Home :: Books :: Audiocassettes  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes

Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
White Oleander: A Novel

White Oleander: A Novel

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $16.49
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 .. 88 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST DEBUT EVER !
Review: I Have bought this book in the Dutch version and am absolutely impressed with this Novel. It doesn't happen that much to me to be blown away but this book is definately a tour de force from a begifted woman who has created one of the strongest human beings in a novel.

It is a gripping story with an end to be treasured as one of the best ever from a debutant.

As a John Irving fan I would like to really advise it to any Irving Fan. Miss Fitch deserves a lot of praise for a daring style, great character development and most of all a story that will not let loose as soon as you start reading the first words.

To me this is the best novel I have read this year, and I believe it will be hard to put it down and find a tale as good as this in the upcoming months.

5 stars ans if possible 10 because this book to me is really an achievement to give any possible prize in literature.

**********

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wonderful
Review: well-written; poetic and descriptive; honest and endearing; the characters are colorful and the emotions are real.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The White Oleander
Review: Terribly depressing. Kept reading hoping it would get better, but it didn't.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fabulous read!
Review: Janet Fitch's poetically twisted story of Ingrid and her daughter Astrid is a beautifully written and mercilessly gripping tale, one which I could not put down (quite literally). The long arm of Ingrid's motherly influences rattle and challenge the psyche of her very vulnerable, teen-age daughter from a jail cell far, far away. It was facinating to read on and learn just how Astrid digests and utilizes those influences and challenges. When's the next book coming out, Ms. Fitch!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Astonishing book, memorable...
Review: I was entranced, hypnotized, almost drugged by many of Janet Fitch's phrases and descriptions. She took me under the surface, led me around under emotional waters, and gave me the means to breathe in such dense surroundings. I will remember Astrid and her struggle to separate from her mother, whom she fears as much as loves. I will remember Ingrid's brittle rage, transmuted into beautiful poetry. This book is filled with duality, dichotomy, and an amazingly graceful style of writing that creates objects with words, scenes a reader can almost walk straight into, sounds, smells, and all. The spareness of description still somehow conveys the exact look and feel of each new venue.

All of these characters are memorable. They have left their mark on my brain forever.

I admire/envy Janet Fitch's writing ability. She has a rare gift.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like a Juicy Mango
Review: I was surprised by this book. Reading 'depressing' things usually holds no interest for me, but Astrid was delightful - showing her age by her actions but her humanity and heart with her thoughts ABOUT her actions. She was funny, incredibly intelligent, and lived her life with courage and almost detachment sometimes - she did what she had to do to protect herself. Her resilience was charming and often humorous, and her choices very human. In the situations she found herself in with her foster families (who were all fascinating) she made some apparently silly choices, but ones that always had an element of 'I can see WHY she did that' in it. I don't know or care how realistic all of it was - just reading it was a treat for the imagination. It was beautifully written, dense with images and a very physical book. The people in it were vivid, real, human and lovable, even the weak ones. Who HASN'T hurt anyone, or acted with complete idiocy and selfishness at one time or another? It's always a jolt of joy to meet people in books that one might not get to meet in real life. I enjoyed every page and didn't want it to end!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a "good-for-you" book
Review: This is probably the best book I have read from Oprah's book club, and I read a lot of books. It takes you on a ride through a young girl's life, and eventually lets you see who she becomes, and how she becomes that person. It reveals one of the most important relationships in all our lives; the mother/daughter bond. I think the author did a great job of transforming Astrid from a dependent person to an independent one. How would we feel in the same situation? She eventually blames her mother for putting her in the position of living with strangers, while all along her mother is in prison feeling sorry for herself. Each person Astrid encounters makes an impact on her life and forms her into the person she eventually becomes. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible
Review: I'd give this no star if I could. I can't believe Oprahrecommended this book getting the National Book Award. The story isvery boring and slow moving. The prose is hardly lovely. And the characters don't undergo any great change by the end- esp. the mother/daughter dilemma. Is that really resolved as is written? If you want a languid book with 'liquid poetry' with a slow moving story that you can't put down, then read Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. Or The Grapes Of Wrath. Or The God of Small Things Or Moghul Buffet by Cheryl Benard. This book is a sheer waste of time. I can't emphasize that enough!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great novel!
Review: I remember hearing Oprah refer to this book as "liquid poetry"... after the first few pages, I knew what she meant! The language that Janet Fitch uses in White Oleander is simply intoxicating, transporting the reader to Astrid's side. Literally the first novel I've read in years that I did not want to put down.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Never look at Oleanders the same way again
Review: ABSOUTELY amazing. Fitch has a way with words so that none on the page are wasted. Astrid's struggle to survive in spite of her mother is inspirational. Her whirlwind through foster homes will touch and annoy you all at the same time. She emerges scarred (physically and emotionally), smarter, and better for it. She teaches important lessons in humility, grace, despair, anger, and finally love that is unsurpassed by any other novel from the 90's. A MUST READ!


<< 1 .. 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 .. 88 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates