The Family Orchard

Rating:
Summary: Boring and poorly written!!!!!
Review: Nomi Eve takes an interesting approach to a novel on her family history. Using a few paragraph at the beginning of each chapter subtitled "my father writes", Eve lays down family history as recorded by her father. Following the "father" paragraphs is an imagined embellishment based on these stories that she was told.
The story begins in Palestine in 1837. The history of this Jewish family is interesting because parts of it are factual and a general overview of this historical period is accurate(the author documents several sources that helped and inspired her). The manner in which the story is told gets to be a bit disjointed and the flow of the story seems impeeded. Some characters are so full and lush, and several are very one dimensional
Another facet to the novel is the information on life with an orchard. The family has a citrus orchard and the facts on grafting, along with detailed drawings and a manual of orchard terms attempts to draw you into the life of the family and to confirm their reality. It too is an interesting method, although questionably effective if that was the intent.
Overall this was an interesting novel and in this era of religious/political unrest it was an interesting take on a Jewish perspective and that in itself makes it worth the time to read.

Rating:
Summary: Facts and imagination......
Review: Nomi Eve takes an interesting approach to a novel on her family history. Using a few paragraph at the beginning of each chapter subtitled "my father writes", Eve lays down family history as recorded by her father. Following the "father" paragraphs is an imagined embellishment based on these stories that she was told.
The story begins in Palestine in 1837. The history of this Jewish family is interesting because parts of it are factual and a general overview of this historical period is accurate(the author documents several sources that helped and inspired her). The manner in which the story is told gets to be a bit disjointed and the flow of the story seems impeeded. Some characters are so full and lush, and several are very one dimensional
Another facet to the novel is the information on life with an orchard. The family has a citrus orchard and the facts on grafting, along with detailed drawings and a manual of orchard terms attempts to draw you into the life of the family and to confirm their reality. It too is an interesting method, although questionably effective if that was the intent.
Overall this was an interesting novel and in this era of religious/political unrest it was an interesting take on a Jewish perspective and that in itself makes it worth the time to read.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Once in a while there are books that change your life. I don't want to give away too much of the story - the regualr review does a good job summarizing it - but I do want to say that I almost cried when I finished it. I wanted it to go on and on. The people Ms. Eve mentions in her book have become part of me. I hope to hear from them again.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing literary achievement
Review: Publisher's Weekly wrote the following in its own starred review of this book; "Intensely imagined, at once sensual, spiritual and humorous, an artful mixture of dreams and reality, legend and facts, this impressive novel takes risks with narrative method and succeeds beautifully". I am in full agreement with this observation

Rating:
Summary: (1.5) Needs pruning...
Review: The Family Orchard begins with the linking of "what my father says" and "what I say", alternating perspectives as each new member of the family tree is introduced. As well, each succeeding chapter adds diagrams of the growing family.

The scene is Palestine in 1837, certainly a fascinating period of historical perspective. So I was disappointed as I read further into the book and lost any sense of connectedness. I was unable to continue: the relatives became more confusing, their chapters too short to retain in memory. When a writer brings history to life, flesh and blood with human failings, it becomes knowable and informative, almost visual. This book did not offer that reality to me.

Rating:
Summary: (1.5) Needs pruning...
Review: The Family Orchard begins with the linking of "what my father says" and "what I say", alternating perspectives as each new member of the family tree is introduced. As well, each succeeding chapter adds diagrams of the growing family.

The scene is Palestine in 1837, certainly a fascinating period of historical perspective. So I was disappointed as I read further into the book and lost any sense of connectedness. I was unable to continue: the relatives became more confusing, their chapters too short to retain in memory. When a writer brings history to life, flesh and blood with human failings, it becomes knowable and informative, almost visual. This book did not offer that reality to me.

Rating:
Summary: A Fictional Family History
Review: The Family Orchard follows the family history of a Jewish family. The history becomes a little difficult to follow at times, but the author has placed a family tree at the beginning of many chapters that helps clarify family members for the reader. I felt as though I knew the characters very well at the end of the book. The author does a good job of describing relationships between the characters.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent First Novel
Review: The Family Orchard started out to be an engrossing and lovingly written family novel. The characters were presented with great warmth and charity. However, about halfway through the book, it began to bog down, with the spiritual scenes confusing and obscuring the true nature of the characters. Also, as the story approached current times, the characters' stories and motives were presented in a cursory way, leaving this reader wishing that the author had stopped about 100 pages earlier. I loved, however, the writer's juxtoposing of the narrator's storytelling with the consise and straightforeward factual account of her father.

Rating:
Summary: A Tedious Meandering through a Family¿s History
Review: This book has been unsuccessfully compared to "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant. The comparison is an inaccurate one. "The Red Tent" is a rich tapestry comprised of its characters' lives and there is a natural flow in the character and his or her relationship to the overall biblically based story. Both books undoubtedly embellish history where there is little or no recorded history. However, "The Family Orchard" is much weaker in this respect. Although the growing family tree's being illustrated with each chapter is helpful, as the story goes on the brevity of the chapters and the snapshots of the various characters, form weak building blocks. "The Red Tent" gives the reader a very rich and full description of each character and that in turn is what makes the reader care about the characters. Not true of "The Family Orchard".

Certainly, this was a clever endeavour. To re-tell a family's history when so many facts are missing. However, the embellishments were oftentimes superficial. I found myself asking "so what?" The more interesting aspect of this story was the brief narratives of the evolution of a homeland for the Jews.

Rating:
Summary: memory and mystery
Review: This book is a fabulous read! I could not put it down once I started. The author has succeeded on two levels: first the book has a great narrative; you really care about these people. Second - the author weaves a spell of enchantment of mythology, memory and sensuality that pervades the story with an atmosphere of love for both family history and the more direct physical love of a woman for a man.