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drlisak's review against another edition
3.0
While I appreciate the powerful metaphors and exquisite lyrical quality to the language, I found it difficult to work through this book because of the meandering perspective which didn't allow me to connect with any of the characters in a meaningful way.
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting study at how a child's mental illness can affect a family. Nan, Hal, Marina, and Christopher may be an unconventional family and yet they fall apart in all the conventional ways. What you might eexpect to draw a family tighter together can actually pull them apart (Nan, Marina) and that same thing can take a new relationship (Hal, Dan) and pull them together. I spent come time trying to reconcile both Marina's and Nan's behavior. Did they love each other, really, if they could not put aside their feelings of betrayal and hurt when it really counted? Nan, I think, is destined to never be able to give herself over fully to a relationship ever again. Her love and worry for Christopher, her willingness, her need to put him ahead of everything and anyone else will see to that. The fact that both Marina and her brother are both exiled, without ever really being given the possibility of forgiveness bears this out. Hal seems able to compartmentalize, can put aside his worry for Christopher (or tamp it down convincingly enough)and open himself up to other people. You know that there will be nothing more for this family than adjusting to Christopher's future changes, as his illness ebbs and flows, the family will be carried along (or swept away) by the current.
sarahbelwv's review
1.0
I read D'Erasmo's Tea several years ago and didn't like it (I admit, I picked it up because it had a pretty cover), but I thought I'd give her work another chance when I came across A Seahorse Year at the library. The description intrigued me and I thought for sure this was going to be a book I would love. Unfortunately, I found myself remembering why I didn't like Tea and opted to not finish A Seahorse Year.
While she does make good use of imagery, D'Erasmo's writing is halting and uncomfortable to read. Also, I'm not sure how it took me so long to realize that D'Erasmo writes "lesbian fiction," for lack of a better term, but it seemed like the sexuality of the parents was forced into the forefront and took the spotlight away from the story that I was drawn into from the blurb on the cover. I consider myself to be rather liberal and I can count several gays and lesbians among even my closest friends, but I am still not entirely comfortable with reading the explicit passages detailing their sexual forays, especially when they seem to be peppered in with no real purpose other than to prove that the characters are, in fact, lesbians. Really, I may be a bit of a prude, but I don't particularly want to read such gratuitously graphic passages regardless of the gender(s) of those involved.
I don't expect that I'll be attempting to read anymore of D'Erasmo's novels, as they're just not my cup of Tea...
While she does make good use of imagery, D'Erasmo's writing is halting and uncomfortable to read. Also, I'm not sure how it took me so long to realize that D'Erasmo writes "lesbian fiction," for lack of a better term, but it seemed like the sexuality of the parents was forced into the forefront and took the spotlight away from the story that I was drawn into from the blurb on the cover. I consider myself to be rather liberal and I can count several gays and lesbians among even my closest friends, but I am still not entirely comfortable with reading the explicit passages detailing their sexual forays, especially when they seem to be peppered in with no real purpose other than to prove that the characters are, in fact, lesbians. Really, I may be a bit of a prude, but I don't particularly want to read such gratuitously graphic passages regardless of the gender(s) of those involved.
I don't expect that I'll be attempting to read anymore of D'Erasmo's novels, as they're just not my cup of Tea...
crowyhead's review against another edition
5.0
This tells the story of what happens to teenage Christopher's family when he is diagnosed as schizophrenic. Very well-written; D'Erasmo has a definite sense for the day-to-day functioning of relationships. My co-worker complained that reading this book made her feel schizophrenic, which in this case I'm reading as a good thing.
badcatsass77's review against another edition
2.0
This book had great reviews, but i found it to be clunky and slightly cheesy at times. kudos for trying to take stab at difficult topics, but i like to be shown rather than told, and this author loves to give you canned little character synopses that really turn me off. the characters come off looking like a bunch of teenagers, and the teenagers come off even worse. the plot is somewhat compelling, but then just dribbles off into nowhere with an awkward summing-up. also all the women seem to inhabit the cheesiest lone-wolf lesbian stereotype. even though the author does attempt to examine their methods and motives, it still falls flat to me. i did manage to finish it, but regretted the lost time instantly upon doing so.
mystic's review
3.0
nan is one of the most insufferable and unsympathetic characters I've ever encountered, but overall q very interesting book
ahsimlibrarian's review
3.0
Library Journal: In her second novel (after Tea ), D'Erasmo explores how a supposedly unconventional family is no different from a traditional one when confronted with difficult choices. Set in contemporary San Francisco, the story centers on Nan, an ex-Texan bookseller; Hal, an accountant who was once a local celebrity in a campy gay troupe; their teenaged son, Christopher; and Nan's artist lover, Marina. The balancing acts that define their lives are challenged when Christopher is diagnosed with a serious mental illness and disappears into the northern California hills with his girlfriend. Alternating perspectives and controlled, nuanced writing bring depth and compassion to each character, illuminating their flaws and contradictions to full effect. While this is a strong domestic drama, it loses momentum toward the end and is weakest in its depiction of teenage angst (e.g., the repetitive references to P.J. Harvey run thin). But the sympathetically drawn characters and brilliant moments in her writing make D'Erasmo an author to watch. Recommended for most fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/04.]—MishaStone, Seattle P.L. --MishaStone (Reviewed June 15, 2004) (Library Journal, vol 129, issue 11, p56) .Kirkus:
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