The Dive From Clausen's Pier

Rating:
Summary: A very moving story
Review: This was the best book I have read in a LONG time. I was enthralled in the book within the first few pages and I am a very picky reader. This is not a light hearted book. It is extremely realistic in portraying interactions with others. Great interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: This one book was a complete waste of my time.
Review: I bought this book in August, thinking I would read it immediately, which of course didn't happen. SO I finally sit down and read it, and when I finished I had wished that I had lost it before getting to read it. It started out with so much hope of being a really good book. I was so utterly dissapointed.

The book could have been sooo great, but she misses the mark about 3/4 of the way through.

Please don't waste your time on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Packer brilliantly uses flashbacks
Review: Ann Packer, the author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier, is a brilliant woman who strategically uses flashbacks to illustrate the story of Carrie Bell's discovery of self. After her fiancé's tragic injury, she is overwhelmed with the pressure put on her by his family and friends so she runs to New York City to stay with a friend from high school, never thinking that her quick escape would turn into a year long abandonment of her family and friends back home in Wisconsin. During her time in New York, she constantly experiences flashbacks from her past. The reader sees that Carrie is still very attached to the life she is hiding from. Certain people and circumstances take her back to her previous life. She is trying to put the past behind her without ever dealing with it. It is too painful for her to think of all the people she hurt by leaving so abruptly, so she selfishly keeps busy in her own little world. The flashbacks reveal her intense struggle to decide who she is as a person and which life she wants to lead. She loves New York City, but something inside her knows that she will not stay there forever. When Jamie's family falls apart, Carrie is shaken out of her self-absorbed bubble and returns to Wisconsin to console her old best friend. She plans for this trip home to be a quick one, just like her escape to New York, but she continually delays her return to the city, realizing how many old friendships were in need of mending. While back in her home town, she never experiences flashbacks of New York. Instead, she thinks of all the great memories she has from Wisconsin, telling the reader the end to Carrie's inner search is near. Although it is painful to see Carrie run from her problems, it is necessary for her to get away in order to think back and see all the good that she left behind. Just when the reader is almost certain that Carrie has forgotten about her past and moved on, her mind takes her back to where her heart always resided.

Rating:
Summary: Superbly addictive and unusual read..
Review: This was a highly intricate and intriguing debut novel from Ann Packer, and one that I would readily recommend.

Beautifully paced and framed around the themes of love and loss, the work is an intimate characterisation of the pains of unrequited love. It is utterly addictive and beautifully written. It asks the reader to conceptualise forsaking their own dreams for the another, while offering a completely new angle on the question.

While many reviewers have argued against the book on the basis of the dislikable main characters, I believe that such characterisations adds to the humanity of the subjects and the work as a whole. While Carrie is cold and vacant at the best of times, Packer suggests that you can never really judge a situation like this until you are truly faced with it, nor is it fair to judge a person in such a situation without ever facing it. Furthermore, I believe Carrie realised that her New York sojourns were her last ditch attempt at freedom and had the intention of returning. Undoubtedly, Packer deserves credit for creating a work in which every single character differs from their counterparts.

My complaint, like other reviewers, is the seeming irrelevance and disappearance of certain characters, such as Carrie's gay friend Simon. What role was he supposed to play in the greater good of the story?

Despite this, a wonderful, worthwhile and entirely different read.

Rating:
Summary: I'd give it 4.5 if I could. Not perfect, but darned good.
Review: Just talking with others and skimming here, it seems to me that one of the things that sold me on the book is what others seem to be criticizing. Packer's Carrie is not one-dimensional, simple and predictable, so her actions sometimes seem inconsistent or "don't make sense." Well, people, life is not that simple. She's trying to figure herself out. She is a good person who does some uncaring and even stupid things. Isn't that normal? Have we been been so indoctrinated in the phony standards we glamorize in the People Magazine culture that we can't apprciate that in a novel? She could have been the heroic girlfriend, standing by her paralyzed man. It was more complex than that, before his accident. Want a nice pat novel with cardboard and predictable characters you'll love or easily understand? Go somewhere else. Want a thought-provoking yet enertaining enough novel? This is of that ilk. That's not anything to be ashamed of.

Rating:
Summary: Dive From Clausen's Pier
Review: Dive From Clausen's Pier was very good. It was an easy read and kept my attention. I think though that the characters went through so much but handled it really well. Im glad that Carrie was able to go out and find a closer look at who she really was. Yeah Mike and her have been dating for 8 years but this gave her a chance to see if her and Mike were really ment to be.This book went to a series of events. This book went on and on and kept you going and wanting to know more.
I didnt really like the ending though, I thought that it could have been more exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the book - confused by the ending
Review: I thought the book was marvelous. I enjoy Packer's style and her insights on real and sometimes damaging human behvior. At the same time I cringed at every choice Carrie made. I never did really "get" her - exactly how & why she came to her conclusions but I ultimately liked her. She would waffle and suddenly the decsion was made - leaving Madison for NY - poof - leaving NY for Madison - poof. I'm glad she mended her bridges, but was so surprised that she abandoned the life she was beginning in NY - it seemed so promising. I feel like she settled because it was easier to stay than to go back to NY and live her life for real. In staying, what did she really decide?
But there were also many times that I could identify with her difficulties in defining her own life- quadripalegic fiance withstanding.
I did love it, however, but was rooting for NY (and even Kilroy, I guess) in the end.

Rating:
Summary: So, I'm not as crazy as I thought I was
Review: I'm not much of a reader. In fact, the only reason I read this book was for extra credit in an English class. But all I can say is, I wish all extra credit was this much fun.
The Dive From Clausen's Pier is indeed an amazing book. Packer as a writer, and Carrie as a character, captivated me from the very first pages. I never knew that someone could so eloquently express into words such emotions and train of thoughts. I truly have never been able to relate to a book as much as I've related to this one. I've realized that I'm not the only one who thinks the way do. I mean, for Pete's sake, someone wrote an entire book about this.
Packer's writing is so realistic and down-to-earth. By the end I was convinced that this story was a part of her life; either she as the main character or one of the surrounding characters. How else could someone have such a depth of knowledge and understanding?
This novel is a definite chick's book, but I honestly feel that anyone can benefit from it, male or female.