The Dive From Clausen's Pier

Rating:
Summary: Hmm-haven't decided yet-
Review: if I like the fact that the main character turns her back on her fiance because he becomes handicapped...some great writing in here, but I can't get past the shallow main character.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling read, yet strangely unsatisfying
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book. In many ways, I could relate to Carrie Bell's feelings and experiences in her relationships with respect to her friends and boyfriend. (For example, my friend Jodi is a total dud, and I know what it is like to feel suddenly like you can no longer relate to a close friend). Nonetheless, I was often frustrated by the choices Carrie made, and though I definitely always wanted to read on to find out what happened, the outcome in the plot came up short for me. Still, a very fast and generally entertaining read nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting viewpoints
Review: Here's the thing: You can read as many reviews as you want but ultimatley you are the one who's gonna have to decide wether or not to read this book. I read this book, then looked at the reviews. I see both sides: People who rated this a 5 star book and people who rated this a 1 star book. Carrie is an annoying character, selfish and in ways unbearable. However, I'm pretty sure that was Ms. Packer's plan. Common, do you really think she didn't mean to make Carrie look this way??? There are good points and bad points to this book, however, overall I liked this book and was most intrigued by the character, Kilroy. If Ann Packer writes a sequel to this book I would definitly check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I don't understand the positive reviews for this book. It was a big disappointment. I felt like I was reading a Judy Blume book - this book feels like it is written for teenagers. The characters are two dimensional and the literary devices cliche. I was angry for wasting my time with this book, but kept reading to see if it got better. It didn't. If you are at all curious, read the first and last four pages of this clunker. Not much happens in between.

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: This is by far one of the best books I have read. As someone who has little time for pleasure reading, I found this book to be nowhere near a waste of time and definitely not boring. The characters are complicated and dramatic enough to be novel material, yet realistic enough to relate to. The issues that Carrie deals with are those that affect every woman in her early 20s. She must decide what she wants from life and whether or not the town of Madison is standing in her way. There are times when you hate her and other times when you just want to console her, but in the end you can accept her for what she is . . . human. Packer's writing is engaging and, unlike some other books being produced lately, not too witty for her own good.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the book, hated the ending
Review: I loved much of The Dive From Claussen's Pier. The writing was superb, the characters well-drawn and believable, the storyline refreshing and realistic. I just didn't like the choices the characters made in the end. Maybe its because I live in NY and thought Carrie was better off here than in Wisconsin. Maybe because I'm 40 years old and see life very differently that a 23 year old does. But mostly because Carrie put her dreams on hold indefinitely for friendship - a nice concept but it certainly will not be able to sustain her forever. What a pity.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Nice prose style but the characters are two-dimensional and unlikable. A quick read and absorbing at times, but in the end it left no impression at all.

Rating:
Summary: So-so
Review: I picked this up after reading her book of short stories, Mendocino, which was wonderful. This one just didn't have it. It read like a script for the TV show Everwood. I did finish the book, the story was compelling enough, but I didn't like any of the characters. I thought they were not very believable...they seemed to be a mix of northern Wisconsin hick and college student, and that's not the way Madison is. It's a town full of intellectuals and government workers...they don't produce children who get engaged at 18. In addition, I thought Carrie was pretentious and her actions ridiculous. The drive to New York and subsequent stay for a year or whatever just doesn't happen to people like her. The conversations she had and the relationship with the older man in NY nearly made me throw the book out. And the constant comparisons of her new life with her old one were just pretentious and silly. I'm not sorry I wasted my time, but I am sorry I paid for the book. It's a library read.

Rating:
Summary: Was let down by how the book resolved
Review: I became really engaged with this book and especially caught up in the NYC part [ since I have lived here for 20 years]. I cannot speak about Madison but I did get the feeling regarding NYC that she was creating largely stereotypical characters. I also felt that she had so much promise as a designer that she should have stuck with Parson's School of Design and was too influenced by relationships than really finding her true core and who she was as an individual. I wondered if down the road, she would not be sorry she did not stay in NYC.
But my biggest gripe was the ending conversation with Kilroy. He was a complex character as well as being terribly dysfunctional and I felt that his character needed a more interesting and complicated explanation than the simple one answer about his brother being the cause of his behavior.
Like many books, this one was good until the last part and I did not think the resolutions were very satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I simply could not stay with this book. It was too "day in the life of".