Venturing into voodoo and sexuality, the story takes some bizarre twists and turns which I found rather disturbing. I have not seen the movie, but I looked at a trailer for it and the characters are not the way I pictured them from the book. It looks like the movie may be lighter than the book, which has some dark parts. I plan to watch the movie soon. I got this book free to review from Netgalley.

penny_literaryhoarders's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 somewhat heartwarming but still frustrating to read about poor young David being pulled in all different directions.