Rating: Summary: Imaginative, strange, and wordy Review: My reading of this title was prompted by a comment from a friend who chose it for her book club. Having just finished it, I checked the Amazon reviews to see how my reaction compares with others, and I am surprised to see that there are so many 5-star reviews. As my title indicates, I found the novel imaginative; MacDonald created just about every possible sort of character for her story in almost every environment one could find in the period of time covered. However, for the most part her people are unbelievable. Perhaps this can be called good writing, but I find it impossible to relate to such characters; too bizarre for belief, they are simply drawn on paper.The dust jacket calls the book "a stunning novel of epic proportions....finely written, rich and very moving, by turns dark and hilariously funny." Obviously, I found this to be a gross overstatement of any good features of the book. It is indeed epic, it stuns with its lack of taste, it does not prompt any emotion in response to the problems of the characters (all of whom have overwhelming burdens!), it is very dark, and there is absolutely no humor whatever in the 509 pages. I have a policy of reading to the very end whatever I begin, and that explains why I continued to read "Fall" even though it was obvious after a while that it simply was not worth the time. And I guess I am writing this review to justify the hours spent in the reading. There are too many really good books out there to bother with this extremely long one!
Rating: Summary: Somehow I kept reading Review: I took this book on a beach vacation to relax- big mistake! Ms. MacDonald is a skilled writer I will say that, but I am sorry I found this book terribly sad, depressing, and emotionally manipulative. I found that the stereotypical characters neither learned from, survived or thrived after such extreme familial dysfunction. There is not a single decent moral male character in the entire novel. VERY unfair!! The so called redemption was terribly dissatisfying and left me cold. Also the religious cliches were abused endlessly-a book trying real hard to be P.C.
Rating: Summary: Fall on Your Knees Review: This book grabs you from the very first line and keeps you entirely riveted until the last page. The characters are real and completely amazing. I read about 50 books a year, and I have never read a book so fast. Hard to explain what it is about, but it blows all Oprah books out of the water.
Rating: Summary: I didn't want this book to end! Review: What a fascinating story, of love, of love lost, of siblings and mysteries and things that are not at all that they seem! At first I couldn't stop reading, and then I had to make myself slow down, to savour the book. The characters are captivating - some of them you love, some of them you feel so sorry for, sometimes you'll gasp with the horror of what people can do to each other. And time and time again, you'll think you know what happened, only to be surprised and shocked later on, when you get to find out what really happened. A great, great read! I wish there was a sequel. Or a new book by this wonderful author!!!
Rating: Summary: Breathtaking, Riveting, Difficult Review: I just finished this book last night. Rarely do I read a book that I am unable to put down. But immediately upon reading the first chapter, I found myself submerged in the world of Cape Breton and the Piper family. It wasn't the plot that kept me reading (until the last 2 sections); it was the writing, the language, the sheer intensity, passion and power of the book. This is not an easy book to read. People do horrible things to each other - and to themselves - in this book. But, unlike some modern novels I have read and DISLIKED (e.g. Book of Ruth), there is redemption at the end. And I think that is important. I see the heart of this novel as being about what it means to be a family. It's about the stories that families create, and how those stories define a family. And, in the end, how it is love that creates a family. Not marriage, not birth, not religion. Love, with all its messiness and selfishness, purity and desire and hope. Other reviewers have described the language of this story. I do not find it overdone. It seems to me that MacDonald uses it carefully, expertly, respectful of its power, unleashing its intensity when appropriate. If you are disturbed by stories about dysfunctional families or unconventional relationships, don't read this book. If you are willing to leave your body for a few days and immerse yourself in another world, if you are willing to be angered, amused, and touched to your core, then buy this book, and read it soon.
Rating: Summary: An unforgettable read Review: It has been at least two years since I read this book, yet I remember the main characters like I actually knew them, and I recall whole passages because of their beauty. "Fall on your knees" is truly a great read, immensely satisfying, moving and haunting.
Rating: Summary: Worthwhile, but often tedious Review: Too often this book is just tedious and overwritten. However, the story is well told (even if sometimes over told), and it is a worthwhile read.
Rating: Summary: Melodramatic and Over-the-Top Review: Fall on Your Knees is a book that attempts to reach epic proportions, and, to its credit, it is written with energy and passion...sometimes a little too much energy and passion. Fall on Your Knees takes the reader through the entire first half of the twentieth century as it follows five generations of the family of James and Materia (Mahmoud) Piper, a Gaelic-speaking, Scottish Protestant and a Lebanese Catholic. James had, in fact, ruined Mahmoud when he came "like a thief in the night" and talked her into yielding to his not-so-considerable charms. In the eyes of her family, Mahmoud was shamed and shamed forever. MacDonald attempts to capture the entire sad and complex history of twentieth century Cape Breton in this almost-encyclopedic novel. In doing so, she sometimes loses her focus and veers off into melodrama aplenty, none of which serve her story well. To her credit, MacDonald does always manage to bring us back to the questions at hand, but many readers, myself included, do not care to make so many side trips in first one direction and then another. Although there can be no doubt that MacDonald is a good writer, her elaborate metaphors can, at times, be tiresome. Take the following example: "On Water Street, the outside walls of the shed thump now and then like a brass drum with a foot-pedal at work inside it keeping the beat. In the shed the performance has begun. The upbeat grabs her neck until she's on point, the downbeat thrusts her back against the wall, two eight-notes of head on wood, knuckles clatter incidentally. In the half-note rest he lights up her pale face with the blue wicks of his eyes, and the lyrics kick in con spiritu, 'What right have you, you have no right, no right to even speak her name, who's the slut, tell me who's the slut!' The next two bars are like the first, then we're into the second movement, swing your partner from the wall into the workbench, which catches her in the small of the back, gracenote into stumble because she bounces, being young. Staccato across the face, then she expands her percussive range and become a silent tambourine through this part by pretending to herself that she is Raggedy-Lily-of-the-Valley, which makes her laugh his second verse, 'I don't want to hear you speak dental note to the nose resolves into big major chord, Do-You-Under-Stand-Me?' We've gone all stately; it's whole notes from here on in. She flies against another wall and he follows her trajectory, taking his time now because he's working up to the finale. One more clash of timbers and tissues and it's opera. 'I'll cut the tongue right out of your head.' She sticks her tongue out at him and tastes blood. Cue finale to the gut. Frances folds over till she's on the floor. Modem dancer." Wow. By the time I got done reading that, I didn't care who beat whom or what the consequences were; I was just glad that song and dance had come to an end. I simply found myself wishing that MacDonand would leave the verbal pyrotechnics behind and get on with the telling of her story. Although MacDonald's handling of narrative could stand considerable paring-down, to put it mildly, she does deserve credit for re-creating Industrial Cape Breton's polyglot past in all of its complexity. It's obvious she's done her research and has attempted to get it all down right. MacDonald does capture a true sense of place in Fall on Your Knees, especially Cape Breton's religion-dominated culture. Even the title of the book is drawn from a popular Catholic hymn, O Holy Night, often sung by church choirs around the world at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. MacDonald does a good job of letting us smell the incense and witness the pageantry, yet she never loses sight of the religious intolerance that pervaded Cape Breton; the paranoia of the Catholics, the sovereignty of the Protestants. We can feel it all. MacDonald also gives us a vivid picture of the mines and the miners who made their way under the ocean, coughing and drinking as they dug their own grave. We feel the dust, see the blackness and empathize with the miners' suffering as they strive to enrich the mines' owners in more ways than one. For me, Fall on Your Knees was definitely a case of style-over-substance. An excess of style can work in an author's favor, but only if that author has a compelling story to tell. Fall on Your Knees, in my opinion, just wasn't very compelling. Despite my criticisms, Fall on Your Knees isn't all bad. Those who are interested in the history of Cape Breton, those who enjoy epics and those who like narratives awash with verbal contortions just might find Fall on Your Knees a four or five-star book.
Rating: Summary: A Terrible Disappointment Review: On the back of the edition that I read, a critic boasted that this book had a plot "worthy of Hugo" -- was he ever wrong. This plot is shallow and lacking in depth and substance. It is a typical work of modern fiction by an author who is trying too hard to impress. The characters are one dimensional, the setting is at times intriguing as it shifts and changes, yet overall this book was a lengthy string of prose that did not influence nor touch me. I found it too melodramatic. The effort she put into this is acute...yet, no one should try so hard. It is an unnatural work by someone hoping to evoke thought and poetry and failing miserably. Stay away. If you want a plot "Worthy of Hugo" read the real thing. Read Les Miserables or Toilers of the Sea and watch your emotions be tempest tossed, calmed, and soared through believable worlds and characters. I deduce you will be much happier.
Rating: Summary: Compelling storytelling. Review: The first thing I must say is that this book haunted me. Long after I read it, it stayed in my mind. I would think about, trying to sort it out. The story hits you as you read it, then later on you have to evaluate your feelings. Do I like this book? Yes, it is probably one of the best books I have ever read. The writing is fantastic, the story line flows on and on, and the characterizations are beyond rich. This does not mean to say that I liked the characters. On the contrary, there are many characters to dislike in this book. Chief among them is James Piper, father, husband, businessman and misogynist. Has there ever been a more evil character? Not one of the men in this book has any redeeming qualities, as far as women are concerned. But the women characters are amazing. From the very beginning of the story, the women stand out, the characters fully developed, they are almost real. I felt sympathy for most of the women in the story, even Mercedes. Frances, I felt, was the most sympathetic, followed by Materia and Kathleen. All of the women, good or bad, were what men had made them. I guess that is the crux of it. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a story that will envelope you, transfix you, and stay in your memory for a long time. Outstanding! Kathleen
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