The Deep End of the Ocean

Rating:
Summary: good but frustrating
Review: Having had a high school reunion in almost the same location described in the first chapters of this book, I was immediately drawn into the story. As a mom I was horrified by the kidnapping. However, the character of Beth was frustrating at times. I thought Vincent's character was complex and interesting, and Mitchard's language and description--choice of words-is often beautiful. The ending was fascinating and horrifying at the same time

Rating:
Summary: I WOULD HAVE RUN AWAY FROM HOME!
Review: The plot of this book is pretty good, it's believeable and extremely well written. If you are a charactor nut as I am, you will be disappointed in most of the main charactors of this story. I found their developement hard to follow and frustrating at times. Beth is not someone I could bond with, I didn't feel her pain and could not relate to her at all. In fact she subtracts from the book because she's in complete contradiction to the plot (a mom who wants her child back). And poor Paddy was nothing but a weak bore. Vincent, however is developed wonderfully, he is both real and believeable. More importantly, I truly felt for him. He gave you reason to care about what happened to the family. Candy was a unique player and she softened Beth's edge so to speak. The ending was somewhat of a surprise however it is not tied into a neat little bow, but then life isn't either. All in all the book is compelling and hard to put down after the first few chapters (which are choppy and hard to comprehend)

Rating:
Summary: Good books aren't supposed to always be easy to like
Review: Some of the reviews for this book are amazingly harsh and mean-spirited. I think the book is an amazing first novel. As a mother of toddlers and a pediatrician, I could relate to the not always picture-perfect glimpses of the feelings that mothers often have. Being a woman, a wife, a mother and trying to be a person as well can be difficult; Beth is a realistic, wonderfully flawed character, not a supermom. There are no supermoms. I've read Mitchard in the Milwaukee paper for years and feel I know her; when you read her columns you understand immediately that 1)being a mother is the absolutely most important passion in her life and 2)it ain't always fun or pretty. I can't believe the reviewer who says there was too much description. Why would anyone read a book otherwise? That's what comic strips are for

Rating:
Summary: The Human condition needs conditioning
Review: I read the book last winter on a beach in the Caribbean. Then, I spent months thinking about its premise. Tonite, I was wandering thru AMAZON, looked it up and read all the reviews. I am stunned and upset. Those who found it nearly worthless, as well as those who seemed to love it, all failed to say a word of appreciation for the quality of the writing. Those who found this to be a difficult read, probably don't like Joyce or Faulkner either. For them we have the Simpsons. For the rest of you, suspend your disbelief, read the prose, linger on the phrases, read the book for the value of its writing, rather than the liklihood of its reality. If you can't identify with Beth's moat of self protection then life has taughht you very little about ONE WAY to insulate yourself from the horrors that may befall us. If tyou found her to be unsympathetic, then perhaps the author has succeded beyond even her expectations. Can any of us know how we would feel at the loss of a child? Is there really but one way we should feel? Or even but 1000 ways? This Beth was a conscious choice, jusgt as Van Gogh put his seafairing captains in Dark Blue coats. If the coats were gray or brown, would the artistry be any less? I guess I would like people to regad plot as but one piece of a jigsaw puzzle. But there is so much more to this book, that any attempt to classify it as not being worthwhile merely because one cannot accept the reality chosen by the author, is waste the time it takes to read. Get a life

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: We are supposed to believe the police would just ignore a tip from someone who thought they saw Ben. Not only the police, but Beth too. I kept wondering why she didn't just drive up there herself and scour the city looking for her son - and Candy who says she looked for him in every city she went to - why didn't she just look in a city where he'd actually been spotted. Despite the obvious flaws - too many characters of which to keep track and unbelievable plot twists - I must admit I finished the book in two sittings.

Rating:
Summary: not worth reading
Review: I can't believe this was on Oprah's list. The story could have been told in 200 pages, but instead rambled on past 400 pages. Okay at first, but I had to make myself finish it

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: If this tells you anything, I didn't even bother to read the last fifteen pages of this boring book

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and compelling, yet entertaining
Review: Our book club read this title. We all approached it with trepidation, because the reviews we had read here on Amazon were extreme -- readers either loved or hated it. So, we did not know what to expect. However, everyone found that they read it very quickly and wanted to know how the story ended. We also found it to be an entertaining read with a nice mystery flavor. We all found it difficult to relate to Beth's complete withdrawal into emotional numbness. It was an understandable reaction at first, but as time went on we all felt angry with her for continuing to live in her shell to the detriment of her husband, who she seemed incapable of appreciating, and her other two children who yearned for a mother who was present to them. The family dynamics in dealing with Ben's disappearance provided for good discussion among us as to the human element in all things. The same can be said for the kidnapper whose identity is revealed in the end. However, we all felt the ending was hoaxy and a thinly veiled compulsion on the part of the author to "wrap it up". We thought that if she had ended the story line at the next to last chapter or so, the unfinished business of the story would have left so much more for the reader to contemplate. Overall, the book is good, but not the stellar masterpiece that Oprah has lead everyone to believe.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting yet depressing
Review: I finished the book in six days and I found it to be compelling. However, I felt depressed most of the time because of how Beth and the rest of the family felt when they lost Ben. My heart went out to Vincent because in the process of grieving, he got "lost" too. He blamed himself for his family's miseries but I felt that Beth, even in her grief, should have remembered that she is still a wife and a mother of two other children. What I did not like about the book was that it was sort of rambling and too detailed

Rating:
Summary: A must-read
Review: You gotta read this book, I mean it. I know we just met, you really don't know me, but trust me on this one. This not just the story of the technicalities of a little boy's disappearance. It is the revealing story of the guilt, laying-of-blame, love, madness, responsibilities and lack of, that weave people's lives together. It is a touching story of lives unraveling and lives continuing onward. The early part of the book has the intense feel of an episode of America's Most Wanted - little Ben's disappearance (? abduction), lots of police actvity, the family's anguish. The 'revelation' of the middle portion of the book seems like a made-for-TV-movie script, I didn't care for that touch, but that's OK, the incredible ending is so deeply and intensely emotional it makes up for that. The last eleven chapters of this novel will make you stay up way past your bedtime.