Circle of Three

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Having read The Saving Graces which I just loved, I couldn't wait to read another Gaffney novel. I like this author's style of storytelling. Both books exhibited a similarity in this area and I enjoyed that, though at times in Circle of Three I wasn't totally sure who was speaking for several paragraphs. There was a relatinship of friends in the first book and a relationship of woman family members in Circle of Three, both appealing to women readers. The concept of honoring a dying man's wishes was a treat to follow to completion. However, I found this book to be very depressing until almost the concluding chapters. Death, grief, domineering interference, depression, rebeliousness, recklessness etc. were the underlying themes and how Carrie, Ruth, and Dana exhibited them and worked through them. I am sure many many families experience these states every day, but I wanted something uplifting to read. When her next novel comes out I won't be rushing to buy it until I read more reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Circle of Three Plus You = Great Reading
Review: I bought this book because I had read "Saving Graces" and wanted to see if Gaffney's power with the written word would be consistent.

I also find myself tired of seeing so many books that are solely based on romance. Is that all women care about? Not this one.

Gaffney has an exceptional talent for inhabiting the mind of her characters and speaking distinctively as she writes each character.

All three protagonists in this novel are strong, complex, likeable and dislikeable.

All three are real.

All three are dealing with a variety of players, different challenges in different stages of life. It was effortless to feel compassion, anger, laugh and cry with each of them.

While the main point of the book is to be a study of the relationship of three generations of women in the same family, I saw it as an additionally strong study in personal evolution through challenging situations and everyday situations.

I saw the responses as realistically human just as each character was realistically human.

Some examples of Gaffney's word weavings which I found especially enjoyable:

page 66:

"Brian's job becoming, at least it had accomplished what my mother, guilt over Ruth, and 50 milligrams of Zoloft hadn't been able to: my return to the real world. Half of me might be in the ether, zoned out and inattentive, mired in the old grief and guilt that a death in the family brings - naturally - but the other half was coping. It was a start."

page 101:

"Sex weas different -- he could and did make love in the face-to-face position -- but for everyday, standing-up, fully clothed affection he literally couldn't face me."

Ruth, the youngest woman, made this observation that stirred me:

"My mouth was making too much water, I couldn't swallow fast enough." (This was right before she became ill).

There is much, much richness... I suggest you read it for yourself.....

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully complex characters
Review: Never having read a book by Patricia Gaffney before, I wasn't really sure what to expect. At first, I didn't really like it--Carrie seemed very scatterbrained and pathetic after her husband's death, a careless mother and an even worse daughter. Her mother Dana came across as overbearing and horribly tactess. But this book proved that first impressions are not always correct. Not too long passed before I was hooked, simply delighted with the wonderfully realistic characters. I came to like Carrie very much, and her daughter Ruth I liked even more. Ms. Gaffney just does something wonderful with dialogue, even realistically affecting teenage prose. The plot, although not incredibly exciting, was very engaging and the day to day struggles of these three became my own problems as well. I sympathized easily with them, not something every book does for me. I highly recommend this book to just about everyone, just for the sheer brilliance of the story telling--perfectly realistic. I look very much forward to reading The Saving Graces.

Rating:
Summary: Decent
Review: Patricia Gaffney cleverly leads the reader through a story to which most women can relate: the continuing struggle of self-identity as we age. No longer a child, how do you act as a teenager? No longer a teenager, how do stop from acting like your mother? How do you accept growing old?

I especially enjoyed the method by which the tale was woven by each of the three characters, one voice and one chapter at a time. Each chapter is written from the perspective of either the grandmother, the mother, or the daughter.

I found the start of the book somewhat depressing. The mother's remorse at the death of her husband coupled with her long time unhappiness in that marrage helped to set the stage but was too long. Then, once she gets over the death, it seems to be almost forgotten. Additionally, it did not touch on the daughter's loss very much at all. Once I read past this part, I couldn't put the book down.

Rating:
Summary: A story about women
Review: This is a great book for women, about women, and the mother and daughter relationship between them.
The pivotal character is Carrie, newly widowed and still immersed in the grief and shock that only another widow would understand.Her teenaged daughter Ruth, is struggling with the loss of her father with whom she had never quite connected in the way that she fantasised- a completely open and caring father,daughter bonding.Carrie's mother Dana is a strong woman, still attractive yet overly possessive in a loving way in that she feels that it's her right to direct the lives of her daughter and grandaughter.Carrie is reunited with Jess, the sweetheart of her childhood and teenage years. Under Jess's influence,Carrie resumes painting,decorating a modern day Noah's Ark for a dying man who is convinced that building the Ark is his only way to redemption.This is a very moving story and is totally believable.