Songs in Ordinary Time

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Summary: Excellent read for people who enjoy intricate characters.
Review: I put this book down after 140 pages and felt depressed by the hopeless atmosphere the novel rendered. I picked it up again after 7 months and quickly reacquainted with the characters and the story, then finishing the rest of the book in 2 days. The characters are developed so well and convincingly it is hard to believe you don't know them and that is probably a good thing. Fortunately many of us do not live in the hopeless, hard environment in which the Fermoyle family exists but isn't that what books are about? We get to visit their world to find the kindness, sadness, joys and failures they experience only to close the book be back in our own lives perhaps more empathatic than before. An emotional adventure for the folks that do not want their books to be Leave it to Beaver formula stuff!

Rating:
Summary: A captivating story of real people - an excellent book
Review: From the opening chapter I loved this book. Throughout the 740 pages the many stories and characters you find in a small town unfolded themselves like some great tapestry woven by a master. "Songs" is a busy read and not for the reader who doesn't like a story with multiple subplots.The only thing that kept me from giving the novel a "10" would be the ambiguity of the ending. I would love to read a sequel.

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Summary: re: cassette edition
Review: For those of you who listen to audiobooks, I thought this was very well produced and narrated. Often for me, this will make or break an audio, no matter how well written. Kate Burton does a fantastic job of character impersonation and southern and northern dialects. I was quickly swept up into the story - and yes, I found the story sad, frustrating, and powerful. For an audio to evoke those emotions means it's well worth purchasing.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth it, very satisfying
Review: When I first started this book, the first chapter was so depressing I almost put it down for good. But then the Fermoyles started to move in with me, the family became so real and their problems so involving that I couldn't put it down. Yes, this is an extremely dysfunctional family with a lot of problems -- kinda like real people in real life. This book is very good and very satisfying. I was sorry it ended by the time I finished it, I felt like these characters were people I knew and really cared about. I recommend it to anyone interested in beautifully rendered, realistic charcter development in novels. I'd love to read more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: This book took forever to read, but I kept reading because I thought for sure there would be some resolution, somewhere, for someone. No such luck. Every time you thought maybe somebody was about to wise up, slam, they hit the floor again. Depressing, gratuitously so. Disfunction for its own sake. And for 740 pages. There are millions of better books. Read one of them instead.

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Summary: SIOT captures life in a dysfuctional family
Review: Morris crafted an excellent novel that depicts the despair of a woman who is despartly trying to stay in control of her life while confronted with her life's obstacles. Excellent character development, for the most part. The topic of the dysfuctional family is one many individuals have dealt with directly or indirectly at one time or another in their lives. The reader could certainly identfy the the characters' despair as they attempt to change their lives for the better. It was our newly formed book club's first choice for discussion, although a depressing topic was dealt with, we enjoyed the novel.

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Summary: AN ENGLISH TEACHER SAYS YES!
Review: It seems that I'm not the only English teacher on this board who adored this book, found it richly satisfying, read it VERY quickly (I was on vacation and read in in three days), and will probably read it again. I'm saddened, actually, to read how many people on this board hated and denigrated this book, dismissing Morris's considerable talents with language, characterization, the evocation of time and place. A number of readers seem so terribly bothered by her characters' dysfunctionality, or by minor characters - like the Judge or Haddad not needing to be in this story about the Fermoyle's - or by what they think (I don't) is an inconclusive end. I personally don't care about liking characters as much as believing in them, in finding that the illusions they hold and the delusions that confine them are not, at bottom, all that different from my own. Living in this end-of-the-millenium world where most people love to judge others, dismiss those to whom they cannot very easily relate, and consider compassion cheap sentimentality which they cannot afford -psychologically, emotionally, or financially - I applaud Morris for doing exactly what her title suggests: singing to us the 'songs in ordinary time', tales of real life, where the addicted grope towards the next fix on some days and towards recovery on others, where real people have the best of intentions but are nevertheless narrow, shallow, foolish, hypocritical, mean, stupid, and occasionally inspired, heroic, and luminous. Here's some advice from Spinoza: "Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand." Listen to the retired English professor in California who wishes he was still teaching so he could teach THIS book: the best he's ever read. I wish I could teach it, too, but you can't ask high school students to read a 700+ page book during the school year. I'll certainly encourage a number to read it next summer.

Rating:
Summary: Help! Save me!
Review: Often I enjoy reading off-the-wall tales of off-the-wall people leading off-the-wall lives. I did not enjoy reading this book. The characters are ALL so unrelentingly neurotic/psychotic that by page 400 I couldn't stand to read another word about them and thankfully gave myself permission to quit reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: Warm and wonderful.....Rich and rewarding
Review: Having grown up in a small town, I felt as though I had returned for a heartwarming visit with characters still so vivid in my own mind and events not unlike those experienced in that summer of 1960!

Rating:
Summary: Hated to have it end.
Review: I took a long time reading it, savoring it, because I did not want it to end. One of my favorites.