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elemmire's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful story about a man in love, who makes mistakes. But he never stops loving the woman of his dreams or his daughter. His story is unlike any other I have read in my short life. In a way it is sad, while also being hopeful. You hope the entire time that things will turn around for him, that all his dreams come true. But in the true way of life nothing works out the way we want it too.
mbenzz's review against another edition
5.0
Purchasing this book was a total impulse buy. I found it under the Kindle Editor's List of Favorites through Facebook, it caught my eye, and after reading the short synopsis, I bought it. It's very far from my normal book choices of Historical Fiction and Southern Fiction, but it pulled me right in. Why? I'm not sure. It's not a fast-paced story, there's no real action to it, but it's a great novel that slowly absorbs your interest without you even realizing it.
When 17-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned one night in 1941, his entire life changes. He goes to live with his Aunt Constance, Uncle Donald, and their adopted daughter Tilda in Middle Economy, Nova Scotia. Wyatt falls deeply in love with Tilda, while she falls just as deeply in love with Hans Mohring, a German student studying at the local college. WWII is raging and German U-boats are prowling the coast of Canada making everyone uneasy, especially Donald who becomes more and more obsessed with news of the U-boats whereabouts and the Canadian ships that have been lost. He spends hours listening to his radio for any news, and he tacks newspaper clipping in the workshop he shares with Wyatt. He is extremely un-trusting of his daughters' new love interest, and after a terrible loss to his family, he takes all his pent up rage and loss out on young Hans...forever altering the lives of everyone close to him.
My heart just went out for Wyatt. He's a simple teenager who grows to become a simple man. After getting dragged down by his uncle's hatred and having to give up almost 3 years of his life, he settles into a lonely yet hardworking existence. He has a few very close friends, but mainly he's just left to think about all he's lost in his young life: both his parents, both his Aunt and Uncle, the woman he loves and the daughter they share. This entire book is Wyatt's letter to his daughter Marlais. It explains to her everything that happened between himself, her mother Tilda, Hans, and the reasons for the complete destruction of their family. He tells her how much he loves her, and why he's been absent almost all the years of her life. He tells her his thoughts and feelings of the 20+ years since his life was forever changed in 1941. It's a sweet and heartbreaking story.
I absolutely recommend this. It is a war-time love story that is simple, yet powerful. I've never read previous works by Mr. Norman, but I'll definitely have to look into some of his other novels. He's a wonderful storyteller who has a beautiful way with words. I'm so glad I stepped out of my box and gave this book a try. It was an absolute pleasure to read.
When 17-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned one night in 1941, his entire life changes. He goes to live with his Aunt Constance, Uncle Donald, and their adopted daughter Tilda in Middle Economy, Nova Scotia. Wyatt falls deeply in love with Tilda, while she falls just as deeply in love with Hans Mohring, a German student studying at the local college. WWII is raging and German U-boats are prowling the coast of Canada making everyone uneasy, especially Donald who becomes more and more obsessed with news of the U-boats whereabouts and the Canadian ships that have been lost. He spends hours listening to his radio for any news, and he tacks newspaper clipping in the workshop he shares with Wyatt. He is extremely un-trusting of his daughters' new love interest, and after a terrible loss to his family, he takes all his pent up rage and loss out on young Hans...forever altering the lives of everyone close to him.
My heart just went out for Wyatt. He's a simple teenager who grows to become a simple man. After getting dragged down by his uncle's hatred and having to give up almost 3 years of his life, he settles into a lonely yet hardworking existence. He has a few very close friends, but mainly he's just left to think about all he's lost in his young life: both his parents, both his Aunt and Uncle, the woman he loves and the daughter they share. This entire book is Wyatt's letter to his daughter Marlais. It explains to her everything that happened between himself, her mother Tilda, Hans, and the reasons for the complete destruction of their family. He tells her how much he loves her, and why he's been absent almost all the years of her life. He tells her his thoughts and feelings of the 20+ years since his life was forever changed in 1941. It's a sweet and heartbreaking story.
I absolutely recommend this. It is a war-time love story that is simple, yet powerful. I've never read previous works by Mr. Norman, but I'll definitely have to look into some of his other novels. He's a wonderful storyteller who has a beautiful way with words. I'm so glad I stepped out of my box and gave this book a try. It was an absolute pleasure to read.
cozylittlebrownhouse's review against another edition
2.0
I think some people will really enjoy this novel which is actually a letter to the narrator's daughter, but for me it was pretty forgettable.
timna_wyckoff's review against another edition
3.0
Amazon best of the month July 2010
Quirky characters, compelling/tragic story lines, and yet somehow......dull.
Quirky characters, compelling/tragic story lines, and yet somehow......dull.
amym84's review against another edition
3.0
I really don't know what to think about this book. It was both sad yet hopeful by the end. Hopeful that maybe Wyatt will finally be able to see his daughter again and sad that in the I think nearly 20 years since he'd seen her he never once wrote to her of his own accord.
Wyatt was such a passive character. He never took his life in his own hands and did what he wanted. What would have happened if he had taken his Aunt's advice and told Tilda how he felt before things went so far with Hans? I think that Tilda did care very much for Wyatt. I almost think that her initailly taking up with Hans was a direct challenge tp Wyatt in order to get him to confess his feelings to her, but then she really did end up falling in love with Hans.
I felt as though Wyatt just let everything go by in his life, having no say in it himself. He didn't have to assist his Uncle with the disposal of Hans' body, yet there he was helping. He didn't have to let Tilda leave with Marlais. He could have given her another option besides moving overseas. They could have moved to the states. Or even if they did move he could have gone to visit her.
I really felt as though from the moment his parents killed themselves he sort of gave up as well. He didn't really seem to have any ambition workwise.
But you really want to be hopeful in the end that Marlais will want to see her father because even though Wyatt seemed to not be proactive in his life, he wasn't a bad person and he still had it rough, and you kind of want to see something good happen for him.
But one has to remember the content of the story is his own thoughts and memeories. And told in the choppy way it was like a letter we really didn't have an everyday account of Wyatt's life, just little snippets here and there. A lot of the letter has to do with how he views his life and actions and then how we decide to interpret them ourselves. We sit there and read "well he did it this way, I would've done it the other way", which I think is why I'm teeter-tottering about how I really feel about the story.
It would really be nice to know the outcome of the letter, but I guess that puts the reader at "is the glass half empty, or half full"?
Reading it, being female, I could imagine I was the one really reading the letter, and at times I felt very angry that there's no way to go back and fix the past. Then I would feel happy that at least he's finally writing this letter and acknowledging his faults for staying silent for so long. If that it what the author wanted to accomplish then he did well.
Wyatt was such a passive character. He never took his life in his own hands and did what he wanted. What would have happened if he had taken his Aunt's advice and told Tilda how he felt before things went so far with Hans? I think that Tilda did care very much for Wyatt. I almost think that her initailly taking up with Hans was a direct challenge tp Wyatt in order to get him to confess his feelings to her, but then she really did end up falling in love with Hans.
I felt as though Wyatt just let everything go by in his life, having no say in it himself. He didn't have to assist his Uncle with the disposal of Hans' body, yet there he was helping. He didn't have to let Tilda leave with Marlais. He could have given her another option besides moving overseas. They could have moved to the states. Or even if they did move he could have gone to visit her.
I really felt as though from the moment his parents killed themselves he sort of gave up as well. He didn't really seem to have any ambition workwise.
But you really want to be hopeful in the end that Marlais will want to see her father because even though Wyatt seemed to not be proactive in his life, he wasn't a bad person and he still had it rough, and you kind of want to see something good happen for him.
But one has to remember the content of the story is his own thoughts and memeories. And told in the choppy way it was like a letter we really didn't have an everyday account of Wyatt's life, just little snippets here and there. A lot of the letter has to do with how he views his life and actions and then how we decide to interpret them ourselves. We sit there and read "well he did it this way, I would've done it the other way", which I think is why I'm teeter-tottering about how I really feel about the story.
It would really be nice to know the outcome of the letter, but I guess that puts the reader at "is the glass half empty, or half full"?
Reading it, being female, I could imagine I was the one really reading the letter, and at times I felt very angry that there's no way to go back and fix the past. Then I would feel happy that at least he's finally writing this letter and acknowledging his faults for staying silent for so long. If that it what the author wanted to accomplish then he did well.
ellenmc07's review against another edition
1.0
I feel regret for letting this book take over my afternoon. It might be built for some but, not me. Far too much explanation on the mundane and little to anything in the way of enlightening or worthwhile. If you want nothing to happen in a narrative, bar 20 pages of action, this is your cup of tea.
mldias's review against another edition
3.0
Wyatt Hillyer is a magnet for tragedy. When he is a teenager, his parents commit suicide on the same day, driven to such extremes by their mutual romantic entanglements with a neighbor. This is only the first of a string of personal tragedies to befall him over the next several years.
What Is Left the Daughter (a title referencing the concept of inheritance) is an epistolary novel, written by a father to his daughter. It chronicles World War II Canada, zeroing in on the anti-German sentiment that presided there during the Holocaust. So much of the tragedy that befalls Wyatt involves this very prejudice. It is also a story of unrequited love.
Epistolary novels always have the potential to win big or fail miserably. This one falls somewhere in the middle. The writing is clean, even lyrical in places. However, the very format that propels the narrative also inhibits it. Because this is a letter from Wyatt to a daughter (Marlais) whom he barely knows, there is a certain detachment from the events that transpire. What was most frustrating about this story was its ample, but unrealized, potential for character exploration and development. Some pretty heavy things happen to this young man, but he never lets us in. We never feel their after-effects resonating within him.
Wyatt is, instead, a lens through which we observe Canada at this historical juncture, often deflecting the spotlight from himself and casting it upon secondary and tertiary characters. Sometimes, these vignettes are effective. Other times, they make the narrative feel unfocused and even scattered. Wyatt's own letters contain two lines that elucidate my own frustrations with this story, the first spoken by Cornelia and the second by Wyatt himself: 1) "'In her letters she refers to intimate things but doesn't describe things intimately'" (197), and 2) "I realize I've sometimes raced over the years like an ice skater fleeing the devil on a frozen river" (223). Wyatt is, apparently, aware that he has shared little of himself in this story, and has at times glossed over events of enormous personal and historic magnitude.
The author's writing is compelling. I would be curious to read other works by him. However, again, I found the epistolary format of this particular narrative to be limiting. Wyatt had the potential to be a rich, multifaceted character. Instead, he felt like a virtual stranger. Perhaps this was deliberate. Perhaps Norman wanted the reader to feel the same estrangement from him that Marlais, the daughter who grew up not knowing him, must have.
(Disclaimer: I received the galley proofs of this title from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for review.)
What Is Left the Daughter (a title referencing the concept of inheritance) is an epistolary novel, written by a father to his daughter. It chronicles World War II Canada, zeroing in on the anti-German sentiment that presided there during the Holocaust. So much of the tragedy that befalls Wyatt involves this very prejudice. It is also a story of unrequited love.
Epistolary novels always have the potential to win big or fail miserably. This one falls somewhere in the middle. The writing is clean, even lyrical in places. However, the very format that propels the narrative also inhibits it. Because this is a letter from Wyatt to a daughter (Marlais) whom he barely knows, there is a certain detachment from the events that transpire. What was most frustrating about this story was its ample, but unrealized, potential for character exploration and development. Some pretty heavy things happen to this young man, but he never lets us in. We never feel their after-effects resonating within him.
Wyatt is, instead, a lens through which we observe Canada at this historical juncture, often deflecting the spotlight from himself and casting it upon secondary and tertiary characters. Sometimes, these vignettes are effective. Other times, they make the narrative feel unfocused and even scattered. Wyatt's own letters contain two lines that elucidate my own frustrations with this story, the first spoken by Cornelia and the second by Wyatt himself: 1) "'In her letters she refers to intimate things but doesn't describe things intimately'" (197), and 2) "I realize I've sometimes raced over the years like an ice skater fleeing the devil on a frozen river" (223). Wyatt is, apparently, aware that he has shared little of himself in this story, and has at times glossed over events of enormous personal and historic magnitude.
The author's writing is compelling. I would be curious to read other works by him. However, again, I found the epistolary format of this particular narrative to be limiting. Wyatt had the potential to be a rich, multifaceted character. Instead, he felt like a virtual stranger. Perhaps this was deliberate. Perhaps Norman wanted the reader to feel the same estrangement from him that Marlais, the daughter who grew up not knowing him, must have.
(Disclaimer: I received the galley proofs of this title from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for review.)
tdgor's review against another edition
5.0
I have never read a book like this before. The author takes the tired old convention of the epistolary novel, which has never been done better IMO than in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," and blows it totally apart. At first the quirky details (people's odd professions) were merely amusing, but it became clear that these highly specific details were at the heart of the work. Highly recommended.
wolfsonarchitect's review against another edition
3.0
Hard to care about the plot. The language is so stilted it was off-putting
tshrope's review against another edition
3.0
I think this book is really 3.5 stars, but this is not a choice on this rating system. So I err towards the lesser (since I’m not sure if this book will have made a lasting impression-only time will tell.)
First off it is really difficult to talk about this book without giving away all of the plot lines. Suffice it to say quite a bit happens to Wyatt Hillyer, and most of it is bad.
Wyatt is mostly a bystander in his own life, and because of that is rather pathetic, in yet, we still empathize with him, a sign of a good writer. Norman is a succinct writer who tells this multi-layered story in less than 300 pages, complete with 2 suicides, a murder, a love triangle and a love child (not born out of the love triangle). He knows how to hold the reader’s attention and although this is not a “suspense-thriller” novel there is suspense and tension throughout the story. And lastly he has a dry, wiry sense of humor which was unexpected but surely welcomed.
I listened to this on audio and Bronson Pinchot was the reader. He did a fine job and I would definitely recommend it for a fast listen (only 7 hours)/read.
First off it is really difficult to talk about this book without giving away all of the plot lines. Suffice it to say quite a bit happens to Wyatt Hillyer, and most of it is bad.
Wyatt is mostly a bystander in his own life, and because of that is rather pathetic, in yet, we still empathize with him, a sign of a good writer. Norman is a succinct writer who tells this multi-layered story in less than 300 pages, complete with 2 suicides, a murder, a love triangle and a love child (not born out of the love triangle). He knows how to hold the reader’s attention and although this is not a “suspense-thriller” novel there is suspense and tension throughout the story. And lastly he has a dry, wiry sense of humor which was unexpected but surely welcomed.
I listened to this on audio and Bronson Pinchot was the reader. He did a fine job and I would definitely recommend it for a fast listen (only 7 hours)/read.