The Weight Of Water

Rating:
Summary: Good but not that good
Review: After reading a few of Anita Shreve's books, a person is able to figure out what's going to happen. The book acts like a magnet, you keep reading, hoping that what you thinks is going to happen doesn't.After reading, the Pilot's Wife ;EdenClose and The Weight of Water Ibet after a few pages of Fortunes Rock I'll figure that out too.

Rating:
Summary: confusing
Review: There are two story lines - one present, one past. Shreve alternates between the two without any warning, and it is very irritating to the reader. If you can't sit down and read this book in one sitting, don't even bother trying. You'll never find your place. (My book club agrees.) If the stories were related in some way, it would be justified, even intriquing, but one has to really stretch to find a relationship. Both involve a storm, isolation, innocence...it's a stretch. The best parts are the description of the Norwegian immigrant experience. The worst part is the jumbled organization, especially since one can find no justification for it.

Rating:
Summary: a dissapointment
Review: I wanted to read Anita again because I loved her book "The Pilot's Wife". This book had some interesting characteristics but it took forever for me to get me hooked, unlike her other book. Once I read to the middle of the book I figured I better finish it, the end was weird, didn't make any sense. And as a mother, the loss of her child didn't seem real, she wasn't affected as I thought she would. It was an ok read, but it didn't compare at all to her "The Pilot's Wife". Her sentence structure I found to be really confusing.

Rating:
Summary: Started Great -- Finished a LOSER
Review: I thought this was a great book while I was reading it... that is until I came to ending. The book tensely lead up to what should have been a dramatic ending and then dropped the ball with a "and then she woke up" kind of ending. The characters were all realistic and believable until the end. It was as if the author couldn't think of a satisfactory conclusion so she ends it with "well nothing really happened but because you thought wrong (even though all the signs pointed to that) you caused this terrible thing to occur". I mean come on, even if nothing was going on all the signs pointed to that conclusion and furthermore (not to give the story away) the main character would NEVER be talking (at least not civilly or non-emotionally) to the person who helped cause this tragedy. This could have been a really powerful and moving novel and instead it just left me feeling cheated. Frankly the ending ruined the whole book and I felt like tossing the book in the trash when I was done because I was so disappointed. I don't think I would bother reading another one from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to get into...intriging...unsatisfying
Review: Initially, I felt that the book was extremely difficult to get into. Twenty pages felt like two hundred. The characters seemed a little shallow and I never felt like I really knew them (I am speaking of the present day characters). After some time, the book became very gripping. I couldn't put it down. But then the end was very disappointing (this occured in another book of hers). I felt as though there was no resolution to the finale. I am not sure if I would buy another book by this author. I think she will enter my "Public Library Only" list...

Rating:
Summary: Almost convinced
Review: I was completely wrapped up in this book until the ending. The double story was effectively told, the tension was exquisitely done between characters, and the author was highly skilled at switching voice when writing from the diary entries of the woman who survived the brutal murders at the story's center. Shreve's sentence structure in the journal entries reminded me of Melville in their complexity and balance. At the book's end, however, I felt the handling of the plot involving the present day half of the story was truncated...that the inevitable tensions and insights were dropped in their follow-through by a convenient ending that left me dissatisfied. I felt that there was much potential in what had come before that was then taken off the reader's plate before the meal was brought to a proper end. I would still recommend this book to others, but I was not convinced of the ending itself, nor of the way the author chose to handle it.

Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: Well written and captivating. I loved the parallel story line

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: This was my first time reading something from Shreve, and I will read her again. I like how she goes back and forth between the story lines, with simultaneous climaxes of both stories. You can feel the oppression of the women as you read. Very absorbing, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: ERROR--PLEASE TAKE MY NAME OFF MY RECENT REVIEW headed "Cap
Review: The review was headed "Captivating but I felt manipulated."

Rating:
Summary: Captivating but I felt manipulated
Review: I was captivated as I read this book, thought the facts of the historic murder initially put me off. It seemed insensitive to write about such a tragedy specutively and for people's entertainment and to make up such sensational material about the historic victims. I was fascinated, though, and got so involved with the story for a while that I put aside my initial feelings of voyeurism and distaste. Much of he writing was so evocative felt and thought the author did a beautiful job of showing and not telling and totally drawing me in. The sense of place was powerful and the interweaving of tales mezmerizing. When I finished the whole book, however, I felt annoyed. Both the historic and modern plots had implausibilities that ruined the story for me and seemed contrived. I felt as if things happened for effect rather than flowing naturally and authentically from the characters. I simply did not believe the historic account could have happened as it was told and felt again that this was disrespectful to real people for others' entertainment. The modern death seemed incongruent, too, and added for horrifying effect, not really related thematically to the historic tale or the modern one. It was a beautfilly written book that seemed to not live up to its promise and make the seeming authenticity of the earlier feelings inauthentic. But I still would recommend it as much better than most books with lovely and captivating passages, an engrossing and compelling plot, and much in the characters that was real and of the essence and what one reads books for, insights about people and how we feel.