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deecreatenola's review against another edition
2.0
I was surprised that I didn't like this book more, having read the Pilot's Wife and liking it. But all of the characters in this book were so self-involved that no one was especially sympathetic. Everyone seemed to have a secret, most revolving around a secret longing or unrequited love. Although the description focuses on the classmate who died, that actually seemed minor to the whole story, with the exception that two of the characters first kissed the night that the classmate died.
Even more irritating were the characters use of elevated language - the kind you'll read in an academic tome, but not the way people really talk, even people who went to an elite boarding school.
There is a story within the story about an explosion that affects one family and a doctor. That story was almost more interesting than the main story!
Even more irritating were the characters use of elevated language - the kind you'll read in an academic tome, but not the way people really talk, even people who went to an elite boarding school.
There is a story within the story about an explosion that affects one family and a doctor. That story was almost more interesting than the main story!
emilyknap's review against another edition
2.0
This book took a while to become interesting and i think a lot more could have happened.
librariandest's review against another edition
3.0
I've read two Shreve novels now and I think what I've learned from her is this: Before agreeing to marry a man, one should ask him if he's actually deeply in love with someone else. If he's honest he may reveal that he's just marrying you because he thinks it'll never work out with another woman. As Shreve illustrates so well in her novels, it sucks to find out ten or twenty years into a marriage that you were actually the runner-up.
I'm pretty tired of books about domestic funk. Why do I keep reading them? Do I think I'm going to find one that isn't brimming with middle class malaise? (I think I stole the phrase "middle class malaise" from the NYT review of A Wedding.)
Still, I'm not gonna lie, I liked this book. I'll probably read another just like it next week. It's like I think if I read enough books about unhappy marriages I'll be able to prevent myself from entering one.
I'm pretty tired of books about domestic funk. Why do I keep reading them? Do I think I'm going to find one that isn't brimming with middle class malaise? (I think I stole the phrase "middle class malaise" from the NYT review of A Wedding.)
Still, I'm not gonna lie, I liked this book. I'll probably read another just like it next week. It's like I think if I read enough books about unhappy marriages I'll be able to prevent myself from entering one.
cathylpowell's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't mind this book. I read it after someone I knew said they didn't like Anita Shreve books.
siobhanward's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This book was like if The Secret History was more boring but also a lot more believable. A group of high school friends (now in their 40s) has reunited for a wedding, while harbouring secrets from each other, mostly revolving around the death of one of their friends while they were in school. The group harbouring secrets is an overdone trope, but it was cool and this time was fairly believable. However, since this group has been friends since high school, all of the relationships between them were built off-page, and since this book was so character-driven, it made it a struggle to keep track of who was how, how everyone knew each other and frankly, why they were all coming together after all this time.
I wish more time had been devoted to the characters' relationships with one another. Not having that definitely took away from the book and it made it hard to care about what was happening.
I wish more time had been devoted to the characters' relationships with one another. Not having that definitely took away from the book and it made it hard to care about what was happening.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness, Infidelity, and Death
allisonseverson's review against another edition
3.0
While this book was not a joyful read nor a page-turner, it was poignant and full of real-life emotions, that you might imagine being entirely possible. It's been a while since I've read it, but it's college (or is it high school?) classmates who return for a reunion/ wedding of a friend, some 10-15 years after college. As one man ponders and reflects on his choices, he sometimes feels a deep sadness and dissatisfaction, and at times he thinks what he has isn't so bad. I think I'll read more of Shreve's work.
ldv's review against another edition
2.0
Often I can't look past a books writing to give credit to a decent story. This time, I can't get past the worldview of the book to clearly see the writing.
(Spoiler Alerts)
I think there are two (linked) messages in this book: the first is that you never know when tragedy will strike so live your life now. This theme is subtley given in the numerous references to 9/11 and the World Trade Centre (even though it was published in 2005, it must have been written shortly after 9/11/2001 because the event is so evidently in the forefront of the characters' consciouses) and the comparative tragedy and devastion of the Halifax Explosion during WWI (which is outlined in a metanarrative). At first I couldn't figure out what the point of the metanarrative about Innes was, but the other seems to be pointing out that Halifax and Nova Scotia healed from that horrible tragedy and New York will recover from its devastion, in time (though the people directly affected will always bear those scars).
The second message is also connected to Innes, but also to just about every couple in the book. I'm unable to capture it in a single, pithy sentence, but concerns true love that got away and extramarital affairs. This is where the worldview distraction comes in.
I can't tell for sure, but I'm left with the feeling the author is saying an affair is okay if it is with your true love, possibly the one who 'got away.' She puts a positive light on Bill, who left his wife when he rediscovered his high school sweetheart 25 years later, and on Harrison, who claims one night with Nora, the girl he admired from afar. Even Innes, who dutifully married blind and disabled Louise, is cheered for meetings with her sister Hazel, his lost true love. At the same time we are shown Agnes, who is the longtime mistress of an older married man. While she painfully feels the loneliness of the months or years between their meetings, she also has the pleasure of passionate living each moment she has with her man, without the doldrums of marriage. Is it worth it? Shreve implies that it is. If one spouse is prone to meaningless affairs, however, Shreve seems to say, that will hurt the marriage (as in Carl & Nora's, Jerry & Julie's). Almost all of the marriages in the book have infidelity, except for the partnership of Rob and Josh, but because they are never given a voice, it seems that their relationship is irrelevant or maybe too perfect to be real.
While Shreve may be perpetuating the romantic dream of that one true love you never got over, she is removing romance and even belief in marriage. For this reason, I can't fully accept this book.
(Spoiler Alerts)
I think there are two (linked) messages in this book: the first is that you never know when tragedy will strike so live your life now. This theme is subtley given in the numerous references to 9/11 and the World Trade Centre (even though it was published in 2005, it must have been written shortly after 9/11/2001 because the event is so evidently in the forefront of the characters' consciouses) and the comparative tragedy and devastion of the Halifax Explosion during WWI (which is outlined in a metanarrative). At first I couldn't figure out what the point of the metanarrative about Innes was, but the other seems to be pointing out that Halifax and Nova Scotia healed from that horrible tragedy and New York will recover from its devastion, in time (though the people directly affected will always bear those scars).
The second message is also connected to Innes, but also to just about every couple in the book. I'm unable to capture it in a single, pithy sentence, but concerns true love that got away and extramarital affairs. This is where the worldview distraction comes in.
I can't tell for sure, but I'm left with the feeling the author is saying an affair is okay if it is with your true love, possibly the one who 'got away.' She puts a positive light on Bill, who left his wife when he rediscovered his high school sweetheart 25 years later, and on Harrison, who claims one night with Nora, the girl he admired from afar. Even Innes, who dutifully married blind and disabled Louise, is cheered for meetings with her sister Hazel, his lost true love. At the same time we are shown Agnes, who is the longtime mistress of an older married man. While she painfully feels the loneliness of the months or years between their meetings, she also has the pleasure of passionate living each moment she has with her man, without the doldrums of marriage. Is it worth it? Shreve implies that it is. If one spouse is prone to meaningless affairs, however, Shreve seems to say, that will hurt the marriage (as in Carl & Nora's, Jerry & Julie's). Almost all of the marriages in the book have infidelity, except for the partnership of Rob and Josh, but because they are never given a voice, it seems that their relationship is irrelevant or maybe too perfect to be real.
While Shreve may be perpetuating the romantic dream of that one true love you never got over, she is removing romance and even belief in marriage. For this reason, I can't fully accept this book.
sarahcoller's review against another edition
2.0
3/27/2007: This book was middle-of-the-road Anita Shreve for me. It was much better than The Pilot's Wife but not quite as good as The Weight of Water or Strange Fits of Passion. I was at times irritated with the parallel story line and found myself just kind of skimming through it to get back to the "real" story. Although, at the end, I did see it as Agnes's way of processing her "secret life". She made the characters choose the same path she did at the end which I thought was typical of her. She stated all along that she was fine with her arrangement and her story ending showed that as well. I do wish there would have been more time spent on Harrison and Nora. I have to say that I felt Harrison was a better man than he turned out to be and I'm a little disappointed in him! It scares me to think that someone who seemed so committed to something could throw it all away on a whim. My 10-year class reunion is coming up this July and this book has made me a little scared...I'll have to keep my husband close by! :)
rachel_mft's review against another edition
3.0
This was exactly what I wanted it to be--a nice, light, quick read, reasonably well-crafted, with an engaging story. There was enough there to make me think--and to be glad of my own happy marriage--but it still qualifies as the literary equivalent of sorbet, a kind of palate cleansing between heftier books.