Fall on Your Knees

Rating:
Summary: I finished it, but would not recommend it as a favourite
Review: I felt the narrative was difficult to follow at times. I was interested enough in the Piper family to make it through the book, but was disappointed in the ending as it didn't really wrap things up as clean as I hoped. A lot of time invested for what I got out of it...can't understand all of the other high ratings this one received.

Rating:
Summary: I wouldn't recommend it to my best friend
Review: A gripping tale but only because it delves into all the worse human behaviours. I personally don't appreciate such trash and can't understand all the positive reviews that I read and that pushed me into buying this book. There is not one single positive character in the whole story and even the good ones are hateful. I've never come across a greater bunch of crazy people. Rape, incest, murder, prostitution, homosexuality ... a mixture of elements that leads absolutely nowhere, if not to disgust and boredom.

Rating:
Summary: being a Cap Bretoner, born in "Waterford, i get it,love it
Review: i picked this up as recommended book in a book store in DC. i was shocked to find it was written about the town i was born. now the strange thing is these people existed whether the story is embellished, i don't know. Fabulous writing lush and accurate.....i can smell the incense in the church, and the coal and salt in the air...lovely

Rating:
Summary: Falling for thee
Review: What a wonderful novel! Magical in its scope, beautifully written, and bestowing upon the characters the veracity and credibility these need in order to achieve such a compelling story. Lovable like few of its kind, "Fall on your knees" reaches high in every aspect of human life. It is tragic, sad, emotional, funny, entertaining and most of all immensely marvelous. Ann-Marie MacDonald fuses early 1900s habits and customs through a prose worthy of praise giving birth to a family surrounded by an environment of people all of who frame this story of love, hate, tragedy and sacrifice. No one should miss the chance of strolling along Cape Breton Island, either paying no heed to its inhabitants or not meeting Piper family. Whoever out there trying to experience the many feelings life has been keeping for us, this book will give you enough proof of this.

Rating:
Summary: I fall on my knees to praise this novel.
Review: Fall on Your Knees gained slow but steady momentum in Canada. This is the equivalent of Oprah's magic wand sprinkling book fairy dust on it. The praise was building: words like astonishing, unique, unforgettable, best book of the year, masterpiece were tumbling out at small and large bookstores alike. I succumbed to the juicy gossip and subsequently fell into a four day black hole of maratime Cape Breton. Rarely does a novel live up to extraordinary hype but this one does. In fact, it goes far beyond. If praise alone keeps you from purchasing this book, let me give you a brief idea of what it encompasses: a multi-racial marriage in the early 1900's and the brood of best fictional children I have ever encountered, Catholicism and it's many tenticles, old fashioned gossip in a small town, and silenced abuse that changes everyone's life. Absolutely amazing is all that's left to say.

Rating:
Summary: A Captivating, beautiful novel
Review: I bought this book while attending a production of the author's "Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)" in London. I liked her style and gave it a shot. What a rewarding gamble! Six pounds bought me a weeks worth of the best reading I've had "Their Eyes Were Watching God." The weighty novel took me only a week to read because I couldn't put it down: I read it on the Tube, in lines, before bed, while cooking. MacDonald writes prose like poetry- words to be tasted, but even more, as an actor these were characters that I no only could imagine being performed, but who I wanted to characterize. I recommend not only this novel, but MacDonald's other works also. Her background as an actor and a playwrite among other skills grounds this tragic family in reality, in experience. MacDonald doesn't have to force the issues she addresses, they are simply an organic part of the writing. Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of her writing is the lack of judgement placed on the characters. MacDonald shows them for what they are and lets them speak for themselves. Hooray for a multi talented woman with a voice!

Rating:
Summary: A full, enriching and rewarding novel impossible to put down
Review: This book was a birthday gift and sat on my shelf for six months before I picked it up. How could I have left it for so long? The images of the Piper family will stay with me for a long time and I felt real sympathy for Frances and her sisters. The characters all became "friends" and Cape Breton has suddenly become a place I want to visit! A wonderful story with great characterisation - I just couldn't put it down. It has everything and will make you laugh, cry, think more deeply about life and feel sad about life's circumstances and misunderstandings. You will feel deeply enriched by the end of the novel and a sense of sadness at leaving those wonderful characters.

Rating:
Summary: A mystical book, moving and repellant, hypnotic to read.
Review: I highly recommend this book, but only for strong readers. It was so fascinating and well-written that despite its size, I was unable to put it down until I had finished it. This forced me to go to work sleepwalking more than once. I remain quite amazed at the talent of the author, and at her ability to tell a story that rang true despite the magical and fantastical imagery that occurs quite non-chalantly in the story. Although the author is Canadian, the story reads more like a modern South American novel than a North American one--which is a strength that gives the work more than a little originality. However, the duality of the humanity this book portrays is almost unbearable. The evil depicted in the story is so ugly I found myself wanting to vomit in the middle pages. The book's vision of the world, though redemptive in the end, is intensely depressing for the unwary.

Rating:
Summary: A magnetic and gorgeously complex novel
Review: Fall on Your Knees is magnetic and gorgeously complex novel. The Pipers of Cape Breton Island are haunted by secrets, forgotten memories, and sexual desires that carry them along like the waters of the creek next to their house. This is the kind of book you hold to your chest for a few moments before you put it down. Although Kathleen's diary near the end of the book weakens the magic of the rest, this is certainly a book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling reading, but dark and sometimes too winding
Review: I liked this book but some of the narrative was too extreme for me. I've read a few other books in which the narrator lived in this part of the world, and those stories seemed to be about craziness and incest too. Is there something about the landscape there that makes you lose your mind and sleep with your blood kin?