Rating: 
Summary: Big Cherry Holler
Review: I am so transported when reading these "Big Stone Gap" novels that I consider Ave Maria, Jack and Iva Lou "friends"...and yes, I do have a life and plenty of real life friends :)
I appreciated the way the author dealt with the mid-life issues in this book. She did not go so very deep that reading about them became an obvious lesson, but rather stayed true to telling Ave Maria's story and moving forward. She did however spark my thought process into self oberservation, reflection and projection. I loved where the book took me, loved living in Ave Maria's shoes and hope there's more to come from Big Stone Gap.
Rating: 
Summary: Only read if you've read the others first
Review: I would only read this book if you have read Big Stone Gap. This is the second book in the series. I loved the first book Big Stone Gap and was excited to read a book with the same characters and by Trigiani. However, I thought it was a bit strange how it skipped over basically 8 years. It was still pretty good, but not as good as I hoped it would be. These books are a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: It's different, for sure, but good in its own right
Review: I really loved Big Stone Gap, the first book in the trilogy, and looked forward to reading this one. However, I must warn readers that this book is not as light-hearted and fun as the first one. Ava Maria and Jack Mac have to deal with REAL LIFE problems, and though it all works out in the end, there are twists and surprises in it. I still loved the book, it's just not Big Stone Gap. I went on to read Milk Glass Moon as well, and it is also different from these two. Adriana Trigiani has quickly moved up to the top three on my list of favorite authors.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner
Review: She's done it again. Ms. Trigiani has yet again done an outstanding job of realistically portraying life in the Applachian mountains with this second in the Big Stone Gap trilogy. While it may be helpful to have read the first one, this book stands alone. Ave Maria's narration clues in those who are unfamiliar with the characters and their histories. Ms. Trigiani presents a much more true to life portrait of mountian life than her contemporary Jan Karon!
Rating: 
Summary: Why go there?
Review: I loved Big Stone Gap. I was eager to read the sequel. I was very disappointed; so cliche', so repetitive. It really lacked the fresh, involving soul-searching of Big Stone Gap. The characters seem to be dragged into a trite story-line which was oddly uncharacteristic. I wish the author had left the story alone.
Rating: 
Summary: sensitive but predictable sequel sugarcoats troubling topics
Review: Marital dissatisfaction, threatened infidelity and coming to grips with a child's premature death receive sensitive but predictable treatment in Adriana Trigiani's disappointing "Big Cherry Holler," a much-anticipated sequel to her smash debut, "Big Stone Gap." Conflicts tend to have tidy resolution; characters lose dimension, and plot descends into saccharine melodrama. Despite these drawbacks, "Holler" does not flinch from an otherwise absorbing treatment of how two good people can become lost in their marriage.Ave Maria and Jack Mac find themselves lost in the eighth year of their marriage. Stgruggling with the sudden and catastrophic death of their son Joe, the two have an unspoken understanding that their relationship is fraying, perhaps beyond reclaim. Jack discovers that his life-long dream to work in the mines has evaporated with job loss. Ave Maria is unable to fill the void in her heart with acceptance and forgiveness; instead she seeks activities -- in a pharmacy and on a medical emergency team -- that supplant understanding. In "Big Stone Gap," Trigiani permits her characters to grow with the challenges of personal isolation and love at middle age; "Holler" is lamentably formulaic in its unwillingness to permit Ave Maria authentic opportunities for personal evaluation. Instead of permitting Jack Mac and Ave Maria to explore the consequences of infidelity, both physical and emotional, Trigiani pulls back. The author retreats to a safe distance, allowing Ave Maria to travel to Italy for a summer of purported contemplation and self-renewal. Of course, she meets a new love interest. Of course, she is ever so tempted. Of course, she is animated by her discovery of "the other woman" in her husband's life. All these realizations ring hollow and have the impact of a television movie of the week. Even the minor characters, so intriguing and textured in "Big Stone Gap," disappear into unidimensionality. Nowhere is this more evident in the shabby development of Theodore Tipton, whose homosexuality will be no suprise to readers of Trigiani's first novel but is somehow supposed to be astonishing to readers of the sequel. His dynamic friendship with Ave Maria descends into convenience in "Holler;" he appears and disappears whenever a crisis occurs. He dutifully offers sagacious advice, usually unheeded. The women who compose the community of Big Stone Gap exist as foils to the plot; they are little more than scenic props to the emotional terrain Ave Maria must traverse in oder to solve her dilemma. Even more irritating is the author's endless homage to Italy. Ave Maria's summer sojourn in northern Italy reads more like a Tauck travel brochure than serious literature. It is unfortunate the "Big Cherry Holler" has these weaknesses as the novel's treatment of love's integrative powers and fragility is serious and worthy of praise. When Trigiani asserts that "it is easy to turn away from love entirely and choose to live alone in private fear," she drives to the very core of the anguish any man or woman feels in determining how much to risk for love. The author understands how love alters us and how difficult it is for people to ultimately determine how much and what they would do for it. She is absolutely correct when she warns men that the "most important thing a father could do for his son was to love his mother." Her treatment of adult sexuality in marriage shines with compassionate understanding. "Big Cherry Holler" is a conflicted novel. Despite the fact that it successfully treats such serious adult themes as marital discord, sexual fulfillment and authentic love, the novel instead focuses on superficial glitz and comforting bromides. Ultimately, readers will lament how Adriana Trigiani traded her opportunities for significant literature for something commercially palatable.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Read from Triagiani
Review: I read the bad reviews of this book and was a little apprehensive, but once again, I read it in almost one sitting. This is a good book! One reviewer said that Etta changed ages, apparently she wasn't reading too closely, because the 10 year old was Ave's Italian cousin! As a mother, I cried when Ave talks about spanking Jack, and how she yelled at him "every single day", and then he died. I felt such empathy for her. I did think that she was a little too forgiving of her husband, I wished she would have hit him! And that hussy. Anyway, I love it that Trigiani never pigeonholes her people, they aren't dumb hill-billies, they are real, loving, sometimes hateful, contradictory people. All in all, I say, read it, enjoy it, and if you think you're qualified to be a literary reviwer for a hoity-toity newspaper, leave it be!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book -
Review: Adriana Trigiani has done it again! This book seems to answer all the questions I had from the first two. She has a way of writing that takes the reader inside herself and the world of Ave Maria. I haven't read a book in ages that actually made me laugh out loud! I would love to see this series of books turned into a movie. While reading them I felt like I was there, in the Virginia Mountains and then traveling to Italy. Such a great story of the ups and downs we all have in life and how to make a world and history of your own.
Rating: 
Summary: Pales in comparison to the first book
Review: I purchased this sequel expecting some of the same warm characters and quirky storylines that made the first book wonderful... and I didn't get any of it. The book is slow, and the story is poorly written. Each chapter felt like torture. If you really want to read this, wait to rent it from your local library, it's just not worth owning.
Rating:
Summary: Nominee for over-hyped book of the year?
Review: This author is currently being promoted here in England and I bought this novel as Sarah Jessica Parker (that well known literary critic) recommends the author.. What a let down! The story is cliched, the narrator has no inight into how she is letting her marriage fall apart, the novel's other characters are under-written and there is none of the wit or charm the book's jacket told you to expect. I also found the unchallenged remarks made about the Indian doctor racist (is that supposed to be okay because this is set in the South?). How can it take Ave Maria so long to realise that her marriage is in trouble? How could she not know Theodore was gay? The guests on Rikki are more intelligent than this woman! Do yourself a favour and buy an Anita Shreve book instead of this one.
|
