Rating: Summary: The Honk and Holler Opening Soon Review: I read The Honk and Holler Opening Soon for a project in my English class. At first, I only read the book because it sounded the least boring out of all the books to choose from for the project. Then, when I started reading it, I realized that it is a really good book, and I finished it in 2 days. I really like Boo and Caney; they are my two favorite characters. The setting is perfect for the story, also. The characters all seem so real. I had a dream about them the night I finished the book. All in all, I think that if you're looking for a book to read, then you should definately read The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
Rating: Summary: Nice Work Review: I've read Billie Letts Where the Heart Is and I was eager to start her second book. Finally starting her second book, I was a little bored witht the first nine or ten chapters. But as I progressed, I found the book to pick up speed. I really enjoy in Letts books and how she takes people with real life situations (not perfect people with perfect families), and puts them into her books. The Honk and Hollor Opening Soon is about a Vietnam vetran in a wheel chair running his dinner. Not getting more than six or seven coustermers a day, he makes bearly enough to keep it open. With the help of a friend named Molly, they open up the dinner, run it, then shut it down in the night just to come back to it again in the morning. One ordinary day, a mistearious young woman who goes by the name Vana Takes Horses comes to the dinner looking for work as a car hop. Following that day, a forigner named Bui comes to the dinner as a full time "cook". Here these outcasts grow to become a family and help each other out with the problems that come there way. With each page of this book, it just keeps getting better and I can't waite to read her next book.
Rating: Summary: ALMOST A 5 Review: This was an AWESOME book- Please Read!
Rating: Summary: An American Novel Review: Well folks Letts has done it again. The Honk and Holler Opening Soon is just one of those all around American novels. Letts is excellent at characterization and she pick characters that are just like those living down the street whom you are aquainted with but wonder what they are like if you really got to know them. Well here they are at The Honk and Holler, a small resturant that would be better termed the "town hang out". The Honk and Holler Opening Soon is owned by a Vietnam vet, Caney, who is permanently paralysed do to a helicopter accident during the war. He is so rough around the edges that 'True Grit' could have been his nickname. Molly O, has worked at the Honk and Holler since the doors first opened, which is why she is extremely protective of the resturant and it owner Caney. But all of Molly O's protective attitude doesn't stop fate from working its twisted magic at the Honk and Holler. Vana Takes Horse, a woman whose past is tagging along beside her blows into the Honk and Holler one day carrying a three-legged dog she had found on the side of the road. Bui Khanh, a Vietnamese looking for work so he can bring his wife to America plows into the Honk and Holler speaking very little English and claiming he can cook American food. I did say claiming didn't I? Take these characters and add a little black lady name Gallilee, and a retiree named Life and you have a cast of characters that would make the Statue of Liberty proud. You won't want to put down "The Honk And Holler Opening Soon".
Rating: Summary: Unique !!! Review: I loved this book and loved the characters in it. Where else would you find a paraplegic Vietnam veteran,an Indian woman with a mysterious past,a Vietnamese immigrant who deperately wishes to embrace all of the American culture and many other really interesting characters who all gather at a rather seedy,run-down truck stop cafe.It encompasses love,hate,despair,fear,heartbreak and pure happiness. All in all,it's a wonderful book.
Rating: Summary: Everyone is a hero! Review: Billie Letts has done it again!! She took the disabled and ordinary person and made them my hero. She gave home to the homeless. Like a ribbon, she weaves through the soul to teach, "Home is Where the Heart Is."
Rating: Summary: Could be here Review: A wonderful weekend read! I felt like Letts was writing about folks I know, in places I've been. The mangled lives blended together to make a terrific tale. Vena is haunted by memories of her sister, while Caney is haunted by his tour of Viet Nam. Bui adds a new dimension as the Vietnamese immigrant in the community. Open Soon!
Rating: Summary: Billie Letts is now one of my favorites! Review: I was given this book by a coworker to read, because she loved it. It took awhile for me to get into it...I wasn't too fond of Caney at first, because he was so negative, but after I really started reading, I began to like him a lot. The relationships that Caney has with all the different people in his life really made me think about all the people I deal with on a day to day basis and how I sometimes take them for granted. I liked that he was always there for Vena and for Molly. Molly's relationship with her daughter was amazing, I wish it would have ended up on a better note. I was really glad that he went after Vena and brought her back home with him, that is what she needed. I can't wait to see the movie, if that is what Billie Letts plans on doing with this one.
Rating: Summary: Billie Letts Does it Again! Review: When I read and then finished Billie Letts's first book Where the Heart Is, I seriously doubted that I would ever read another book by this author I could enjoy more than this, her first title. But then I read The Honk and Holler Opening soon and I am now hard pressed to say which book I enjoyed more. So now let me say that perhaps Billie Letts's third book will break the tie. At least I am waiting ever so patiently for this book to be published as I imagine many of Ms. Letts's loyal fans are also doing.The Honk and Holler is a roadside diner whch is populated by some local men who come in daily and truck drivers passing through. The diner is owned by Carney, a Vietnam veteran who lost both of his legs in the war. Carney is a former rodeo star who is so depressed that he never leaves the diner nor his bedroom in the back. Carney who is now confined to a wheelchair, dwells on that he lost his legs during a fall from a helicopter and not on the field of combat. But Carney has great suppport from a waitress named Mollie, who not only misses her husband but also worries about her runaway teenage daughter who has dreams of becoming a country western singer. And then one day two people seeking refuge and kindness arrive at the diner. One is Bui, a Vietnamense man, who works as a cook and is saving money to bring his wife to the US. And the other is Vena Take Horse, a Native American woman, with a history of drug abuse, a bad marraige and now has to deal with the suicide of her sister. How these four people help each other to put their lives back together with meaning and love provides the reader with many hours of pleasure and poignancy. It is as if the author allows us to take this wonderful journey with these memorable characters with us asking only to know more about them as we close the book. Billie Letts has written a one of a kind book which ranks with other novels about lonely and unfulfilled people who finally find camaraderie and love. The setting of a dismal roadside stand with an opening sign never fixed right is the perfect place for these people to come together. How they try to brighten the diner for the holidays and ultimately brighten their own lives, is not only the background of this book but where the roots of this book are planted. This is a wonderful read and will appeal to those who have enjoyed books like The Bingo Queens of Paradise by June Park and Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik. Strong on emotion and characters, I can assure you that once you have read this book, you will never pass a roadside diner without thinking about Carney, Mollie, Vena and Bui and wondering how thay are doing.
Rating: Summary: Good Characters Review: Even if you don't understand American culture very well, you can feel slightly the human feeling the characters have.
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