Rating: 
Summary: I refuse to finish it....
Review: I have two pages left and I don't want to finish the book. It feels like a death. It took me a little while to get into the book but then "POW!" This author is a wonderful story teller! I love books that make me view the world in a different way and this is definitely one of them! Enough exclamation points for ya? Read it, darn it!
Rating:
Summary: Fall on Your Knees
Review: I am a faithful reader of the books featured in Oprah's Book Club. Some, of course, I have liked better than others. This book bewitched me! I am so angry that I read it so quickly because I am going to Italy next week (long flight) and it would be the perfect airplane read. There are so many twists and turns and even when I thought I could predict the outcome for the family members, I was wrong. What a great study of young women. I teach high school seniors and I wish all of my girls would read this book. Such strengths and such weaknesses. Wow!
Rating: 
Summary: So what?
Review: While I do not deny this is a good read I truly don't understand all the accolades for this book.It is basically about the miserable lives of the women in this perverted, incestuous family. Where are the redeeming values? Why should I care? Why was the creepy father forgiven?After 400 and some odd pages I felt more like a voyeur than anything else and I wondered, so what?
Rating:
Summary: Redefining Family
Review: Fall on your Knees does more than merely chronicle a family, it shows how Family (with a capital F) is created, in all of glorious and grotesque forms. The traditional family unit, the nuclear family, is so distorted and twisted in this novel that the characters are forced to create their own family units with friends, lovers, strangers. Truly, a novel for our time, when families come in every shape size and color, Fall on Your Knees shows you that Family, in what ever form it may take, it truly the most important and central thing in life. MacDonald is a brilliant storyteller who reminds me, with her use of Magic Realism, of Isabel Allende. Both women weave webs of mysticism and paranormal around the characters in their novels, and have broad definitions of Family. Their works are not without tragedy or triumph, but both are presented in such a way as to lack overstated heroism. There is nothing "too special" or "too unusual" about these tragedies and triumphs, they are simply part of life to be dealt with.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing
Review: The only other novels I've been this excited about in decades are A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION and Arundhati Roy's THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS. I read FALL ON YOUR KNEES more or less in one sitting ... and then reread it within a matter of weeks. This book has the kind of grandeur and emotional power that only the very greatest novels achieve. It's proof positive that the novel is as alive and vibrant an art form as it ever has been. I can't recommend this book highly enough. If I had the money to do it, I'd mail a copy to every aspiring young writer I know. Heck, I'd mail it to every human being I know! This one's as good as they come.
Rating:
Summary: Immediately wanted to read it again
Review: I started this book and Peace Like a River at the same time. I had to force myself to put down Fall on Your Knees to read Peace Like a River so I could get it back to the library (there was a huge waiting list). Then, after I read this book, I immediately wanted to read it again. I rarely read books a second time because there are just too many books out there to read. This is a wonderful book!
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping Family Saga
Review: Ann-Marie MacDonald has written a novel that is flawless in both style and structure. Her prose is both fearsome and beautifully written. Fall on Your Knees has some very distressing and disturbing content, MacDonald was able to capture the darkness without alienating her readers. Fall on Your Knee's is the gripping saga of the Piper family. At the onset of the novel, we are introduced to James Piper as he becomes enamored with the young Materia. James and Materia wed, against her family's wishes, and soon after he becomes bored, she becomes isolated. After the birth of their first child, Kathleen, James sees great hope for her, for she is to become a star. However, the darkness sets in and the story gives life to itself as we watch Kathleen and her three sisters discover the truth that is the Piper family. At times, the novel seems confusing but as each page is turned, secrets are discovered and motives unturned. The reader remains captured until the very last page when all is discovered. Fall on Your Knees is a novel that cannot be put down or soon forgotten. I anticipate further great work from Ann-Marie MacDonald.
Rating:
Summary: Another Oprah Downer
Review: I would compare this book to the book Oprah recently had on her list "We were the Mulvaney's" which was not quite as depressing as this book. Oprah is a rich intellegent lady, I am not quite sure why she continues to chose books which are frankly just depressing. Although this book is well written, it was painful to read. Unless you are into this kind of struggle, I would not reccomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bizarre Page Turner
Review: The only way that I can describe Fall on Your Knees is to compare it to a car accident. You don't want to look, but you can't stop yourself. The story of the Piper family is one of sadness, perversion, and well kept secrets. The writing is excellent, though the reader may find themselves confused at times. Some things are written like riddles, that leave you wondering if what you read means what you think it means. Keep reading..as the story unfolds, answers are revealed and things clarified. This is definitely a dark book, so prepare yourself, but it also is a page turner. This book is hard to put down, because you will want to know where is it going, why? What does this all mean? After completing it, I'm still trying to figure out if I liked it? But there is no question, the writing is supreme and the characters are still with me. That's good writing.
Rating: 
Summary: SICK
Review: INCEST, RAPE, CHILD ABUSE, ALCHOLISM, LESBIANISM, MIXED RACE RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSVESTITE ,MURDER, SUICIDE, MENTAL ILLNESS ALL TO ONE FAMILY. HOW UNBELIEVABLY DEPRESSING.
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