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srenee213 's review for:
Summit Avenue
by Mary Sharratt
Okay book, but very dark. About an immigrant girl from Germany named Kattrin who comes to St. Paul, Minnesota a few years before WWI. She works for awhile in a factory but then, with a little help from a friend, she finds a job translating German fairy tales for a professor's widow named Violet with a scandalous past.
Sharratt's a wonderful author, but Kattrin's life was just so depressing! At the beginning she was so full of hope- learning English, working her way out of the factory, falling in love with a poor bookkeeper's nephew. And then all at once, everything starts to go downhill. I felt so bad for her! And even though she seems content in the end, and her future is left open for the reader to imagine, I still had a very bitter taste in my mouth from all the horrible things that had already happened to her.
And I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that this book features homosexuality. Let me say first that I'm not at all homophobic and one of my favorite books happens to be about two lesbians, in fact. But this story just didn't sit well for me. It didn't click. They seemed to have such a mother/daughter relationship that when Kattrin realized she was in love, it sort of disgusted me. I couldn't even root for the main character to end up with the one she loved.
The book wasn't bad, but it was terribly dark and depressing and I didn't like any of the romance stories. I'd recommend Mary Sharratt's other book, "The Vanishing Point," way before "Summit Avenue."
Find more book reviews at A Quick Red Fox.
Sharratt's a wonderful author, but Kattrin's life was just so depressing! At the beginning she was so full of hope- learning English, working her way out of the factory, falling in love with a poor bookkeeper's nephew. And then all at once, everything starts to go downhill. I felt so bad for her! And even though she seems content in the end, and her future is left open for the reader to imagine, I still had a very bitter taste in my mouth from all the horrible things that had already happened to her.
And I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that this book features homosexuality. Let me say first that I'm not at all homophobic and one of my favorite books happens to be about two lesbians, in fact. But this story just didn't sit well for me. It didn't click. They seemed to have such a mother/daughter relationship that when Kattrin realized she was in love, it sort of disgusted me. I couldn't even root for the main character to end up with the one she loved.
The book wasn't bad, but it was terribly dark and depressing and I didn't like any of the romance stories. I'd recommend Mary Sharratt's other book, "The Vanishing Point," way before "Summit Avenue."
Find more book reviews at A Quick Red Fox.