Fall on Your Knees

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Summary: Was I missing something
Review: I searched quite a while to obtain this book and when I finally bought it I dove right into and 100 pages later was still waiting for something to happen. Now it is on Oprah's list so it is must be good after all. For anyone who can finish this book I admire your sticktoitinis.

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Summary: My review of Fall On Your Knees
Review: Fall on your Knees is not one of Oprah's best book picks. I had too many questions about what happened to some of the main characters after I finished it. This book left me hanging at the end after such a promising start. James Piper is a self educated man with 3 daughters. He supports his family as a piano tuner and a later as a shoe maker.

Kathleen is the oldest daughter and the apple of her father's eye. She is encouraged by James to pursue a singing career. Kathleen has her life cut short at the age of 19 while giving birth to her twins. Her death sets the tone for the whole book. Mercedes is the responsible daughter who takes care of the family after their mother dies prematurely of a stroke. Mercedes is the only character who truly finds happiness in this book as she becomes a successful teacher later in life. Frances is the independent and often rebellious daughter who finds brief contentment as a dancer and a singer. Frances is no strange to pain. She suffers a miscarriage and also dies prematurely of complications due to her alcohol habit.

The book never talks about what happens to the youngest daughter Lily after she leaves Cape Breton Island. She is the daughter of Kathleen. Lily is given her mother's diary as a teenager. Her diary uncovers the most shocking secret of all about Kathleen's life. The fact that Kathleen was a lesbian and the way in which her father found out about this was a total surprise for me I was expecting an extra chapter about Lily's life after this bombshell of a revelation. The book skips Lily's life entirely between the age of 15 and 45. I wasn't pleased with this. A final chapter should be have written exclusively focusing on Lily's life and her goals and dreams.

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Summary: A rare find
Review: "Fall on Your Knees" knocked the wind out of me. I probably never would have stumbled across it, had a novelist not thrust it into my hands. Thank God she did. It can be laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreakingly sad within sentences. The characters are blessed and wretched, spooky and common, and their story will haunt you for a long time to come.

No self-respecting reader/reviewer would reveal any of the book's secrets here. You simply have to read it to believe it.

I will say that if you can get through some truly stomach-wrenching, hair-raising aspects of human behaviour, you'll receive a pay-off in one of the most beautiful love stories you'll ever come across, and a profound understanding that the spirit can triumph over some despicable circumstances.

I'm delighted that I discovered this novel. (...).

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Summary: A beautiful book for those who know how to read it.
Review: This is indeed a remarkable book. The author skillfully creates her characters, her story is relevant and clear, and her prose is sensational. For those of you who have truly read this book there can be little doubt as to is value. For those of you who dismissed it, even revealed crucial plot elements, perhaps you need to re-read this. There may be 500 versions of this story, but each is unique to itself. It's too bad that some of you can't be bothered to appreciate fine writing for what it is. In this world of "entertain me with mindless drivel", we are indeed fortunate to have an artist of this calibre to point to when describing top quality.

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Summary: Everything old is new again
Review: What makes a book 'original'? Every plot conceivable has been done to death. Every character imaginable has graced the pages of some novel or other. Every emotion possible has been wrung out of the reader. So why even write any more books? If it's all been done, why do it again?

A true pleasure of reading is finding that one novel in a thousand that manages to break free from the rest, that manages to startle and amuse within a familiar frameswork, that makes the old seem fresh. FALL ON YOUR KNEES is such a book.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES follows the tribulations of the Pipers, an unusual family living in Cape Breton in the early twentieth centure. The patriarch is James, a former piano tuner, who married Materia, a thirteen-year-old Lebanese girl who is promptly disowned from her family. Resulting from this rather unhappy coupling: Kathleen, a girl with the voice of an angel; the devout and well-meaning Mercedes; the wild and possibly insane Frances; and the crippled yet miraculous Lily.

At its essence, this is a 'family drama', a novel that traces one family's life throughout its tumultuous history. There is absolutely nothing original about this theme. Personally, I always believed that John Irving put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional'. But Ann-Marie MacDonald has accomplished something equally as fine and wonderful as Irving has often done; she has broken the bounds of the novel, making it read as if this was the first time anyone ever conceived of the idea.

MacDonald proves she has Irving's gift for finely-tuned characterization, combined with the ability to constantly surprise the reader. As MacDonald drives the narrative, through the battlefields of World War One, into the great depression, and then veering into the worlds of New York and Harlem, she consistently delights the reader with fresh sub-plots and characters. As well, MacDonald refuses to judge her characters. She leads us through the despicable acts of James and Frances, the self-pitying laments of Mercedes, the class hatred and eventual rebirth of Kathleen, all without a moment's disdain or loathing. The characters are all deeply flawed, but MacDonald refuses to sentimentalize or soften them. For better or for worse, they are who they are.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES has moments of remarkable vision, and easily holds its own against any of the more established novelists of today. It is a novel to read again and again, perhaps in conjunction with Irving's THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE. It is a treasure of a novel, and MacDonald will have a difficult time if she ever wants to top it.

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Summary: Plenty of sin and guilt, but where was the redemption?
Review: I knew before reading this book that it was going to be about a deeply dysfunctional family, but that didn't quite prepare me for how truly sick this family was. The back of the book states: "Compellingly written, by turns menacingly dark and hilariously funny, this is an epic tale of five generations of sin, guilt, and redemption." There was definitely all manner of sin and guilt, I din't find anything hilariously funny and if there was any redemption to come out of the whole mess it passed me by. It seemed to me the whole horrible cycle was doomed to continue. The writing was very well done, but I dindn't care for the graphic sexual details. The ending was depressing to me. With all the horrible things going on in the world today I don't need to read depressing books. I expect more than that.

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Summary: Storytelling at its Best
Review: Once I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down. I was completely absorbed by it. The story centres around the Piper family who are living in New Waterford, Cape Breton. James marries Materia, a young Lebanese girl, against her family's wishes. As a result she is disowned by her family. She lives a lonely existence but manages to give birth to three daughters, Kathleen, Mercedes and Frances.

The story delves into the secrets that each girl must keep, the obsessions that they all realize and deal with in their own way. MacDonald weaves an intriguing plot with her wonderful writing and brilliant character development. I felt that I knew each person, their darkest secrets became my own.

Hurray for Oprah for bringing this Canadian talent to the forefront of the reading world. It's a story that you won't soon forget.

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Summary: This was MY pick two years ago!
Review: I happened upon a used copy of this book while vacationing on Block Island. I had been haunting the island bookstores for something to read while I was there, and nothing caught my eye. This book was lying on the coffee table of the common room of the inn where I was staying, and after a few days, I assumed no one was reading it, and I picked it up. It swept me away, I loved it so. From the very first page, I was intrigued- "They're all dead now." Who could put that down? The characters became intimately known; the story line with its twists and turns kept me engrossed. I have recommended it to anyone who would listen, along with my other all-time favorites, Charms for the Easy Life and Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Bean Trees, Animal Dreams and Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Hours by Michael Cunningham. If there were six stars, I'd give it to Fall On Your Knees.

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Summary: This book was MY PICK two years ago.
Review: I discovered this book two summers ago completely by accident. I was vacationing on Block Island, RI, and saw the book on the coffee table of the common room at the inn. I asked the owner of the inn if she knew whose book it was. She did not know, but since it had been sitting there for a few days, I could probably take it. Well, I did, and I LOVED it. I had my nose buried in it the entire week, whenever I wasn't playing with my son or husband. I recommended the book to EVERYONE, so, I'm sorry Oprah, I'm way ahead of you!

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Summary: despair (noun) : the utter loss of hope....
Review: Fall On Your Knees is a novel that contains every ugly possibility that can happen within a family. While hope briefly flickers from time to time, it is always firmly snuffed out. Desperation colors every action and thought.
Ann-Marie MacDonald's multigenerational novel about the Piper family takes place on Cape Breton. This is a story of pedophilia, shunning, incest, abuse, hate, obsession, racism, abandonment, murder, lust, suicide, kidnapping,and torrential lies. Playing in the background is the relentless sound of shattering dreams. Through all of this the Catholic Church plays the role of concealer and co-conspirator of horrible secrets. The Catholic Church is also made to appear to promote false hopes with rituals and unanswered prayers at every turn, by nearly every character. The prayers offered in this novel are as effective as talking to a wall, no one is really there listening and there is NEVER any answer. If someone knew nothing about the Catholic faith this novel would be the opposite of enlightening!!
The author does an amazing job of plumbing the depths of despair in a wide variety of characters. All of her characters are carefully crafted and complex. The story is told back and forth through time in a manner well designed not to fit the final pieces of the puzzle together until the very end. Even when you are sure that you know what the picture will look like you may be surprised.
There is something about this novel that is so reminiscient of WE WERE THE MULVANEYS, and that "something" is a story devoid of any true love, any real hope or any honest faith. FALL ON YOUR KNEES has been described as a wild ride, and I agree, like being trapped in a crashing train, you see, hear and feel it happening, you can't stop looking, you can't stop it from happening and you can't get away. I think the author has a stunning ability to create and weave multi-faceted characters in a complex web of drama and this is a breath taking first novel of desolation and despair.