Rating: 
Summary: Solid effort
Review: "Surrender, Dorothy" is worth reading, and worth finishing. The prose is lyrical, there are mesmerizing individual images, and the characters live lives that are spiritually bereft -- even before the central character dies unexpectedly -- which makes them unusual in this type of story. I can't remember the last time I read a book about death that didn't involve religion or faith on some level -- it is refreshing that these characters deal with grief without delving into that.I would compare the author to Elizabeth Berg and Ann Hood -- all three are good writers who have a tendency to keep their readers at an arm's length from the characters. I never fully connected with the story, but I could appreciate it. A solid effort,though I'm not sure I would read this author again. She's good, but not entirely distinct.
Rating: 
Summary: Tiresome tale of one-dimensional characters
Review: As a fan of Meg Wolitzer, having loved her other works, I looked forward eagerly to SURRENDER,DOROTHY. Regretfully, I was disappointed. The book takes place over a period of one month, August, as a group of thirty-year-old friends gathers for their annual time in the Hamptons. Although Sara is a doctoral candidate in Japanese history at Columbia, Adam a playwright, Maddy a lawyer, Maddy's husband Peter a teacher, they continue to rent the same filthy run-down hovel they've been renting for years. (Dorm life dies hard.) Horribly, Sara dies in a car accident as she and Adam are on the way to buy ice cream. The rest of the book and the month are attempts by the friends and Natalie, the dead woman's mother, (who inexplicably arrives to spend the time almost in her daughter's place) to come to grips with and cope with the tragedy. That this woman, who refused to allow these friends of many years' standing to attend her daughter's funeral, now feels a need to mingle with them is a trifle far-fetched. Throughout the month, we see how Sara has been thought of as the best friend of both Maddy and Adam. What is most peculiar is not that Sara and Natalie are close friends, but that their relationship is so all-consuming that every detail of their lives is shared - Every bit of each other's life is given up whole to the other - every day. The twisted irony of Sara's having thought at summer's beginning, that she would spend this August trying to disengage from her obsessive relationship with her mother and her mother's asking a young Japanese surfer to translate Sara's notebook and stumbling over "I love her, but sometimes I want her to leave me the hell alone. I mean, enough is enough" are the two most poignant moments in the book. Natalie is real, trying to accept the horrific fact of her child's death; no more will they say "Surrender, Dorothy" at the beginning of each telephone conversation, remembered from a shared passion with THE WIZARD OF OZ. The friends, however, are a trio of self-absorbed superannuated adolescents who, although pushed into the adult world a week early by the house owner's early return (Symbolism here?) don't have a clue.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring,Boring,Boring,,,
Review: How an author can create such great characters while writing a novel free from compelling circumstances is surprising. Ho hum, I can't believe she's dead, let's pour ourself another drink. I can't believe her mother showed up, ho-hum let's pour another drink and watch her clean the house. One big secret does surface, but it is rather mundane in it's telling. At the end everyone gets better, while the Mom who is easily the most exciting of the group, realizes life does go on after the loss of a child. Even if'ts is a miserable and shallow existence. Color this whole novel as grey and bland as a grief stricken day in the Hamptons. I was disappointed because I really looked forward to this book, and intead could barely muster the energy to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book I've read this year
Review: I absolutely adored this book. Think of the Big Chill, or the Return of the Secaucus Seven, but with characters so much like you and people you know you can't believe the author hasn't been eavesdropping in your house. Has ALOT to say about friendship, mortality and getting older but in a way that's funny, endearing and wise. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: We aren't in Kansas anymore
Review: I enjoyed "Surrender Dorothy" very much. However, I would have loved to have know Sarah more before her accident. Her character was not fully developed. I liked her best male friend the best. I found the other characters self-absorbed and often annoying. The overall plot was interesting and often heart-wrenching. The author really made you think about your own mortality and how we can touch and be touched by others people's lives...and the affect we have on each other. Ms. Woltzer shows great insight into the human heart. "Surrender Dorothy" was a very quick read.
Rating:
Summary: If I could rate it 0 stars, I would have!
Review: I looked forward to reading yet another Meg Wolitzer novel, and I was very disappointed--in fact, I lost interest early on and never finished it. Some of the author's earlier works, such as Sleepwalking and Hidden Pictures, were excellent--what happened???
Rating:
Summary: Great Beginning--Disappointing in Total
Review: I loved the first chapter of "Surrender.." and then the author killed off the most interesting character... But even worse, there are huge psychological flaws here... Flat characters.. Unrealistic portrait of a mother's grief .. and an ending that is so out of touch with the mother's reality.. It's just too light and doesn't , as so many books seem not to, deliver on its initial promise... Yet, on the positive side, the scenes are vivid, memorable and ditto some of the characters.. But that beginning was SO promising.. that the rest drops you into sadness.. not about the death portrayed but about the value of a great story that doesn't begin to meet its promise.
Rating:
Summary: funny and heartbreaking
Review: I loved this book -- it's among Wolitzer's best. The writing is sharp, funny and epigrammatic, the characters rich, the plot full of twists and turns. I can't wait for the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Wolitzer's best yet. Witty, smart, heartbreaking.
Review: I've read all of Meg Wolitzer's books, and this is my favorite. It's (laugh-outloud) funny and heart-breaking and incredibly real--like spending time with your wittiest friends. It begins with a death, and I am in awe of this writer's ability to combine the dark with the light. I know it's a cliché to say that this book made me laugh and made me cry, but it's true.
Rating:
Summary: The story takes off AFTER the central character dies...
Review: Meg Wolitzer accomplishes something astonishing here. She creates a compelling character in Sara Swerdlow even after her sudden death at the end of the first chapter. Surrender, Dorothy is, I think, about how each of us is the sum of our impact on others in our lives - and their collective perceptions of us. I eased through the story, as sad as it frequently is, quickly, and Wolitzer's style is similar to that of some of my favorite authors: Elinor Lipman, Anne Tyler and Stephen McCauley.
|
