Amazon.com
It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.
We wanted to spread the word on the book as widely, and as soon, as we could. See below for an exclusive excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns and early reviews of the book from some of our top customer reviewers.--The Editors
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An Exclusive Excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns |
We have arranged with the publisher to make an exclusive excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns available on Amazon.com. Click here to read a scene from the novel. It's not the opening scene, but rather one from a crucial moment later in the book when Mariam, one of the novel's two main characters, steps into a new role.
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Early Buzz from Amazon.com Top Reviewers |
We queried our top 100 customer reviewers as of March 6, 2007, and asked them to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and share their thoughts. We've included these early reviews below in the order they were received. For the sake of space, we've only included a brief excerpt of each reviewer's response, but each review is available for reading in its entirety by clicking the "Read the review" link.
Joanna Daneman:
"His style is deceptively simple and clear, the characters drawn deftly and swiftly, his themes elemental and huge. This is a brilliant writer and I look forward to more of his work." Read Joanna Daneman's review
Seth J. Frantzman:
"Khaled Hosseini has done it again with 'A Thousand Splendid Sons', presenting a new, dashing and dark tale of two generations of women trapped in a loveless marriage, bracketed by great events." Read Seth J. Frantzman's review
Donald Mitchell:
"Khaled Hosseini has succeeded in capturing many important historical and contemporary themes in a way that will make your heart ache again and again. Why will your reaction be so strong? It's because you'll identify closely with the suffering of almost all the characters, a reaction that's very rare to a modern novel." Read Donald Mitchell's review
Lawrance M. Bernabo:
"All things considered, following up on a successful first novel is probably harder than coming up with the original effort and Hosseini could have rested on his laurels in the manner of Harper Lee, but as "A Thousand Splendid Suns" amply proves, this native of Kabul has more stories to tell about the land of Afghanistan." Read Lawrance M. Bernabo's review
Amanda Richards:
"There are parts of this book that will have grown men surreptitiously blotting the tears that are on the verge of overflowing their ducts, and by the time you get to the middle, you won't be able to put it down. Hosseini's simple but richly descriptive prose makes for an engrossing read, and in my opinion, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is among the best I have ever read. This is definitely not one to be missed." Read Amanda Richards's review
N. Durham:
"All that being said, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a bit more enjoyable than Hosseini's previous "The Kite Runner", and once again he manages to give we readers another glimpse of a world that we know little about but frequently condemn and discard. However, if you were one of the many that for some reason absolutely loved "The Kite Runner", chances are that you'll love this as well." Read N. Durham's review
John Kwok:
"Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a genuine instant literary classic, and one destined to be remembered as one of 2007's best novels. It should be compared favorably to such legendary Russian novels like "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago"." Read John Kwok's review
Thomas Duff:
"Normally I'm more of an action-adventure type reader when it comes to novels and recreational reading. But I was given the chance to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner), so I decided to try something out of my normal genre. I am *so* glad I did. This is a stunning and moving novel of life and love in Afghanistan over a 30 year period." Read Thomas Duff's review
Charles Ashbacher:
"This book manages to simultaneously capture the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years and how women are treated in conservative Islamic societies.... In many ways it is a sad book, your heart goes out to these two women in their hopeless struggle to have a decent life with a brutal man in an unforgiving, intolerant society." Read Charles Ashbacher's review
W. Boudville:
"Hosseini presents a piognant view into the recent tortured decades of the Afghan experience. From the 1970s, under a king, to the Soviet takeover, to the years of resistance. And then the rise and fall of the Taliban. An American reader will recognise many of the main political events. But to many Americans, Afghanistan and its peoples and religion remain an opaque and troubling mystery." Read W. Boudville's review
Mark Baker:
"I tend to read plot heavy books, so this character study was a definite change of pace for me. I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet. I couldn't think of a better way to end it." Read Mark Baker's review
Grady Harp:
"Hosseini takes us behind those walls for forty some years of Afghanistan's bloody history and while he does not spare us any of the descriptions of the terror that continues to besiege that country, he does offer us a story that speaks so tenderly about the fragile beauty of love and devotion and lasting impression people make on people." Read Grady Harp's review
Robert P. Beveridge:
"When I was actively reading it, the pages kept turning, and more than once I found myself foregoing food or sleep temporarily to get in just one more chapter. When I had put it down, however, I felt no particular compulsion to pick it back up again. It's a good book, and a relatively well-written one, but it's not a great book. Enjoyable without leaving a lasting impression." Read Robert P. Beveridge's review
B. Marold:
"While the events in Afghanistan and the wider world create a familiar framework for the stories of these two women, it is nothing more than a framework. The warp and weft of everyday life, and the interaction of the two women and their close relatives is the heartbeat of the story." Read B. Marold's review
Daniel Jolley:
"Khaled Hosseini has written a majestic, sweeping, emotionally powerful story that provides the reader with a most telling window into Afghan society over the past thirty-odd years. It's also a moving story of friendship and sacrifice, giving Western readers a rare glimpse into the suffering and mistreatment of Afghan women that began long before the Taliban came to power." Read Daniel Jolley's review
Book Description
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
Customer Reviews:
Well written, compelling, and a little rushed.......2007-10-22
A nice follow-up to Kite Runner. I hesitated to buy this after being disappointed with a few other follow-up books to big successes(remember the awful follow-up to Angela's Ashes?). You won't have the problem here. This is not derivative or duplicative of Kite Runner. It is a very different story that is well written, compelling, an interesting in a different way than Kite Runner.
The book begins with a lot of well-constructed detail. THe first 1/3 of the book is very richly constructed and highlights what a great writer and storyteller Hosseini is. The last 1/3 of the book seemed to gloss over a lot of the historical backdrop. As a result I had a harder time understanding the context of the story. It devolved into more of a romance novel, and it seemed a little like he was rushing to tie everything up neatly. I finished this last week and frankly can't remember how it ended, though I can remember the first half of the book very succinctly.
Overall, this is not a diffucult read, and it's informative and entertaining. The strength of the book is the political backdrop (as in Kite Runner). Once he stops caring much about that, the book becomes more of a common relationship story and loses some of its unique appeal.
Unforgettable .......2007-10-22
Every once and a while a book comes along that, at times, is truly difficult to read. Not because of the writing, which in this case is lyrical and beautifully precise, but because a character you have grown to care for is dealt one hurtful blow after another. Cheering for the two women who loom larger than life and outgrow the confines of the written page is an automatic response and despite the bittersweet outcome, one is enriched by having known them at all. This is the kind of book you think about days, weeks, even months later. Its lesson haunts in subtle ways, reminding us about all the gifts we have that are often taken for granted. Another triumph for Hosseini.
A THOUSAND SPENDID SUNS.......2007-10-21
VERY COMPELLING. GIVES YOU A INSIGHT WHAT LIFE WAS LIFE IN THOSE TIMES IN AFGANISTAN. COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.
A different kind of romance..........2007-10-21
This book was a beautiful read. It was definitely different from the usual books I read. The locale, the history, the politics are out of the norm that I usually read. I highly recommend it. You'll be surprised by it. It's a tragic tale of family, friendship and love. Absoloutely beautiful.
"A Woman Is Like A Tea Bag, You Never Know How Strong She Is Until She Is In Hot Water" Eleanor Roosevelt.......2007-10-21
This book is a reminder of what the true riches in this world really are and that the endurance many bear to sustain these riches in the face of great suffering is testimony to the strength of the human spirit. Those who value these riches most are often those who have faced the most challenges and where the tenuousness of these values are tested in ways that we in America can't even begin to imagine. This book was a double edged sword. While the writing style made its reading so easy and enjoyable, the story itself was incredibly painful. However, regardless of the sorrow, reading this book brought me great joy and a renewed appreciation for freedom and democracy. Therefore I highly recommend reading this book.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent as usual
- Long and winding middle of the road writing
- WOW.
- A Painful Reality
- A literary game not played by fair rules
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The Double Bind: A Novel
Chris Bohjalian
Manufacturer: Shaye Areheart Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1400047463
Release Date: 2007-02-13 |
Amazon.com
Best known for the provocative and powerful novel, Midwives (an Oprah Book Club® Selection), Chris Bohjalian writes beautiful and riveting fiction featuring what the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed "ordinary people in heartbreaking circumstances behaving with grace and dignity." In his new novel, The Double Bind, a literary thriller with references to (and including characters from) The Great Gatsby, Bohjalian takes readers on a haunting journey through one woman's obsession with uncovering a dark secret. We think Bohjalian fans will be thrilled with this compelling and unforgettable read, but just to be sure, we asked bestselling author Jodi Picoult to read The Double Bind and give us her take. Check out her review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Jodi Picoult
From the provocative and gut-wrenching The Pact, to the brilliant genre-bending The Tenth Circle, to her latest novel about a high school shooting Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult's riveting novels center on family and relationships, and bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.
I once heard a fellow novelist call writing "successful schizophrenia"--we invent people and worlds that don't exist; but instead of being medicated, we are paid for it. Although countless novels succeed in whisking the reader away on the heels of such fabrications, there are very few that pull the curtain away from the craft, allowing us inside the mind of a working novelist as he combines reality and fantasy. Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind is not just one of these; it's the finest example I've ever read of a book that tips its hat to both the beauty of the literary creation, as well as the magical act of creating.
Fact and fiction become indistinguishable in The Double Bind: The story centers on Laurel Estabrook, a young social worker and survivor of a near-rape, who stumbles across photographs taken by a formerly homeless client and tries to understand how a man who'd taken snapshots of celebrities in the 50s and 60s might have wound up on the streets. However, an author's note tells us that Bohjalian conceived this book after being shown a batch of old photographs taken by a once-homeless man; and the actual photos of Bob "Soupy" Campbell are peppered throughout the text. In another neat twist, Bohjalian's resurrects details from The Great Gatsby, which become "real" in the context of his own novel--Laurel lives in West Egg; part of her hunt for her photographer's past involves meeting with the descendants of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
As a writer who counts The Great Gatsby as one of the books that changed her life, this inclusion was both startling and remarkable for me. Who doesn't want one's favorite characters to come to life--even if it's only within the constraints of another fictional work? But Bohjalian chose his text wisely: no discussion of The Great Gatsby is complete without alluding to missed opportunities and unreliable sources--critical elements in Laurel's quest. And therein lies Bohjalian's true double bind: all stories--even the ones we tell ourselves--are subject to our own interpretation, and to the degree we can make others believe them.
The Double Bind may flirt with the classics, but it's not your father's stuffy old tome: it's the sort of book you want to read in one sitting, and it packs a twist at the end that will leave you speechless. It also, worthily, spotlights the cause of homelessness in a way that isn't preachy, but honest and explanatory. Ultimately, what Bohjalian's done is offer his lucky readers another reminder of why he's such an extraordinary author: by creating characters that become so real we lose the distinction between truth and embellishment; by reminding us that the story of any life--whether fictional, functional, or marginal--is one to be savored. --Jodi Picoult
Book Description
Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With
Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In
The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in
Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.
Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.
When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.
As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.
In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent as usual.......2007-10-05
I love reading his books. i am in the world he creates. Each book is a new experience. He is definitely not a formula author. Our book club selected another of his books for discussion. We enjoyed it and the discussion. We want to invite him to conference call with us.
Long and winding middle of the road writing.......2007-09-29
Author Chris Plot Twist Bohjalian is at it again. As with his breakout novel, Midwives, The Double Bind is filled with twists and turns and things are never what they seem. Due to that fact, little that can be said without spoiling the plot. A young woman who has survived a harrowing ordeal lands a job at a homeless shelter. After being given a box of photographs belonging to a recently deceased client of the place, she tries to find out as much as possible about the man and his family. Although her coworkers, friends and acquaintances believe that she is going overboard in her quest, she is undeterred and doggedly pursues the truth. In a number of places, the reader will likely find him or herself wondering about certain coincidences and unlikelihoods, but if he or she is can just go with it - things will eventually become clear. Clever plotting aside, the book has its problems: it is long, long, long and the writing is not exactly compelling; there are two sections (within the prologue and again in the Chapter 28) that contain profanity and graphically described violence; except for some discussion of the fact that the homeless often suffer from mental illness and Laurel's encounter with a homeless man (during which she throws caution to the wind, telling her companions that she will escort the strange man to the shelter ALONE), the whole "homeless" angle of the story seems pretty sanitized; and anyone unfamiliar with The Great Gatsby is sure to have a tough time of it. The story's highlights can be found by reading the following (if you plan to read it in its entirety, don't read on): the prologue, page 200 (for "the double bind" explained), and chapter twenty-eight through the reader's guide. Best thing about the book - the surprises - worst - the writing. Midwives is a better choice.
WOW........2007-09-27
I am rarely as enthralled with a book as I was this one...couldn't put it down, and I will recommend it to many people! Very different, brilliantly creative, and breathtaking. READ IT.
A Painful Reality.......2007-09-17
No matter how lurid, misunderstood, violent or repugnant the subject, Chris Bohjalian wrests his themes from the daily news, fleshes them out with realistic details and spins a compelling tale that both enchants
and educates the reader. His latest book, The Double Bind, deals with the aftermath of a brutally senseless attack on a compassionate young social worker.
The author aced this one, and I will never again see a young woman pass by on a bicycle without reliving in my mind the horror of a cruel encounter on a bright fall day along a Vermont country lane. The event and the subsequent unfolding of the residual pain are told with
compassion and a surreal weave of reality and fantasy. It's hard to imagine where this talented writer will take us next!
Izzie Hayes, avid Bohjalian fan
A literary game not played by fair rules.......2007-09-17
I have to give Mr. Bohjalian 5 stars for chutzpah. How many authors would so tightly link their own work to one of the American classics of the 20th century--perhaps the Great American Novel itself--forcing any reader to compare Bohjalian to Fitzgerald? I can assure you that, if this work is representative, Mr. Bohjalian is no Fitzgerald; they hardly speak the same language.
But wait, the chutzpah gets even more extreme! It is possible that Mr. Bohjalian has deliberately given us this rambling, slack style--sometimes seemingly deliberately hanging with Spanish-moss-like clumps of unfocused, clicheed phrases that only a nonwriter would dare have appear under his own name--for a literary purpose. Without revealing too much--and the book is all about the series of relevations that progressively emerge--I think I can safely suggest that Mr. Bohjalian may be dropping a (perhaps massive) clue about where the story is heading by writing in such a slack, nonliterary style. Chutzpah indeed to set himself up so close to a master stylist like Fitzgerald just to make himself look like a bad writer to advance his own plot.
Or maybe not. Maybe the book really isn't that coherent. It teems with references to The Great Gatsby on many levels. It invites the reader to hear these references in multiple voices speaking in the primary narrator's voice. But for the life of me, I can't distinguish where one voice starts and another leaves off. Shifts appear to occur in the middle of paragraphs. Or at least, the story can be viewed as coherent only if this is going on. As a reader, I feel like one of the early German scholars of the Bible trying to sort through the distinct voices present in the text and wondering what scribe could have edited these voices together in such a haphazard patchwork. What was the scribe trying to do?! What is the author trying to do here?
I can't be more detailed without revealing key elements of the story. Let me say simply this. I came to the book with great expectations. I actually lived in F. Scott Fitzgerald's dorm room in college and had a classmate who saw himself and his girlfriend as the reincarnations of F. Scott and Zelda. (Sounds like part of some alternative take off on Gatsby, but this one wasn't fiction ;-)). I felt a literary mystery story unfolding through the pages of The Double Bind and my expectations rose. I love a good literary game. But as the revelations unfolded, I couldn't make them hold together. Other readers I have spoken to have had the same reaction. At the end of the day, I can't tell what the author actually intended us to believe happened in his story. More than anything, I felt as though he had not played fairly by any set of rules he had set for the game. Or maybe more mercifully, the game didn't have coherent rules to begin with. Takes Mr. Bohjalian off the hook, but it takes any fun out of the game. I came away frustrated and disappointed.
Book Description
This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer. The characters in Then We Came to the End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."
Customer Reviews:
Ok, not really worth the price.......2007-10-16
The book was interesting if you have ever worked at an agency but a little slow and a few too many characters.
Great read -- offers some surprises........2007-10-01
As already mentioned in several reviews, this book is not as hilarious as some critics made it out to be. However, this is still a very entertaining and witty novel. I loved the end.
Must-read for anyone who has ever worked at an ad agency!.......2007-09-27
If you've ever worked at an agency, you'll recognize each character as one of your coworkers (or you!). And you'll feel sick alongside them as layoffs continue and pro bono jobs replace paying clients. It's hard to keep track of all the characters at first, but the author helps out by reminding you who's who throughout ... plus there are fewer and fewer as the story progresses. I highly recommend this book!
Don't Waste Your Time..........2007-09-11
This was probably the worst and most boring book I've read in 2007. Amazon has it rated as one of "the best so far..." There must be some mistake. The author, while allegedly a skilled writer, drones on and on about the most irrelevant subjects, 5 pages devoted to a chair. It has taken me almost a whole month to finish because I get sleepy after about 3 pages and have to put it down. I am now on the last chapter and can't wait to "come to the end". The characters are mere caricatures of real people with no depth or relatability. There is basically no plot to speak of. I have given it two stars because the author has an occasional good line or train of thought, but when he puts them all together it's nothing but a trainwreck. I'm no rocket scientist and usually pretty easily entertained but this book was no good. I'm serious.
office culture.......2007-09-11
if you work in an office with lots of personalities, this book should resonate. Mr. Ferris had to have intimate knowledge of a cubbied space
Book Description
In a heartrending and astonishing novel, Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee now living in the United States. We follow his life as he's driven from his home as a boy and walks, with thousands of orphans, to Ethiopia, where he finds safety — for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation — and a string of unexpected romances. Ultimately, Valentino finds safety in Kenya and, just after the millennium, is finally resettled in the United States, from where this novel is narrated. In this book, written with expansive humanity and surprising humor, we come to understand the nature of the conflicts in Sudan, the refugee experience in America, the dreams of the Dinka people, and the challenge one indomitable man faces in a world collapsing around him.
Customer Reviews:
Unusual mashup of real and fiction.......2007-10-16
There are a number of really excellent non-fiction autobiographies of the Lost Boys currently available, 5 of them (see below). "What Is the What" is the only fictionalized account I am aware of. I've read some of the non-fiction accounts, and they are just as compelling, fascinating and dramatic as fiction; in many ways more so because they are factual and have a sense of "otherness" and level of specific detail. Although the novel has plenty of violence, it seems somewhat sterilized and made more palatable for the sensibilities of a middle class American audience - Deng's "voice" (really Eggers?) is confident and optimistic about the future, rarely did I sense the utter loneliness, despondency, hopelessness, weakness and fear that is palpable in the real autobiographies.
This is not a bad book, Eggers has created an entertaining work of art, not unlike what Charles Dickens did for the poor in "Oliver Twist", it serves to advance a social cause. But the real autobiographies are just as page-turning readable and even more emotionally moving because of their truthfulness. Literary critic Lee Siegel in "The New Republic" took the problem even further saying the novels "innocent expropriation of another man's identity is a post-colonial arrogance.. How strange for one man to think that he could write the story of another man, a real living man who is perfectly capable of telling his story himself -- and then call it an autobiography. Where is the dignity in that?" Francis Prose in "The New York Times" said the novel is very popular among younger readers in their 20s and I guess this is not surprising since fiction is usually more approachable and accessible than non-fiction, but there are some excellent real-life accounts, told in the actual words and voice of someone from Sudan, it is a challenge to step into someone else's world, but can be a transformative experience.
--See also--
* They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky
* God Grew Tired Of Us: A Memoir
* The Lost Boys of Sudan
* The Journey of the Lost Boys
* Lost Boy No More
a powerful telling of one refugee's story and how it fits into a broader disaster.......2007-09-29
Over several years, a refugee (named Achak) from Sudan who has resettled in the United States (one of the "lost boys of Sudan") told his story to Dave Eggers. Eggers wrote a novel based on the story, and the result is excellent. Leaping back and forth through time, the fictional Achak tells of how he is forced from his village by the Sudanese civil war, travels hundreds (thousands?) of miles on foot from country to country and refugee camp to camp, and then how he arrives in the United States and adjust to life there.
Several times early in the reading I wondered, Why didn't Eggers just write the story of this guy's life rather than a novel "based" on it? Eventually I could see that the novel allowed Eggers to bring in characters, sub-stories, and dialogue to teach us not only Achak's story but also about the broader conflict, the other Sudanese conflict in Darfur, and the problems encountered by a broader net of re-settled refugees. Eggers seeks to (and I believe manages to) give enthrall us with Achak and convey an impressive amount of information at the same time.
I found one of his narrative devices mildly distracting: Achak narrates from the present-day, resettled in the USA, and most of flashbacks are in the form of his mentally telling people around him his story. For example, he meets someone at his work and imagines telling them about the time his buddy got eaten by a lion. But that's a quibble.
The audiobook reading by Dion Graham (published by BBC Audiobooks America) is very well done.
Note on content: Much of this book takes place in a war zone, so we see violence and intense human suffering. And in the USA, there is a mugging that involves lots of strong language (all in the book's first 50 pages).
Straightforward, Unpretentious Memoir.......2007-09-27
I'm a fan of Eggers, and even though I'm not crazy about how the precious and overly self-aware syle of writing in AHWOSG has seeped into literature, I think he has been an important influence. I was pleasantly surprised at how well he avoided his trademark style in this novel -- not that it's a bad thing in other contexts -- but because it wouldn't have worked here. As a result, this is a kind of sparsely (and well) written story. The only thing I thought was a little contrived was the device used to tell the story, which is that Valentino is telling his story to his captor in a robbery, and then some others. They aren't listening, so he's kind of recounting the story to the reader as though he was talking to the captor. I suppose it makes it more interesting than a simple straight-out memoir, but it's a little contrived. The fact that the modern day asides are so short is evidence that they could have just been cut out altogether. (One could say it's just creative, I suppose).
I found the story very interesting, and I would not have made it through any form of nonfiction about the same topic. THis is a credit to Eggers. The character development is credible, and the way he weaves the question "What is the What" through the novel is compelling and profound. It's very well constructed and told, and could be read by a wide age range. It's also fairly evenhanded in its treatment of the politics, and never gets preachy or self-important. (He in fact debunks many of the exaggerated stories of the Lost Boys, which I thought was a pretty brave thing to do).
If you are a fan of Eggers, you will appreciate this book unless you're just in love with his schtick, which is absent. If you're one of the haters (people love to hate AHWOSG, it seems), you might want to give this a try. I think Eggers will go down as a very important writer and this is very well done. And the profits go to charity!
A good book that gets better with diatance.......2007-09-08
There have been enough African horror stories in recent years to constitute a genre - the heart of darkness narrative. Most readers turn to these tales with a mixture of humane concern and prurient fascination. Back in Conrad's day, the European or American narrator generally found himself caught between warm fuzzy liberalism and the horror. In recent years, African narrators, often children, have been the ones whose innocence has been challenged by horrendous deeds and bestial actions done in the name of liberation but in the service of greed. The thin line between naivete and cynicism is particularly treacherous for writers who lived to tell the tale, but haven't had enough time to fully see their experience in perspective. By working with Dave Eggers, Valentino Achak Deng filters the story of his years as a lost boy, and thus provides the reader a chance to get close to him. I tend to shy away from confessional narrators like Ismael Beah, whose A Long Way Gone was too direct for my taste. I appreciated his tale, but it seemed too naïve.
The magic of What is the What is impressive. By creating creaky framing devices (the break-in of Part 1) and historical coincidences (the death of Diana Spencer and the destruction of the twin towers occur on significant days in Valentino's life), Eggers reminds us that this is a fiction based on a real life and actual incidents in Sudan's history. In the process of peeling off the artifice, the reader paradoxically draws closer to the young man who narrates the story. He preserves some mystery because we know that we don't know all that he might have said. We long to see him more clearly, just as we gaze at the drawing on the cover and wish that his eyes and features weren't obscured by shadow. But Valentino is himself trying to uncover the mysteries of fate, self, and the elusive "What," which seems both mystical and concrete.
There were times when I wanted more historical detail - religious conflicts and the promise of oil wealth explain the problem in broad terms, but Sudan has been part of public discourse for so long that one longs for more nuance. However, Valentino is not a political scientist, and the balance between naivete and knowledge is delicate. Eggers provides promising leads for the reader who wants more history. I loved the way the past and present narratives intertwined to make us sympathetic to Valentino's need for love and affection. His relationship with Tabitha was particularly affecting because we first experienced her in America and only gradually learned about the origins of their relationship. After he leaves his hometown to journey across Sudan with the Lost Boys, we forget about his parents for a long time, but we feel their absence keenly. Deng and Eggers have created a story rich in emotion and human feeling, no small task when facing the horrors of Sudan. In the end, we only know a little more about the situation in Sudan and Darfur, but we feel as if we have a Sudanese friend. And yet we can't even recognize his face or say for sure if his name is really Valentino Achak Deng.
A thought provoking and enjoyable read.......2007-09-05
Dave Eggers' What is the What is a fictional, yet truthful account of Sudanese refugee Valentino Deng and his life throughout civil war stricken Sudan and the United States of America. Eggers' retelling of Deng's life is not one of a robotic biography, but rather a fluid reminiscence interspersed with moments of the present and laced throughout with Eggers' own voice. The story is simultaneously frightening and beautiful, a feeling created by a combination of Deng's personal strength and Eggers' unique sense of timing and dark humor. This voice pokes fun at the ironies between Deng's life in America and Sudan. For example, the American Deng works the front counter at a health club in a county where almost 60 million people are overweight but while in Sudan he tried to get an extra ration card because food was scarce. There doesn't seem to by any anger at these ironies, Deng appears to be more confused by them then anything.
The plot is exciting enough to hold one's interest and be fun, yet still contains enough truth and soul to it to make you really think about Deng's plights during his journey. It is the ability to maintain this balance which truly takes the book from an interesting tale to a piece of literary art. The story itself is not only beautifully written, but expertly paced; on multiple occasions I found myself ready to put the book down for the night and turned the page to discover that I was at the end of a chapter. It is those little things that make the book an absolute joy to read. Also, I feel that I must mention the hardcover art is absolutely beautiful and protected the book from harm when I spilled a cup of tea on it, which is something I was pleasantly surprised by. What is the What is an great thought provoking, yet very accessible read, and I would recommend it to everyone.
Average customer rating:
- Well-Told Thriller of American Disenchantment
- The behavior of the main character is repugnant
- Missing color and texture
- A three-star thriller
- Compelling story of life in America after 9/11
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid
Manufacturer: Harcourt
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ASIN: 0151013047
Release Date: 2007-04-03 |
Amazon.com
Mohsin Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, dealt with the confluence of personal and political themes, and his second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, revisits that territory in the person of Changez, a young Pakistani. Told in a single monologue, the narrative never flags. Changez is by turns naive, sinister, unctuous, mildly threatening, overbearing, insulting, angry, resentful, and sad. He tells his story to a nameless, mysterious American who sits across from him at a Lahore cafe. Educated at Princeton, employed by a first-rate valuation firm, Changez was living the American dream, earning more money than he thought possible, caught up in the New York social scene and in love with a beautiful, wealthy, damaged girl. The romance is negligible; Erica is emotionally unavailable, endlessly grieving the death of her lifelong friend and boyfriend, Chris.
Changez is in Manila on 9/11 and sees the towers come down on TV. He tells the American, "...I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased... I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees..." When he returns to New York, there is a palpable change in attitudes toward him, starting right at immigration. His name and his face render him suspect.
Ongoing trouble between Pakistan and India urge Changez to return home for a visit, despite his parents' advice to stay where he is. While there, he realizes that he has changed in a way that shames him. "I was struck at first by how shabby our house appeared... I was saddened to find it in such a state... This was where I came from... and it smacked of lowliness." He exorcises that feeling and once again appreciates his home for its "unmistakable personality and idiosyncratic charm." While at home, he lets his beard grow. Advised to shave it, even by his mother, he refuses. It will be his line in the sand, his statement about who he is. His company sends him to Chile for another business valuation; his mind filled with the troubles in Pakistan and the U.S. involvement with India that keeps the pressure on. His work and the money he earns have been overtaken by resentment of the United States and all it stands for.
Hamid's prose is filled with insight, subtly delivered: "I felt my age: an almost childlike twenty-two, rather than that permanent middle-age that attaches itself to the man who lives alone and supports himself by wearing a suit in a city not of his birth." In telling of the janissaries, Christian boys captured by Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in the Muslim Army, his Chilean host tells him: "The janissaries were always taken in childhood. It would have been far more difficult to devote themselves to their adopted empire, you see, if they had memories they could not forget." Changez cannot forget, and Hamid makes the reader understand that--and all that follows. --Valerie Ryan
A Conversation with Mohsin Hamid
Set in modern-day Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid's debut novel, Moth Smoke, went on to win awards and was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His bold new novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is a daring, fast-paced monologue of a young Pakistani man telling his life story to a mysterious American stranger. It's a controversial look at the dark side of the American Dream, exploring the aftermath of 9/11, international unease, and the dangerous pull of nostalgia. Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons shared an e-mail exchange with Mohsin Hamid to talk about his powerful new book
Read the Amazon.com Interview with Mohsin Hamid
Book Description
At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting . . .
Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite "valuation" firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his infatuation with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.
But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.
Customer Reviews:
Well-Told Thriller of American Disenchantment.......2007-10-17
Mohsin Hamid's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," a novel shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize, has a killer hook. Changez, a Pakistani graduated top of his class from Princeton working at a financial firm in Manhattan, slowly becomes radicalized by America's response to the 9/11 attacks. Sitting down at a restaurant in Lahore, Pakistan, with a mysterious man who appears to be an American military operative, Changez tells the story of how he came to renounce the U.S.
The novel, briskly told in 184 pages, neither sensationalizes the subject matter nor uses it to lecture. Hamid tells the story in second person, with Changez as narrator and the reader in the position of the operative. "Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance?" it begins. "Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America." As his story unravels, it becomes clear that something terrible is going to happen between Changez and the American, a cat-and-mouse game that's all the more intriguing because it isn't clear who's predator and prey.
Changez' job in Manhattan is to evaluate the financial condition of troubled companies with a ruthless eye towards the bottom line, cutting costs and downsizing workforces to grease the wheels for a buyout. "Focus on the fundamentals," his company drills into his head, putting a different spin on the novel's title than the scowling young Muslim on the cover.
The particulars of the narrator's daily life in New York are secondary, at least in my mind, to his attempt to explain to an American why he renounced the country, returned home and took action against it. Hamid's storytelling is most compelling when Changez wrestles with feelings that would inspire the disgust of his American colleagues:
"The bombing of Afghanistan had already been underway for a fortnight, and I had been avoiding the evening news, preferring not to watch the partisan and sports-event-like coverage given to the mismatch between the American bombers with their twenty-first-century weaponry and the ill-equipped and ill-fed Afghan tribesmen below. On those rare occasions when I did find myself confronted by such programming -- in a bar, say, or at the entrance to the cable company's offices -- I was reminded of the film Terminator, but with the roles reversed so the machines were cast as heroes."
Least compelling was his romance with an American woman that's one-sided, charmless and grim.
The war that nearly happened between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, an event I had almost forgotten, figures heavily in the book. Changez returns home as one million troops mass on the border. Hamid describes Lahore, the hometown of Changez and himself, in an unexpected way that demonstrates the glope-sweeping breadth of the Muslim world: "Lahore was the last major city in a contiguous swath of Muslim lands stretching as far west as Morocco and had therefore that quality of understated bravado characteristic of frontier towns."
Wounded national pride figures strongly in "Reluctant Fundamentalist," which ratchets up the tension towards a thrilling end. Hamid began the book before 9/11 to tell the story of why a secular Muslim, living large among America's elite, might resent the country. 9/11 changed everything.
The behavior of the main character is repugnant.......2007-10-17
The main character in this book supposedly represents the Muslim perspective and grievances against the West, especially after September 11th. However, his behavior is so repugnant that I actually don't care about his fate one bit. Yes, every immigrant to another country feels alienated and misunderstood sometimes, nothing so special about it. He got an elite education and a job, American girlfriend introduced him to her family and friends, yet the prick could not feel any sadness at the horrible deaths of innocent civilians on September 11th. His selfishness and lack of concern for the feelings of others are horrendous. He was forcing himself on America the same way he forced himself on the young woman who was supposedly his romatic interest. She clearly told him that she was still grieving over her lost boyfriend and was not yet ready for a relationship, what she needed was a friend. Yet he forced himself on her with disastrous emotional consequences for her. The guy has no respect or consideration for other people's grief and pain. All he does is feeling sorry for himself, despite being given wonderful opportunities for education and carreer, opportunities that, in fact, only a few Americans get.
Yes, there was more racism against Muslims in America after September 11th, but there were also the biggest anti-war demonstrations in New York and multiple political movements for peace and justice, which he does not bother to acknowledge. I have no sympathy for this selfish entitled prick.
Missing color and texture.......2007-09-10
The language in this novella is fluid; it is a short piece (framed as a tale told over a dinner) that pulls in the reader. The narrator (Chargez) spins his story of his initial embrace and ultimate rejection of the upwardly mobile existence of a Pakistani-born Princeton alum living in corporate America post-9/11. The book tries to answer big questions about why America both attracts and repels the alien observer in the early 21st century. It disappoints. The novel surfs instead of diving deep into motivations and milieu. The characters surrounding the narrator (a sad beautiful WASP love interest, a workplace mentor) are drawn sketchily. Is it because these Americans are ultimately unfathomable to Chargez? Perhaps, but the characterization of the narrator, and his transformation, also remains oddly unspecific. There is a lack of detailed descriptions of either New York after 9/11 (which had a distinct feel) or Lahore. Chargez watches Afghanistan being bombed, and tensions rising in South Asia, and he increasingly finds himself questioning his role in his adopted country. His disillusionment seems reasonable enough (we know from poll statistics the punishment that US image has taken globally in the last 6 years), but Hamid does not offer probing insight to the issue. The book would be strengthened by more particulars about the situation and attitudes of South Asian and Muslim immigrants to the US. Chargez's transformation and radicalization comes so quickly. The novel's conclusion offers a nice ambiguity which would have been welcome throughout.
A three-star thriller.......2007-08-28
I suspect there will be two different categories of readers attracted to this book: those who have heard it is a good thriller and those who have heard it is a novel of literary merit...those approaching it as a thriller will be more satisfied, but it does not quite make it in either category, at least for me.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" tells the story of a Pakistani named Changez as he narrates his life story to an American in a cafe in Lahore, post 9-11. There were some aspects of the novel that I liked... Changez, has a firm and consistent tone throughout, and his love interest, Erica, is believable, at least at first. While the prose is well-crafted (Changez adopts a somewhat archaic and formal tone to the American stranger) the claims for the beauty of the language in other reviews seem somewhat overblown.
There are some tricks played with the reader, based mainly on our assumptions about the characters, but I did not find this very clever. It heightens the suspense, but rather in the fashion of a movie where the fright device suddenly jumps out at the viewer. But in a purportedly realistic novel, one likes to have the details right or credibility suffers. The business setting, Changez's job as a "valuation analyist" at an American hot-shot "valuation firm," just did not seem credible to me...such jobs, mainly done by investment banks or consultants, would not be assigned to a 22-year-old fresh out of undergrad Princeton. Although the author has reportedly worked as a financial consultant in New York, the work setting did not convince. Changez's firm would not send a team of 5 or 6 to Manila for three months to "value" a local CD manufacturer...I mean, what were they doing, counting the paperclips? We are also told that it is up to Changez to devise his own "valuation model," a strangely ad hoc and imprecise approach melded to the unbelievably precise. Perhaps the author is trying to make some sort of point about Changez's character, in that he has aspects of the precise and vague in his personality, but if so, it didn't work for me and just detracted from credibility, important in a thriller. Without giving away any essential plot developments, Changez's later "change" I found rather forced and inexplicable. A-type personalities who get into Princeton just don't act this way, and that also detracted from his girlfriend Ericka's believability, who similarly went to Princeton. Changez seems always to be graded and judged, at Princeton, and at the firm, yet there seems little questioning of the validity of this system. Is he just a grade-grubbing bourgeois striving to climb into the upper ranks of the plutocracy or does he see this more cynically? The tension does build as the narration proceeds, but there are continual nagging questions about credibility that slowly add up throughout but thr reader is always aware of authorial manipulation throughout. There is little discussion of issues of religion, class or race and that too detracted from the credibility of the novel's resolution. But the author deserves credit for his handling of this theme, identity problems of a Pakistani in post 9-11 America, but I wish he had set it in a background with which he may have had more familiarity.
Right now, this is long-listed for the Booker Prize. Of others on the list, I have read only Ian McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" a stronger novel, at least in terms of the prose, but it is not McEwan at his best. I also read several Booker-eligible novels that never made the list but should have(particularly John Burnside's "The Devil's Footprints")... there are stronger candidates on the Booker list than "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" and the list itself seems very weak this year. But if one is after a decent short thriller to occupy oneself for a few hours, this may serve the purpose.
Compelling story of life in America after 9/11.......2007-08-22
This book is compelling on the 9/11 issue without being overbearing or preachy. In these times, that's a hard feat to pull off.
I liked the narration, and how the conceit of two men talking in a Lahore restaurant allowed Hamid to move from story to story, letting us know the events that shaped Changez's life. It's tough to describe how conflicted first generation immigrants feel when American actions cause strife in their homelands. But through Changez, Hamid shows the reader the many different motivations at play (Changez's family, his sense of alienation from American culture, the feeling of being an outsider). I am also from Pakistan, so the book resonated deeply with me. I've been in this country for almost 18 years. Even so, if Pakistan was to be attacked, I don't know that I could support the US. The conflicted feelings Changez experiences are likely more common than most would like to believe.
The narrative is well-paced and gives the reader little surprises at just the right moments. Particularly well done is the atmosphere of the Lahore tea shop. Hamid does a masterful job of conveying the lazy, but tense atmosphere present in many such places.
Finally, the story of Changez's love interest is a good bit of symbolism. Before 9/11, she's bubbly and joyous. After, she deteriorates and decays, unable to get over the problems of her past. In a lesser author's hand, this would have been heavy handed, but Hamid makes the depiction nuanced enough to make her a real character.
I am anxious to read Mr. Hamid's next book. Pakistan needs more authors like him.
Amazon.com
A graduate of Duke University in 2002 and an analyst for J.P. Morgan for a few years after that, Dana Vachon is a writing wunderkind along the lines of Jay McInerney in Bright Lights, Big City and Bret Easton Ellis in Less Than Zero. However, the similarity ends with the theme of young guys on the razzle, because Vachon's protagonist, unlike his predecessors, observes and learns without falling into the honey pot. Tommy Quinn graduates from Georgetown and lands a job with J.S. Spenser, an investment banking firm. His major was Interdisciplinary Studies, a kind of Liberal Arts wastebasket, and he knows nothing about finance. In the brain-deadening Spenser training program he hooks up with Roger Thorne, a really crass human being, but one who knows all the moves. The genesis of the friendship sets the tone rather well: They are both wearing Gucci loafers and Rolex watches.
The story begins at Roger's engagement party, with Tommy waiting for his erstwhile girlfriend Frances to arrive. Everyone thinks that she has been at a spa, but she has really been in an upscale Home for the Unsure, being ministered to by a freaky shrink. The story then moves backward through Tommy's ruminations about meeting Roger, "the John Audubon of preppy flesh," and about connecting with Terence Mathers, Spenser's guru of mergers and acquisitions. At the end of Mathers's first speech to the new Spenserites, Tommy says: "We had all partaken of the capitalist Kool-Aid and the applause was as much a tribute to the stupidity of young men and women after four years of elite education as it was to the success of Spenser's training program." Greed is definitely good in this atmosphere--the more the better--but Tommy is not really a full-fledged participant. After Tommy blows his first assignment, he and Roger are sent to Cabo San Lucas on a major deal. What happens there is life-threatening and hilariously over-the-top but perfectly plausible and moves Tommy to rethink his life path. Vachon has left his own fledgling financial career behind, and instead has written a first-rate first novel that is smart, funny, witty, and wise. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
A stylish and hilarious novel about the lives and loves of well-to-do young Manhattanites in their first year on Wall Street, destined to become one of the year's most buzzed-about debuts.
Mergers & Acquisitions is the story of Tommy Quinn, a recent Georgetown grad who has just landed the job of his dreams as an investment banker at J. S. Spenser, and the perfect girl, Frances Sloan, the daughter of one of New York's oldest moneyed families. As he travels from the most exclusive ball rooms of the Racquet and Tennis Club to the stuffiest boardrooms of J. S. Spenser, from the golf links of Piping Rock to the bedrooms of Park Avenue, and from the debauched yacht of a Mexican billionaire to the Ritalin-strewn prep-school dorm room of his younger brother, he finds that the job and the girl are not what they once seemed.
Sharply written, fast-paced, and bitingly witty, Mergers & acquisitions is a compulsively readable story of Manhattan's young, ambitious, and wealthy. Set against the backdrop of money, lust, power, corruption, cynicism, energy, and excitement that is Wall Street, it is suffused with an authenticity that only an author who lives in that world can provide. A former investment banker at J. P. Morgan, Vachon offers an insider's point of view on the financial scene, and he knows the moneyed turf of Manhattan inside out.
Customer Reviews:
Inane and tedious.......2007-10-22
Given the strong media reviews, I was expecting something funny, engaging and smart. This is none of the above. While I'll give anyone credit for actually writing a book, not to mention getting it published, this was a real disappointment. The novel comprises a series of vignettes that are meant, I guess, to be amusing in their ridiculousness. I found them to be just inane, unoriginal, and, more importantly, totally unsuccessful in creating an actual network of characters and an engaging plot. I would strongly encourage others not to waste time giving this a read.
Horrible.......2007-10-19
The dude should have stuck with his kickin' banking job on the Street, for such wording is how this book reads. Somewhere on the jacket it claims that we're going to see the inside world of New York's elite and wealthy. What a joke. This is nothing like real life. And Vachon writes like a 6th grade boy. Supposedly, banking analysts and associates at top firms (Goldman) come from top schools (Harvard), but the language the characters use make them sound like high school dropouts from So Cal.
A light read.......2007-09-01
I did enjoy this book, but I wish the author had written a few more chapters on actually working in the office of J.S.Spenser. The author does have a comic way of writing, I liked the part where the main chararter converted the US dollar into itself! I also liked how the book was written, it started in the present at his friend's engagment, then the next chapters where in the past and the last chapter was at the engagment party. Though I did find the main character's girlfriend a bit disturbing.
Hilarious and Brilliant!.......2007-08-04
A comic romp dealing with the financial world and early employment after college. Some passages are so funny, I laughed out loud! The characters, even though seemingly over the top at times, ring true, and present archetypes that are unforgettable. The romantic plot line is heartfelt and also has a profound feeling of felt life. I look forward to more novels by this remarkable talent!
Excellent Effort-Mixed Results.......2007-07-07
The book starts out great, but then it fades off the map. It is similar to Hemingway's -To Have and Have Not-. Since I have worked on The Street, and I am a writer, my hopes were very high. However, I have not been able to finish the book.
The author has some talent, and I wish him luck.
Book Description
A comic chronicle of a year in the life in the college admissions cycle
It’s spring break of junior year and the college admissions hysteria is setting in. “AP” Harry (so named for the unprecedented number of advanced placement courses he has taken) and his mother take a detour from his first choice, Harvard, to visit Yates, a liberal arts school in the Northeast that is enjoying a surge in popularity as a result of a statistical error that landed it on the top-fifty list of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. There, on Yates’s dilapidated grounds, Harry runs into two of his classmates from Verona High, an elite public school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There’s Maya Kaluantharana, a gifted athlete whose mediocre SAT scores so alarm her family that they declare her learning disabled, and Taylor Rockefeller, Harry’s brooding neighbor, who just wants a good look at the dormitory bathrooms.
With the human spirit of Tom Perrotta and the engaging honesty of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep, Susan Coll reveals the frantic world of college admissions, where kids recalibrate their GPAs based on daily quizzes, families relocate to enhance the chance for Ivy League slots, and everyone is looking for the formula for admittance. Meanwhile, Yates admissions officer Olivia Sheraton sifts through applications looking for something—anything—to distinguish one applicant from the next. For all, the price of admission requires compromise; for a few, the ordeal blossoms into an unexpected journey of discovery.
Customer Reviews:
Somewhat disappointing.......2007-09-02
I received this book as a gift from my husband, and that's the only reason why I finished reading it. It's just another example that not every jounalist is cut out to be a novelist, too. Susan Coll starts out developing a quite complex set of characters, but then the story just fails to take off. Throughout the book I felt like I was stuck in some type of introduction, and suddenly you're at the end and there was no story.
All the ingredients but ..........2007-08-16
This book seemed to have all the ingredients for a really interesting and lively book, but the pace just seemed to plod along. There were several "main" characters - three different students, the parents of two, and the acting dean of college admissions, in addition to some recurring figures - friends, teachers, guidance counselors, therapists, etc. I found myself having difficulty recalling who the secondary characters were in each of the several plot lines and perhaps that explains why the book never really seemed to take flight.
There was very little dialogue in the book, with most of the book taking place in the introspections and thoughts of the main characters. There was a nice mix of types of people, with each having different perspectives of the importance of college placement. Since the whole premise of the book was the college application and placement of students from a high school in (I suppose) the fictitious Verona, Maryland, it was a bit one dimensional and that made it somewhat flat as well. There was little, if anything in the book that didn't pertain to college preparation - as if this was the only thing in each person's life.
While I yearned to be done this book, I found myself compelled to see how it ended, even if the book actually became nearly boring in the exclusive focus on college. It didn't come to a grand conclusion with the outcomes of each student finalized, it did come to a conclusion that was oddly in a direction the rest of the book could have used.
Given the subject, I think parents of children who are about to or have gone through the whole college admissions process could find more to relate to than I could.
A fun read.......2007-07-30
Having been thru the process twice now, a lot of this rings true. It is an entertaining read.
Boring.......2007-07-13
As someone fascinated by (and in a constant state of being involved with) the admissions process, this book was a disappointment. It was extremely boring to read, the characters were forced and unrelatable, and the ending was extremely anti-climatic. Olivia's character/POV seemed out of place and almost irrelevent. The characters had uncreative problems (issues with parents, workaholic, mommy drinks, etc) and there is a distinct lack of follow up in the minor arcs/tangents the author starts. This book was poorly written, hard to read, and uninteresting. The only redeeming quality about Acceptance is that it's topical.
Hiaasen-esque Dialogue and Crazy Suburbs Make You Laugh.......2007-05-28
For the middle or upper middle class parent of the 21st century, the statements made in this book are not only true, but bitterly true.
Parents of today are addicted to the blogging statements and statistics spewed from the most conventional sources: college confidential, college board, Fiske's, Barron's, U.S. News and World Report and more. If you did not know all of the above-recited sources, there are only two conclusions: you don't have college-age children and their importance does not thankfully exist in your world, or you are deep in doo doo when it comes to handling yourself at cocktail parties in the suburbs like Verona (a D.C. suburb) - the setting of this fictional novel.
The main characters are not average, but they are typical. A minority student who is a jock (swimmer named Maya), an "uber" kid who has been aiming for Harvard since his mother's gynecologist burped him (AP Harry) and a mixed up teenager (imagine) whose emotional conflicts are hampering her life for the stars - as her top 15% and great SAT scores may deliver her to - and do I dare say this? - an unknown LAC named Yates (Taylor).
These three kids and dysfunctional families (typical suburb families) are followed throughout this book. The dialogue and events remind me of Carl Hiaasen - there is real wackiness in these pages.
One statement is hard to tell the parents or the children - there is more than one school for the child. They don't know this their junior year. And, this book which divides chapters by months from the spring of the junior year to the summer of senior year, delivers the characters and the reader to the realization that the previously enunciated statement is true. Some of the characters do not get into the "castle in the sky" school of choice, but so what. Other schools, they learn, are also great. Maybe greater. Maybe better? Whoa, do people at 17 or 18 realize this? Better yet, do their helicopter parents realize this? You will have to read the book to obtain an answer.
Many of the references in the book show the author's deep knowledge of this area. From study? Probably not - any parent seeking to place their child (which the cover admits the author recently did) into college learns the system, the nuances, the craziness, and the madness associated with the college-entrance world of today.
For those who are in this muddle or about to enter it, this book will do two things: (1) make you laugh and actually educate you on a few fine points; or (2) make you think this is too wacky to be true. Unfortunately, each point is only too reflective of the truths lived in suburbs like Verona in 2007.
Book Description
Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ house, a cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference to the other. But during the warm, languorous summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime.For what the two discover on the Riviera and on a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.
The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured as in André Aciman’s frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.
Customer Reviews:
Tremendous depth, and lovingly told.......2007-10-18
You know, I could go on and on about the beautiful poetry of the language and the painful yearning, steeped in truth, that resonates with memories that we all have buried deep within our psyche, but dozens of other reviewers have already said much the same thing and in better words than I could. Instead, I'd like to address my review to the fellow who gave up on page 34, disgustedly tossed it into the garbage and proceeded to slap the book with a one-star review. Okay, okay. I'll grant you it is slow out of the starting gate, but guess what? It's building up to something, and the restraint Andre Aciman puts into the language it a direct reflection of the tremendous restraint Elio and Oliver exhibit toward each other. The payoff comes in the second section, and it is very rewarding. If the one-star reviewer had just stuck it out, he may have been pleasantly surprised. On second thought, maybe not. Unfortunately he probably still would have been bored by this low-key, reflective, nostalgic confession. Modern literature has evolved (or de-evolved?) to the point where to be a best-seller, a book must hook you from the first line, take you on a roller-coaster ride, and never let up until the last sentence. It has sadly created a whole generation of A.D.D. readers who can't appreciate a book that takes its time to unfold, and let the reader really get inside a character and know him. "Call Me by Your Name" is not an easy read. It takes some effort, but things in life that are hard to do are often the most rewarding.
passionate..........2007-10-09
i was surprised by a lot of the negative reviews this book got, i thought it was rich and passionate and as the main character, Elio, described each situation or interaction you could feel what he was feeling or even see what he was seeing...the scenes, settings, the characters...his life...it was all so very well put together and drawn out...his love for Oliver was overwhelming, to say the least...
Call This Novel Great! .......2007-09-17
Rather than shelving a large library of used books in my apartment, I keep a small collection of my favorite books . . . the ones I know that I want to read again and again. "Call Me by Your Name" is now in my small collection with "Middlemarch," "Giovanni's Room," "Gut Symmetries," "At Swim,Two Boys," and others.
If literature is an art that can touch one's soul, then I would say that Aciman's novel is one that thrust a sword into the most tender chamber of my heart and tore open old wounds. The effect was sweet and deeply painful, but after the tears it felt like an awakening. This book is rare and very beautiful.
A Heartfelt and Melancholy Remembrance.......2007-09-16
I'm first to admit that the first 75 pages were challenging...I was losing interest, but so very happy I persisted. (Partially due to the fact that I only brought one book for the plane ride.)
Perhaps part of the difficulty for me was that much of the internal narrative resonated to deeply. It came very close to what I'd imagine the dialogue might have been in my head had this story been my own.
What a beautiful novel! I hope others invest the time to read this ruminative and melancholy but ultimately noble story.
Gripping story.......2007-09-12
Aciman writes a truly gripping and emotionally charged story. I have gone on to read his `Out of Egypt' which is, again, beautiful writing.
Book Description
In preparation for their long-awaited wedding day, Dayne and Katy are determined to keep the ceremony a secret from the paparazzi. Their relationship grows closer and stronger as they plan together, but in the end it takes the help of the Baxter family and many of the CKT kids so that they’ll even have a chance at a private wedding. John Baxter is thrilled that his oldest son will be settling down a few miles away, but he isn’t sure how any of his kids will handle a situation he can no longer run from--the feelings he is having for his friend Elaine. In the meantime, the Flanigan family is struggling with their young boarder, Cody Coleman, Jim Flanigan’s star receiver. After an alcohol overdose, Cody fights for his life. Only God’s grace and a miracle can bring him back from the brink of death--physically and spiritually.
Customer Reviews:
Sunrise.......2007-10-10
Karen Kingsbury has done it again..This book is AMAZING....I laughed, cried & now look at the sunrise in a different way..
Romantic to da core!.......2007-09-29
A much better series. I was moved. I was bored somewhere in the middle of the firstborn series and was realy praying this would be different. Thankfully it was!
good way to spend an afternoon.......2007-09-15
I read this in one afternoon and enjoyed it. The plot _is_ a bit thin, but Sunrise seems more like a transitional book, mainly written to wrap up the Firstborn series and lay the groundwork for the Sunrise series. As such, it works well. There were some minor inconsistencies (the press is watching the Baxter family to guess where the wedding is, but Katy's parents can take a commercial jet to Mexico with no problems? Wouldn't somebody be watching them, too?) but all in all, I love the book, and appreciated it more after reading Summer.
Sunrise.......2007-09-15
I was very pleased with the product; it was in great condition and arrived at just the right time. The quality of the book was excellent, better than I had expected.
The Baxters continue.......2007-09-13
Karen Kingsbury continues the Baxter family lives. It is a very good read and inspirational. Will keep buying the stories.
Customer Reviews:
Terribly disappointing.......2007-10-21
Rarely have I read a book so completely unsatisfying. I could not find one character with whom I sympathized or cared about. It made me swear off books about New Yorkers: self-absorbed and totally out-of-touch with real humanity, unlike actual New York City residents I know, including family members. Who are these people? I'm sure people this self-absorbed exist - I don't want to read a whole novel about them. Like other reviewers, I forced myself to slog through her pretentious writing style and absence of plot to the end - and found the ending just as terrible.
All dressed up and no where to go...........2007-10-20
The Emperor's Children is one of those books that never seems to come together for me. Some books have a strong start and then fizzle out at the end, others have a slow start but a strong finish. This book started slow, stayed slow and ended slow. Maybe it's a true telling of post 9/11 lives in New York City, or a literary version of post traumatic stress syndrome, or maybe it's a great novel that just misses it with me. The New York Times lists this book as a 2006 notable so I had to assume it was worth the read. For me it wasn't.
Soooo boring that I couldn't finish.......2007-10-16
I read a lot of books and always finish but this book was sooooo boring that I have given up. My current favorite is the "Glass Castle"
Awful.......2007-10-12
I am in the second chapter and already am very distracted by the horrible use of commas and dashes in her long, meaningless sentences. Nobody ever speaks or thinks like that. The characters are not likeable. What a tedious exercise. Forget it, I'm trashing it, specially after reading all the reviews.
What an utter disappointment! .......2007-10-09
Rating should be NO stars!
I was quite enthused to read this book, having read some of the reviews. I have limited time and so I tend to pick books carefully. All I can say is "my bad!" This book was such a disappointment - the characters were pretentious, the plot often vapid, and there seemed to be a ton of loose ends at the conclusion of the book.
Plot spoiler!!!! The book's chronology covers September 11, 2001, and it handled the day and its sadness in such a haphazard manner. I worked downtown in NYC and was a mere 4 blocks away when the first tower fell - the description of the event and the impact on the characters was laughable. None of the characters were appealing, save for perhaps one (Annabel Thwaite, but mostly b/c she was not very involved with the other characters, but rather her work, which was noble - assisting problem foster children in the system).
This was a very slow read, and I actually threw the book in the garbage as soon as I finished. I do not often have such reactions to books, but again, this was a huge let-down, empty characters, feeble storyline, and pretentious prose, to boot.
Skip this one!
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