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sheread41's review against another edition
I just couldn't get into it. Following a story that gave little detail but made you think you need to have all the information at once.
kadomi's review against another edition
5.0
Not a great book for holiday reading because crying your eyes out on the beach is embarrassing. It's a turn of the 20th century family drama full of wonderful characters and tons of surprising twists. Kathleen's story seriously broke my heart. Loved it so much.
marie_gg's review against another edition
5.0
Very dark, brooding saga about family living off the coast of Novia Scotia...Catholic themes, shocking plot developments, and characters that are difficult to like, but a great story.
jensbrede's review against another edition
3.0
As usual I will neither summarize nor go too much into detail about the actual content of the book, there are plenty of people out there who can and have done a better job at it then I ever could (see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_on_Your_Knees).
What can I say about this book, well, it pretty much defied every prejudice I might have had when it comes to female authors. This book is not for the faint of heart. The story telling is generally fast paced and the descriptions of events unfolding are almost sounding as from a artistic science article, at times. While it was clear from the very beginning to me what the general direction of the story line will be, managed McDonald to keep me interested until the final chapters. As it says on the back of the book "McDonald shows a profound understanding" and I would agree with this statement, although it remains questionable as to how profound this understanding is in detail; due to the multitude of very complex subjects touched upon in the book.
I do believe that McDonald overdid it a bit when it came to the calamities unfolding throughout her story, mixed with her story-telling style, this lead me to not really connect with any of the characters. This might be a good thing, as the book would probably be unbearable to read if you were to relate too strongly with the main characters... I would have also liked for McDonald to take a more definite stand on different subjects. Another point of critique is that the book is somewhat predictable as a whole and it seems, at times, that McDonald just threw yet another calamity in there to distract the reader from what is happening at the heart of it all.
All in all, this is a very good book, I enjoyed reading it from the first to the last page. It's a toss-up between 3-4 stars for me, but comparing it with my other 4 star rated books I decided to give this one 3.
What can I say about this book, well, it pretty much defied every prejudice I might have had when it comes to female authors. This book is not for the faint of heart. The story telling is generally fast paced and the descriptions of events unfolding are almost sounding as from a artistic science article, at times. While it was clear from the very beginning to me what the general direction of the story line will be, managed McDonald to keep me interested until the final chapters. As it says on the back of the book "McDonald shows a profound understanding" and I would agree with this statement, although it remains questionable as to how profound this understanding is in detail; due to the multitude of very complex subjects touched upon in the book.
I do believe that McDonald overdid it a bit when it came to the calamities unfolding throughout her story, mixed with her story-telling style, this lead me to not really connect with any of the characters. This might be a good thing, as the book would probably be unbearable to read if you were to relate too strongly with the main characters... I would have also liked for McDonald to take a more definite stand on different subjects. Another point of critique is that the book is somewhat predictable as a whole and it seems, at times, that McDonald just threw yet another calamity in there to distract the reader from what is happening at the heart of it all.
All in all, this is a very good book, I enjoyed reading it from the first to the last page. It's a toss-up between 3-4 stars for me, but comparing it with my other 4 star rated books I decided to give this one 3.
karina_andrea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
readcover2cover's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. This was a beautifully written book that was just too upsetting in parts to be an enjoyable exprience for me. It was also quite long, so I couldn't finish the audiobook before I had to return it to the library. Instead, I listened as much as I could, read a summary, and then jumped to the end. I probably ultimately read about 70% of it.
I loved the strong female characters and the fact that it was such a character-driven narrative. The setting was interesting and I appreciated all of the symbolism and how it was clearly so carefully written. I was deeply invested in the characters and what would happen to them. However, I just cannot handle books that involve in any way. The overall melancholy tone was intriguing, but maybe right now was not quite the right time for me to read something so depressing. I just can't handle it right now.
Still, I found myself enjoying parts of it far more than I expected to! Like I said, it was truly beautiful writing. I'm glad I finally got to this one.
I loved the strong female characters and the fact that it was such a character-driven narrative. The setting was interesting and I appreciated all of the symbolism and how it was clearly so carefully written. I was deeply invested in the characters and what would happen to them. However, I just cannot handle books that involve
Spoiler
incest or child abuseStill, I found myself enjoying parts of it far more than I expected to! Like I said, it was truly beautiful writing. I'm glad I finally got to this one.
leaheve's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
eskimonika's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
twilliamson's review against another edition
4.0
If Fall on Your Knees is about any one thing, it's about the complicated workings of familial love; but it also resists being about any one thing, preferring to be a whole lot of things all at once. It's about secrets and mistruths, about the skillful weaving of a tapestry of secret information, the way we construct whole webs of truth, half-truths, outright lies, all in service of the things we want and the things we try to guard jealously.
My reading experience of MacDonald's novel is that it is powerfully written, skillfully constructed, and exhausting emotionally and intellectually. The book, like many great "American" novels, just can't help but swing huge and broad, to try to make meaningful statements through its use of characters, almost all of whom oscillate between a portrayal of literal people and symbolic ideas. MacDonald gives her characters all the dialectical complexity one would expect of living, breathing people while entrusting them to shoulder the symbolic weight of her narrative themes--some of which are extraordinarily heavy.
In some ways, I think MacDonald's novel reads like late Steinbeck, incredibly ambitious in its scope and driven entirely by its characters. It's a masterfully sculpted novel, one full of both the profound and the quotidian. Its structure is likely its weakest element, if only because the narrative has to start and stop multiple times as it shifts gears to figure out where the real overarching story is, which figures are most important for its various acts, and which themes are the most important to its literary message. MacDonald's prose is masterful, a genuine piece of art; nevertheless, the book is a daunting read in some ways, and while I never felt like I wouldn't get through it, I frequently felt like I'd never return to a passage once I'd read it.
Fall on Your Knees is a master class in character-driven literary fiction, with some of the finest prose I've ever read. But it is also intensely emotionally-wrought, heavier than maybe it even needs to be, a complex, often depressing work of fiction that I can confidently say I'll never return to again.
My reading experience of MacDonald's novel is that it is powerfully written, skillfully constructed, and exhausting emotionally and intellectually. The book, like many great "American" novels, just can't help but swing huge and broad, to try to make meaningful statements through its use of characters, almost all of whom oscillate between a portrayal of literal people and symbolic ideas. MacDonald gives her characters all the dialectical complexity one would expect of living, breathing people while entrusting them to shoulder the symbolic weight of her narrative themes--some of which are extraordinarily heavy.
In some ways, I think MacDonald's novel reads like late Steinbeck, incredibly ambitious in its scope and driven entirely by its characters. It's a masterfully sculpted novel, one full of both the profound and the quotidian. Its structure is likely its weakest element, if only because the narrative has to start and stop multiple times as it shifts gears to figure out where the real overarching story is, which figures are most important for its various acts, and which themes are the most important to its literary message. MacDonald's prose is masterful, a genuine piece of art; nevertheless, the book is a daunting read in some ways, and while I never felt like I wouldn't get through it, I frequently felt like I'd never return to a passage once I'd read it.
Fall on Your Knees is a master class in character-driven literary fiction, with some of the finest prose I've ever read. But it is also intensely emotionally-wrought, heavier than maybe it even needs to be, a complex, often depressing work of fiction that I can confidently say I'll never return to again.
kirstie2130's review against another edition
Truly a baffling book and I was getting so tired of hearing how much this dude hates all women including his daughters. There was nothing keeping me hooked and every time I picked it up I got nothing.