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Summary: Don't Skip This One
Review: Blessings is the first novel I have read by Anna Quindlen and I will definitely read her previous works. Her characters were well developed - they were a cause for tears, smiles, anger, joy empathy and sympathy. In the telling of the story/stories at Blessings, Ms. Quindlen interweaves flashbacks very deftly to give us the history of the inhabitants from great-grandparents to the grandchild, Meredith. The outsider, Skip, displays the amazing love a man can show for a baby. He captured my heart which broke as well. The last chapters fittingly close Blessings in more ways than the obvious.
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Summary: "Blessings" graciously explores life's capacity for renewal
Review: Novelist Anna Quindlen understands that an author must not only understand the people who populate her writings, she must love them. Her novel, "Blessings," is ample proof that fully-realized characters bestow a sense of grace and dignity as they struggle with their given circumstances. Quindlen tackles the themes of discovered opportunities, parenting, hidden shame and life's unexpected possibilities for renewal with her usual dignity and skill. It is the depth of her characterizations which invest her novel with strength and dignity. Reclusive Lydia Blessing hires a handyman/caretaker on a whim. She knows little of his past, but trusts her own instincts. She lives alone, scarcely comforted by an irascible housekeeper and disquieted by a terrible sense of spiritual isolation. Utterly unexpecting the sudden altering of her sequestered existence, Lydia will be forced to confront not only the possibilities of love but of the necessity of facing a carefully hidden past. Skip Cuddy is reeling from his own blighted choices; alone and disappointed with life's prospects, he discovers an abandoned newborn on the steps leading to his live-in garage apartment. With nothing other than hope to guide him, he accepts and ultimately embraces surrogate fatherhood. Naming and raising the baby girl he considers to be "his" Faith emerge as the galvanizing integrative forces on his personality. Qualities he never knew he possessed emerge; this marginalized, unconfident, doubting man evolves into a quiet, responsible and responsive parent. The beauty of "Blessings" is its refusal to follow a "feel-good" formula; the conclusion is unsettling and provocative. Both of its protagonists struggle with themselves as they face the daunting task of assuming responsibility of Faith. Lydia ruefully looks back on her life, assesses the genesis of her short-lived marriage and evaluates her own mothering skills. Each recollection has its cost, and Lydia's veneer of comfortable routine and self-imposed exile dissolves under the redemptive weight of acceptance and love. Skip painfully unearths the cost of false friendship and learns that giving oneself to a child results in self-transformation and redemption. In this sense, Lydia and Skip's individual and mutual epiphanies are the novel's greatest blessings. Anna Quindlen delights in asking questions to which her novel can only suggest answers. Preferring to allow her readers to involve themselves in the moral dilemmas her characters face, the author invites us to embrace and identify with her protagonists. As Lydia and Skip receive Faith -- as their daughter and as their purpose in life -- we come to understand our own obligations, to ourselves and to the people we choose to love and sustain.
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Summary: DISAPPOINTING--I HAD EXPECTED MUCH MORE
Review: As a pulitzer Price winning columnist, Anna had me reading every word of her commentaries. I had expected the same from this novel. However, speaking as a mother and grandmother, I found it impossible to believe (yes, I know; this is a novel) that an infant doesn't have many bouts of crying. With the farm as quiet and peaceful as Quindlen describes, Lydia and Nadine must have heard the child. Moreover, as infants frequently wake up unexpectedly and "fussy", I fail to believe that Skip could have brought her on his chores and errands without anyone learning about her presence. My inability to get beyond this issue made it largely impossible to take much interest in the rest of the book. However, I did plod on, hoping for something to "hook" me. Yet, as beautifully as Quindlen describes the farm and the pond, there was surprisingly scant insight into the main characters. With the exception of Lydia, they seemed shallow and disconnected from each other. In fairness, this is the only book of Quindlen I've read. Perhaps I'll try an earlier book of hers before I give up.
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Summary: An everyday blessing
Review: This book is simple, straightforward, unpretentious and yet very powerful. Althought at first it feels a bit unrealistic, the ending brings us back to the imperfections and injustices in life. It makes the reader reflect on the everyday blessings in our lives, whether big or small, and the turns our lives can take without much notice. Although not a masterpiece, it satisfies the reader in many levels and reinforces the redemptive power of love. Simple as that.
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Summary: A lovely story...
Review: Anna Quindlen is an excellent writer. Blessings is a lovely and pleasant read. The story of a newborn baby left on the steps of the wealthiest home in a small town and how that baby changed the lives of the people said town is engrossing. The characters, while hiding a few surprises, are wonderful and real. The novel carries on with wording so subtle yet so beautiful that I ended up reading it in three sittings. The dialogue is well written and the story development is precise. It's just an overall lovely read. Enjoy!
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Summary: Marvelous Book!
Review: Blessings is not only well-crafted technically, but when I finished the book, I couldn't stop wondering about Skip and his future. I couldn't help myself from wondering about how Lydia's past had left her in the locked in the past. Then I examined my own life to make sure I'm moving forward. When a book makes me want to change my life, I find it worth recommending to others. As I took another look at Blessings in order to write the review, I ended up re-reading nearly all of it in a long evening. And although, it reads quickly, thoughts it of linger with me for a very long time. Also recommended: Three Junes, Atonement, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
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Summary: Wonderful book - don't miss it
Review: Not many books have captured me as thoroughly as this one has. I can't recommend it enough. I'll be sending it as a Christmas present to friends and family this year.
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Summary: A Great Read
Review: Vivid descriptions and well developed characters make this a wonderful read. A little slow to start with, in part because of the meticulous attention to detail, but the effort is worth it, and after the first chapter I found I couldn't put this book down.
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Summary: Good read, heartwarming, good character development
Review: Nice book. Anna Quindlen does a great job developing the characters, setting the scene. I could see and feel every aspect of the estate Blessings in my mind. Loved the way she developed Skips characters and the suprises about Benny and Sunny. Good read. Not the best book I ever ead but enjoyable. Great for a raining day and a warm blanket.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: Quindlen is an accomplished writer, but even the best can only wring so much from this situation. Although I consider her One True Thing one of the best books I've ever read, it took me months to read Blessings. I picked it up a few times, and put it down. I wouldn't quite call it boring, but the story is so slow, and the detailed descriptions, which do have a role in the book, can only push the plot so far. After a while, they and the real lack of feeling between the characters, lose the reader. Still, there are some wonderful images and symbols. The image of the needy herons, one who flies off after the death of the old woman, is poignant. But the big problem is that the main characters seem to have very little emotion or feeling for eachother. They are put in this poignant situation, but while they can handle the little issues, when the big problems come, they are emotionally dead. The mother betrays her child, and the caretaker adopts her, so far so good. He struggles to adjust to keeping the baby, and the old woman becomes a part of that. But eventually, the old women betrays the caretaker in a critical moment. The caretaker walks away from both the old woman after her betrayal, rather than taking a risk and trusting after that crisis. When the mother comes back for the child, he lets the baby go with very little expressed anguish. In the end, all are alone again, and there's a sense it left barely a ripple in the lives affected. The emotions are all suppressed to the point where almost no one can feel them. Perhaps this was meant to express power through understatement, and the reader can sense some of that, but it falls flat. It might have meant more if the old woman left the caretaker the house outright rather than money and the right to live in the garage, which he doesn't take up. There might be the thought that he could recreate that sense of hope and joy with his own family there, and carry the memories forward, even after the old lady and child are gone. But in the end, everyone goes away, even the daughter, and nothing, not even the herons are left. Not a very uplifting ending, and you wonder why you plowed through all those pages for so small and curtailed an outcome. There was a lot of promise in all these restrained emotions, betrayals and situations, but in the end, there's the sense that all came away with nothing. The woman dies, the baby "won't remember who cared for her the first eight months of her life", the daugher sells the house, the caretaker leaves. Certainly the reader feels the disappointment and loss, at the end, but since the characters were emotionally disconnected at the beginning, and end up that way at the end, you wonder if this was really worth the read?
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