The Horse Whisperer

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Summary: a big dissapointment
Review: This was a VERY dissapointing book! It is amazing, though, how many readers had so many different opinions on it! I thought it was so bad because it dragged on and on and on and on....(you get the point) I wanted to throw it away. I'm so glad I didn't pay for it.. a relative gave it to me saying how great a book it was, and that the suprize ending was worth waiting for..YEAH RIGHT!

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Summary: I felt that it was very inspiring and that it calms the soul
Review: I felt this book sarted a bit slow and then worked it's way into a great body and ending. It was very inspiring and could be useful for anyone having trouble making it through life's obstacles. Descriptions of the Double Divide sounded like the place where serenity can definately be found.

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Summary: Montana lies dimisnished
Review: I'm in a remote place and found a book I'd hear mentioned and thought "wow! I can get current!" Please, I love being remote...the book had few enlightening moments, the only purity of thought and feeling I felt was for the friendship between Grace and Joe. The rest were cardboard caricatures and lifeless...poor Robert, was he the eunuch or what? I rarely come away hating a book and it's characters but this came darn close...Madison County was close too...the only spark of interest and light came on page 199 when the author mentioned Wallowa County Oregon...he had to have heard that from someone cause you won't find it by yourself! Please stick with your day job Mr. Evans!!

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Summary: I really liked this book!
Review: I felt compelled to write a review of this after reading the reviews submitted by people who hated it.I'm not sure what they were looking for,but this book delivered it all. Pain,humor romance, inspiration and something to do on a rainy day. Loved it. This was not some bodiceheaving heavy breathing Steel novel. The book makes you want to plan a trip to Montana.

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Summary: A heart-wrentching story!!
Review: This story is absolutly amazing. Nicholas Evans is a very good writer and I can not wait until the movie comes out. This book is a must have book!!

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Summary: WHISPERED SPIRITUALITY AND ENLIGHTENMENT
Review: The name whispered "curiosity" to me in the bookstore so I bought it on the title alone. I didn't expect to become spritually uplifted while reading this book, but that is what happened. The crystal clear imagery that Evans uses to create the visual scenes in your head only heightens the effect of his emotional prose. The empathy that Evans uses with his characters in the beginning only adds to the joy of peace these characters find in the end. A wonderfully heart-wrenching story!

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Summary: The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
Review: Believe me, I am definitely *no* horse lover. As a matter of fact, I'm scared when I have to go near these animals. I read the book, "The Horse Whisperer" by Nicholas Evans *because* I thought it a fascinating title for a novel. However, it is not a book about horses. Admittedly, they play an important role but what is more, it is a heart-warming, brilliant story about friendship and true love. It makes you laugh and it makes you truly cry in the end. I'm not going to spoil anything when I say that there is no happy end, but a *good* end. Mr Evans captured the gentle character of Tom Booker, the Horse whisperer, so most wonderful that you *really* do...believe. I do not exaggerate when I say that I have never read a book that touched me so deep inside.

Rating:
Summary: Had the author only understood his characters . . .
Review: Fortunately, I didn't have to pay for this book, because it irks me that Evans was paid so much for it when too often truly good writing and better storytelling goes unrewarded. That's not to say Evans doesn't have some talent as a writer. There were descriptions, phrases, and moments that captured my imagination, but Evans seems lost as a storyteller. He gets away with his ending (or so he thinks) by calling Tom a "crumbled icon" (although I had more the image of a 'crumpled' icon), which somehow justifies the cop-out ending as "a symbol of salvation." However, had Evans taken the time (the book comes off as having been written quickly) to explore his characters, especially Tom, as real people -- not icons -- he would have realized that the man who helped Pilgrim choose life would have made that same choice himself.

Rating:
Summary: A Hollywood Sellout
Review: Like most of the reviews already posted, I, too, was hooked by the beginning of the book and then frustrated by the second half. I've read that Evans was signed for the movie rights before it was finished. My theory is that the book changes at that point in its composition. Evans becomes too aware of how it would play out as a movie and shortchanges the reader in the process. Ironically, Hollywood apparently wasn't too satisfied with it either. I hear the horse whisperer lives.

Rating:
Summary: Almost, but not quite, getting it right...
Review: This much-discussed first novel takes its form from a notion which gives rise to a great beginning, a good middle, and almost intolerable ending. The maudlin parts of the middle reminded me of (unfortunately) the egregiously sappy "Bridges of Madison County", and the ending was, well, "unnecessarily high flung" is the phrase that comes to mind. My mind conjures the image of an artist who, having created a quite good painting, but having gotten some of the details not quite perfect, attempts salvation (and isn't that a loaded word for describing the ending of this book?) by throwing a big bucket of red paint at the canvas. Mr. Evans shows here that he has the tools, and largely the skills, but not always the knowledge of just how best to use them. But if practice makes perfect, then we may hope for great things to come.