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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was very depressing. The mom is upset most of the time. I was rooting for Blue.
You know how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover? the same is true about its title. I liked the title of the book. Thought I would check it out. Once I got started, I couldn't help but keep reading, simply because it was like watching a train wreck. You want to look away but you can't. How that much, despair, sadness and complete craziness could happen in one town was difficult to believe. I finished the book and will not be recommending it to anyone else. There was nothing to hang your hat on except the impending cluster from someone else in town.
This novel tells the story of the down-and-out Fermoyle faily. Living in Vermont in the 1960s, Marie Fermoyle and her three children live in poverty and desperation, for more money, more security, and more affection. Marie Fermoyle, a hardened cynic, is so desperate for all of the above that she falls victim to the wiles of a con man. The Fermoyle children are blatantly aware that their mother is being fleeced, but the emotional distance of all the family members makes it difficult for any of them to communicate or to trust one another. As Marie falls deeper under her now-boyfriend's spell it is the Fermoyle children who feel this lack of communication most acutely. The most difficult character in this book is Marie Fermoyle: cold, cynical, and emotionally abusive towards her children, Marie is clearly a woman who has been deeply wounded and is now striking back, albeit at the wrong people. In this book Morris has crafted a deeply complex narrative with fantastic chracter development. Truly, she has created a whole world in this Vermont town. The characters' lives are richly interwoven with one another, and actions by one reverberate to affect the whole. This is a deeply moving and engaging novel.
Really well written but super depressing. Took me a long time to finish but it was like watching a train wreck and I couldn't stop.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not super exciting just kind of a story about a small town in 1960. Gritty and hard to read at times. Also really long, but all in all, didn't hate it.
The editor should be beaten about the head and shoulders for not cutting this book down to about half of its length. There were too many characters all of whose relationships were intertwined in such a way that I couldn't keep most of them straight. The author must have had a terrible childhood because none of the adult characters had any redeeming qualities, especially the men. I rarely give a book 2 stars, but this one deserves it.
It's a pretty depressing story, so it's hard for me to explain exactly why I liked it. But I did.
I remember reading this way back when it was first announced in Oprah's book club. I remember hating the mother and her weakness and spending most of the time reading it pissed off. That's about all I remember.
Slow but pretty good. I became really invested in some of the characters by the book's conclusion.