Songs in Ordinary Time

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Summary: Notghing like reading an ordinary book, about ordinary peopl
Review: Very well written book that captured the essence of how people can allow their fears and secretes to dictate their actions. Very well written, clear, prose. . an easy read, although a long one!

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Summary: A Reader from Pomona, CA
Review: I am an English Professor from Pomona College and feel embarrassed about writing a review about someone else's book! But Songs In Ordinary Time was one of the greatest reads I have ever read. Searing in its visceral description and gritty in its plot, Songs was a fabulous and well spent two weeks for me. This author so convincingly and wonderfully portrays so many fascinating characters. I hated some loved others and wish I could have Benji someday in my class! A great read and a true classinc, old fashioned, page burner!

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Summary: Full of the most forgetable characters I have ever met.
Review: I am advising all my friends not to read this book. Every character is pathetic. Every situation is hopeless. Who would ever want to meet or be interested in a person like Marie Fermoyle? Omar Duvall is truly a villain, but it shouldn't have taken 740 pages to tell us that. Ms. Morris' writing is not extraordinary in any way. There were many many scenes that could have been deleted from the story and never missed. I wished I had never started to read this one.

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Summary: I can still smell the foul odor of putrid rotting dead body
Review: Throughout the book the faint essence of death in Atkinson is pervasive. The characters can smell it and feel it, but they stay in denial of their gut feelings that something ain't right. Ms. Morris tries to develop too many characters, and many times I had to go back in the story to figure out where a particular person fit in. I feel she would have done better to focus on fewer characters central to the theme, Blue Mooney (who, contrary to what other reviewers have said, I found to be the most noble character, in spite of his military failure, or because of it), the Pigman, the sister. I never could see the point of the Loan officer, the old sisters running the rooming house, the cook at the drive in. At the end I was left hanging with a sense of frustration, wondering when Marie was going to mellow out. I also came from a family like the Fermoyles, and could relate to Alice completely. But there was a sense that everything worked out nicely after Duvall ran off, and I know life doesn't work out like that. The author also seemed to abandon some characters who she took the trouble to introduce and have the reader get interested in, only to have them disappear just when you wanted to find out what how they responded to a situation ie. Astrid. What did she do after Mr. Haddad got shot? Too many questions at the end. Yet, if there was a sequel, I don't know if I'd read it. It could be exhausting getting mad at all those people again, wondering why they made such stupid choices.

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Summary: Growing up in a painful family
Review: This is the story of a young boy growing up in painful situations. His path is lttered with a con man and an alcoholic father. Other family members have their own needs and cannot see his.

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Summary: A Song Full of Poetic and Beautiful Notes
Review: This is one of those rare books you encounter every once in a while. You begin reading it, don't think much of it at first...and then WHAM! It sucks you right into the ups and downs of an entire world of people you become completely engrossed with and races you through it. I kept wanting to scream in anger at the Omars and the Jardin Greene's of the novel or reach in and tell the Benji's and the Norms "It's o.k. It will work out." This is one book that I could not put down, that when I did I was sad to and after a few months, I found myself reading it again finding things in it I never noticed the first time around. Marie Fermoyle will irritate you and then she will make you cry because of her sheer and utter belief in faith and hope. This is a novel everyone should read for in one way or another it is about all of us. It's poingant, symbolic ending will not make sense to you at first, but read the second to last paragraph and its symbolism and you will begin to understand why the Miami Herald calls Mary McGarry Morris "one of America's finest writers." WOW!!! BY FAR MY FAVORITE OF THE OPRAH SELECTIONS!!!!!

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Summary: Could Not Put This Book Down
Review: Now I know the fuss Oprah made about this book. When is the soap going to come? When is Benji going to finally tell someone? When will Sam straighten up and fly right? This is one of those books in which you cheer outloud for some and boo others. It's a must read.

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Summary: Absolutely Enthralling - A World I Was Sad to Leave
Review: This book was so wonderful and rich, I was so sad to see that it had ended. I absolutley loved all the characters and Morris's contraversial treatment of the Catholic Church. KUDOS to Morris for writing a book that a reader can sink there teeth into. This is not the junk fiction that seems so pervasive these days.

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Summary: American Masterpiece
Review: Songs was an American Masterpiece that describes the changes of a 1960 Vermont town through the eyes of its may interesting characters. The author incredibilly takes us into another world seen through the eyes of characters you would usually ignore. Starting with the death of the town's moral leader and ending with the long overdue discovery of the death of a black man stabbed for only asking for the money he so dutifully earned, this is a fascinating expose on not only American society before the changes of the 1960's, but also a powerful and evocative story about characters who struggle with issues as complex and challenging as broken marriages, alcoholism, disillusionment with the church, and adultery, all the way to simple and powerful themes such as whether fear is a positive force in one's life. for those who loved Faulkner and for even those who love stories with unforgettable characters, this novel is for you - after you get the characters down, the novel flies to its ending where you get to see a town re-define its sense of community and a divorced mother who realizes her dream. This is a must read.

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Summary: I wished I had never even considered it.
Review: I think a 3 is being nice. I brought the book on a monday and after the first page I kept telling myself to take it back to the store. I made sure that I didn't break the binding so that it would be resaleable. However I never got around to taking it back because I began to feel obligated to finish what I started, and too I thought well maybe it will get better a few pages later. Well that never happened. I wanted to go to vermont and kick everyone of those characters butts. I was thoroughly upset w/ Marie, w, her simple self. Oh and that Benji I was hoooooooottttttttttt w/ him. Each character was only concerned about themselves no one else mattered. Too much selfishness. After awhile I couldn't put the book down, but it wasn't out of anxiousness, but out of hopes that there would be something better on the page... NOTHING WAS EVER THERE. But what really got to me was the end, when Omar tried to kill Benji and his brother, when they went home and relayed the story to their mother what did she say, h