Big Stone Gap

Rating:
Summary: Engaging characters, delightful story!
Review: While Ave Maria Mulligan was growing up in the tight-knit Appalachian mining town of Big Stone Gap, she considered herself a "ferriner", because her mother came from Italy. When we meet Ave Maria in this first book of Adriana Trigiani's trilogy, she has just celebrated her 35th birthday. She owns the Mutual Pharmacy in Big Stone Gap and is the town's pharmacist. Ave Maria is the town's "Old Maid", but as the book opens, we find out that she is expecting something exciting to happen to her soon. One of Ave Maria's hobbies is the art of Chinese face reading, and Ave Maria knows from studying her facial features that changes will be coming her way soon. This novel is a wonderful story of what happens when she learns of a big secret shortly after her mother dies. Ave Maria must re-evaluate her whole life and decide what's really important to her. As she examines her own life, she learns about love as she is the recipient of two marriage proposals in the course of just a few weeks. The story really kept me turning the pages to find out what happens next!

I enjoyed all the other characters that Trigiani included in the story. Iva Lou, the Bookmobile lady, was particularly well-described and was never at a loss for advice when dealing with men.

As much as I enjoyed the book, I am only giving it four stars, because I thought some of the plot twists were a little too "convenient". I am eagerly anticipating reading "Big Cherry Holler", though, to find out what happens to Ave Maria next. Trigiani does a great job of building a wonderful female protaganist that I really cared about.

Claire E.

Rating:
Summary: Feel Good, Small Town Romance
Review: A moving story set in a small town in Virginia. The main character is a single, sucessful town pharmacist. She is considered an outcast of sorts since she does not fit the town mold. She learns more about her past, her family, and her own self worth through the novel. In the end she finally confronts her ability to love. The characters in the book are very likable and real. The only complaint I had was the love story seemed a bit unrealistic, but I will read the sequel and see how it all turns out!

Rating:
Summary: Like Listening to Someone Rambling On and On
Review: The main character is telling the story and she rambles on and on, jumping from topic to topic. You start getting interested in a particular situation and almost mid-sentence, she switches thoughts and starts telling about another character. It seemed as if the author had a bunch of thoughts scrambled in her brain and she put the words to paper without unscrambling.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable & Funny!
Review: I've never read anything like this! It's a love story, a comedy & a real life story rolled into one! After I read this, I couldn't wait to read Big Cherry Holler. I'm on-line now to buy Milk Glass Moon! Lose yourself in these stories...I did!

Rating:
Summary: Ordinary plot and characters in above average setting
Review: If many novels are coming of age stories Big Stone Gap is a coming into yourself story. However, that is not immediately apparent at first. The novel follows Ave Marie Mulligan through a year of his life right after her mother's death. The spinster pharmacist in a western Virginia mining town, Ave learns of a family secret in the first chapter and spends the rest of the book dealing with its reprocusions. Along the way she faces two men who wish to marry her, the demons left by her father, and her sense of being foriegn in her own home.

While not exactly standard the plot isn't a font of originality The first half of the book doesn't seem quite sure where it is going, much like the main character. The book's second half is much better focused and once it finds its voice the plot is tied up in a satisfactory, but not overly insightful or compeling manner. The main character has passed the Woolf/LeGuin test of "do you remember the protagonist's name after you've finished". The good met good ends and the bad don't, but there is enough bittersweetness to give a sense of real life.

That sense of real life is where this book truly excells. While Ave and some of the other leads aren't especially strong characters the supporting cast and setting is. Ms. Trigiani adds plenty of personality so that while the story itself may not be unique the novel is because it is so tied to its time and place. From an elderly snake handling minister to a 40ish bookmobile driver on the prowl the town of Big Stone Gap and the surrounding hollars comes alive as the book's highlight. The use of just the right amount of local language and color make sure we know we're in rural Appalacia and not rural New England or out West. Ms. Trigiani's books have been compared to Fanny Flagg's in terms of conveying a sense of the rural South and the comparision rings true.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: My first Adriana Trigiani book and I'm on-line to buy the next one! What a great story and storyteller.

Rating:
Summary: Big Stone Gap
Review: A delightful read, I could not put this book down. The characters are fun, charming, and real. My friends and I passed this book around and we all feel in love with the little town of Big Stone Gap

Rating:
Summary: BIG love!
Review: As a life long resident of Virginia, though not southwestern VA, I really enjoyed the fact that this book was written by someone who was a Virginian, and wrote it about a small town in my state. The main character Ave Maria keeps you interested in her life. She tells a great story and made it so I could hardly put the book down.

A single women in her 30's, Ave Maria is going through life wondering what true happiness means. When she finds out a secret about her past her whole vision of life changes. She is determined to find out the truth. Along the way to the truth she learns many lessons about herself, her town, and happiness.

Great story! Great writing! I loved the book and cannot wait until the movie comes out in a few years. I'm still waiting to see when they'll finally film it!

Rating:
Summary: Big Stone Gap is Something You Need to Curl Up With!
Review: I just loved this book and look forward to Big Cherry Holler, the sequel, after reading this book! Ave Maria, who is the main character of the story has had a lot to go through in her lifetime. She lives in Big Stone Gap Virginia in the lovely mountains where it feels like 'down home.' Ave Maria's mom has passed away, and she has had a hard time getting on with her life, but she does gradually, and things go on from there. She is the town spinster at 35 years of age, and has a hard time of finding love. She has two wonderul male friends though, and will she find love with one of them? You must read this to find out!

Other events happen as well, after her mother's death occurs. Her mom was hiding something from Ave Maria for many years and it is not until her death that Ave finds out what this is. Her mom has written her a letter telling her something inside of her will. To find out what this is all about, you REALLY will have to read the book once again.

Ave Maria also owns a pharmacy in Big Stone Gap and knows many people in the whole town. Early on in the book though, a high school girl comes into Ave's life that really needs someone to look up to. Her name is Pearl, and she and Ave instantly form a friendship that is long-lasting. Ave makes her a deal later in the story that she just can't refuse.

With all the scandals, heartaches, troubles, and life-changing decisions that occur in Ave's life, this is a wonderful read! I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Spend time w/Ave Maria & friends, feel at home in BSG
Review: Ave Maria, 35 and single (she considers herself a spinster but I wouldn't label her as such), trying to recover from her mother's surprise secret that was revealed only after her recent death from cancer, is not a simple or 1-dimensional character, but I found it so easy to get to know her and care about what happened to her (and her friends). It's more than Ave Maria laying her feelings - weeds along with the flowers - out on the line for the reader to behold in all their splendor. It just doesn't feel like there's anything shallow about this book - it has a special quality I can't define that made me feel like spending time with Ave Maria and her friends and family in Big Stone Gap was like being somewhere that felt like home. Readers get to experience so much - from surprise, adventure, tears, laughter, suspense and that feeling you get when someone you "know" does something nice for someone else you "know" (even if it's only knowing them via pages in a book). I finished the book satisfied and wanting more simultaneously - I found Big Stone Gap an enjoyable read that tended to my emotional needs to connect with the characters.