Rating: 
Summary: Rave Reviews!!
Review: "Astounding...You become completely immersed, convinced, transported. There is no higher praise." -Boston Globe "Remarkable....Exquisite....Uplifting...a gifted, sensitive new writer." -The Miami Herald "Done very well indeed...Crowell keeps her plot moving briskly along." -Time Magazine "Read it for Crowell's touching rendering of a woman starting over-and the pleasure of turning the last page fully contented." -US
Rating: 
Summary: A Maze Into the Self
Review: A couple months ago I read Jenn Crowell's first book, Necessary Madness. I wept, I shook, and I told anyone in my proximity to read it! I felt in awe to read a first writer's talented work and to have been brought into the realm of her character, Gloria Burgess: her love, her loss, her renewal. The story was wonderfully woven, complete with nearly every emotion a woman in Gloria's position would experience. Miss Crowell's brillant choice of words created a memorable image I am not soon to forget. Anyone who is planning on getting married or who wants to fall in love or who is already there and beyond should read Crowell's take on what love is, or at least what it should be. It's honest emotions, honest desires and honest madness, and above all a beautiful debut for an author I'd love to read again and again.
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Summary: Best written book I've read
Review: As a secret writer myself, I was ASTOUNDED at how well written this book was for someone so young (for someone of any age, really). This woman was born with a gift and we are fortunate she has used it for our enjoyment. The story may not have been totally original, but her style of writing won me over in a second. Great vocabulary, nice turns of phrases .. a real pleasure to read
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Summary: An excellent choice for those seeking to find themselves.
Review: At the beginning I was hook. A little a long the way I was lost because I couldn't tell if we were in present tense (after the death of bill), or past tense (before she and bill married). But I couldn't stop reading. The irony between the mother and daughter was simply too realistic. This is an excellent book that teaches lessons that we shouldn't wait till someone dies to learn.
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Summary: An amazing literature that has captured all my love....
Review: Gloria Burgess lost her husband to leukemia and had to learn to accept the fact that her life had taken on a drastic turn since her most tresured love was dead. In the process, she had to cope with the turmoils in her emotions and face with the ironies of her feelings ever since grief engulfed her. A most fascinating and beautiful literature. It fully rejuvenates my love for my partner and made me understand the importance of treasuring one when he's alive. Much tears had been wept over Necessary Madness, and I strongly recommend this book. Integrity in its emotions is what this book has to offer...
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Summary: "He coaxed the words..."
Review: I admit it: I'm floored. Seventeen years old? But yes, the author of this very well-written novel was all of a ripe and vintage seventeen years of age when she wrote it. Nearly impossible to believe. I would give this novel highest marks even had this not been so, but that it is so - well, I'm floored. I read Crowell's second novel, "Letting the Body Lead," before I read this one. It was good, and one would expect an author's second novel to be better than their first... but this is not the case. While her second novel is strong and her command of literary language impressive, it is the first novel, this one, that really astounds. Age of author aside, this is real talent. The story line begins with a young widow and mother who has just buried her much-loved husband, succumbed to leukemia. Crowell's language draws the reader into the bleeding soul of the young widow, makes the pain achingly real. The inner struggles to heal are more than convincing. Even the descriptions of the deceased husband's artwork, "painting for his life" as the character puts it, bring the paintings to life in the mind's eye of the reader. The child, a young boy, is forced to mature over early, as he is told he is now "man of the house." For a while, he is the stronger of the mother and child grieving their loss, but isn't it often so? The two exchange roles of who is the healer, who is the one most in need of healing, and so both begin their faltering steps to recovery from their grief. Loss of a loved one brings out the man in the boy and the child in the woman, but, gradually, they resume their stations in life of mother and son and are stronger one for the other. Dealing with death, for all three members of the family, is a necessary madness and Crowell expresses it just that way. "He coaxed the words onto my silent tongue," the widow says of her husband. The least convincing thread weaving through this novel is the relationship between the young widow and her estranged mother. Something's missing. The young woman's anger at her mother is palpable, but the degree of it remains a puzzle. Mom tends to yell and be abrasive and unkind, but so many family dynamics are messy and imperfect, that the grown daughter's fierce hatred of her mother doesn't quite ring true. Her relationship with her father, however, described as something of an "emotional incest," the father worshiping his daughter as a replica of his own lost and youthful love, however strange, is more convincing. Minor flaws. Upon turning the final page, the overall sense of the book remains that this is not only the vivid description of the death of a young artist and the heartache of those who love him, but that it is in itself - a work of art. At any age.
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Summary: Must read for anyone coping/understanding parents & choices
Review: I am an avid reader and this is the only book I have ever read that I immediately wanted to read again. When a book makes you think about your own life and your parents and how you dealt with events that shaped your life is is invaluable. This book did that for me. It is done in such a context of an unimaginable event of losing your husband and trying to go on with your life. I couldn't put this book down and have recommended it to everyone who will listen
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely wonderful!
Review: I checked this book out from the library one evening and was finished it that night. I could not stop until I had absorbed every single word. For days afterward the book plagued my mind. I loved it, loved it, loved it. I think the Jenn Crowell gave such reality to all her characters. Gloria's feelings about her husband, father, mother and son came through to the reader with such clarity. I felt every moment of her love, sadness, anger, happiness and most of all her necessary madness. Thank you Jenn Crowell for this wonderful masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Ageless
Review: I had been wanting to read this book for some time, because the author attended my undergraduate school, Goucher College, in Baltimore. After reading all the great reviews I was expecting something quite good. I found it to be a trite book, with almost childish dialogue-- the kind of exchanges that a typical eighteen year old (the approximate age of the author upon writing the book) might imagine would go on between adults. Character development was minimal, but the dialogue was so shallow that it distracted me from anything else the book may have had to offer. I only finished the book because it was short enough that finishing it wouldn't be too great a waste of time. It didn't even have the satisfaction of a trashy novel. If I hadn't been expecting something good or different, maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed. I think it's great Ms. Crowell managed to write a novel, but I can't help but believe that had the book been written by a thirty year old it wouldn't have received a second look as serious reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't warrant the raves
Review: I had been wanting to read this book for some time, because the author attended my undergraduate school, Goucher College, in Baltimore. After reading all the great reviews I was expecting something quite good. I found it to be a trite book, with almost childish dialogue-- the kind of exchanges that a typical eighteen year old (the approximate age of the author upon writing the book) might imagine would go on between adults. Character development was minimal, but the dialogue was so shallow that it distracted me from anything else the book may have had to offer. I only finished the book because it was short enough that finishing it wouldn't be too great a waste of time. It didn't even have the satisfaction of a trashy novel. If I hadn't been expecting something good or different, maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed. I think it's great Ms. Crowell managed to write a novel, but I can't help but believe that had the book been written by a thirty year old it wouldn't have received a second look as serious reading.
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