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Summary: A deprture from his thrillers, thids human drama is good
Review: In 1940s New York City, twelve-year-old Louisa Mae "Lou" Cardinal hero-worships her father, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. Lou's dream is to become as highly regarded as he is, but she is unaware of how little money her dad Jack earns. Considered by critics one of the best authors of his generation, Jack is considering Hollywood in order to feed his family of four.Lou's idyllic world crashes when her beloved father dies in a car accident. With her mother in shock, Lou and her younger brother Oz are displaced and move to their great-grandmother's remote Virginia farm. The two siblings begin to heal, but a new fight to save their new home is on the horizon. WISH YOU WELL is a powerful character-driven historical novel that provides the audience a look at the bone marrow of emotions of the key players during tragedy. Readers will take to heart Lou, Oz, their mom, and their great-grandmother. The support cast augments the tale with even deeper glimpses of the Cardinals. Although David Baldacci overdoes the melodrama and reverts to a well-written courtroom climax, WISH YOU WELL is a great look at daily survival during a period of intense grief and displacement. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: heart warming novel
Review: One of the best books I've ever read. He described a vivid picture of the virginia mountains and the characters..well that's where he lacked something. Lou was supposed to be a twelve-year-old girl but she thinks like an adult. On the first hundred pages of the book, I found myself getting bored but when you go on that's when you'll really appreciate the book. It made laugh and cry at the same time. The ending was kind of predictable, yes, we all know Amanda will wake up but we don't know that Louisa Mae would be out of the picture. well, all in all, the book's worth it.
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Summary: Are You Sure David Baldacci Wrote This?
Review: The one thing that kept running through my mind over and over as this book unfolded was this: Are you sure this book was written by David Baldacci? I mean, this is the same author who wrote such highly charged political thrillers as ABSOLUTE POWER and THE SIMPLE TRUTH, and thrilling suspense novels like THE WINNER. To say the least, this book is almost a complete 180 degree turn away from that genre. Taking place mostly in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, the book follows the lives of two young children, the precocious, hard-headed, 12 year old Lou (Louisa) and her younger, much more timid brother Oz (Oscar). After a tragic car accident kills their father and leaves their mother almost comatose, they go to live with their Great-Grandmother, Louisa Mae, on her mountain farm in Appalachia. While the book generally follows the lives of the two children as they struggle to adjust to the primitive conditions and hard work of life on a farm, the character of Louisa Mae remains the center of the story. Close to 90 years of age, she works to take care of the two young children suddenly thrust into her life while at the same time working non-stop on the mountain farm that has been her home for her entire life. We also meet a host of other characters, from the black farmhand who works constantly on the farm and is a lot smarter than anyone gives him credit for, to the irrepressible "Diamond", an orphaned boy without a care in the world who becomes best friend to Lou and Oz, to the small-town lawyer with a poet's soul who works hard to defend Louisa Mae's farm from the Mining Corporation that wants to take over and destroy it, and who also acts as a father figure to Lou and Oz. Of course some of the usual Baldacci elements are there: Suspense, tragedy, humor, and the struggle of the weak against the powerful, which climaxes in a dramatic courtroom scene. But those elements are secondary to the rich character development that takes place throughout the book. The book's only possible flaw is the somewhat predictable ending. The book is also followed by an Afterword by the author, in which he laments the continued downward spiral of our society in general, and the disintegration of the family in particular. In these days of increased violence in our homes and schools, this seems particularly poignant. All in all, this book was thoroughly enjoyable, and I highly recommend it. NOTE: I listened to the unabridged Book-on-Tape version, read by Norma Lana. Normally, listening to a book on tape is not as good as reading it for yourself, but in this case, with Ms. Lana's sweet southern lilt (I don't know if it's real or not) and mastery of dialects, I think the book comes to life in a way it never could. If you can find the Book on tape version, I think you will find it very enjoyable.
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Summary: Wish You Well
Review: The story in this book had many interesting details about subsistance living in the Appalachin mountains in the late 1930's and early 1940's. The writing was excellent thus being very enjoyable to read. The story line was very good except for the improbable ending. If you enjoy books about families working a difficult farm life and seeing the merits of their life, you should enjoy this book. It is a departure from this author's usual genre (mystery-suspense), as is John Grisham's book, The Painted House, which I also thoughly enjoyed.
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Summary: Worth 10 Stars-Best Book I've Read All Year!
Review: This is definitely one book that I hated to have come to an end; that's how great this story is. If you enjoy well-written, quickly developed characters & a storyline that tugs at your heartstrings, then this is the book for you. Wish You Well is a departure from David Baldacci's mystery/suspense novels and a very nice one at that. You will find yourself breezing through the pages from the opening chapter and these characters, particularly the children-Lou(short for Louise)and her little brother Oz(short for Oscar)are ones that you actually care about. What a wonderful movie this would make, but what am I saying here-there's no actual foul language or sex scenes-not exactly Hollywood's cup of tea. Still, if it were done right, it would at least make a good Made For Television film. I hope Mr. Baldacci eventually writes another novel about real people from different eras. Very highly recommended.
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Summary: A change from the author's usual books
Review: When I picked up David Baldacci's "Wish you Well" I didn't know what to expect. I had read "The Winner", "Total Control" and "Saving Faith" so I think I was expecting something more along those lines. Instead, what I got was a touching book about hope and love. The kind of love that a child has for a parent. Pure love. The description of the mountains of Virginia where the story takes place was so real, that I could literally visualize it. At various points in the story I wanted to reach out and give Lou and Oz hugs...something I felt they were so desperately needing. The outcome of the book was what I expected to a degree. The story does not disappoint and is now one of my favorite books of the year! Well done Mr. Baldacci. You have impressed me again.
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Summary: WISH YOU WELL Well Done!
Review: WISH YOU WELL has been on the bottom of my reading list since it's author, David Baldacci, left his successful suspense genre to write it. I know the man doesn't know me, but I felt personally let down. However, since I ran out of things to read, I forced myself to check it out.
I loved this book.
WISH YOU WELL tells the story of Lou, a 12-year old girl, and her 7-year old brother Oz, who find themselves transplanted from gritty, busy New York City to the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia in the early 1940's. These children are suddenly thrust into this unfamiliar world after a car accident kills their father, a somewhat famous writer, and leaves their mother in a weird, vegetative state. Lou and Oz have no other option but to go to their great-grandmother in the mountains, taking along their mother, Amanda. The children's great-grandmother Louisa takes the three of them in and sends the personal nurse on her way, to the great relief of the children. Then she sets out to teach the children responsibility. Louisa, who is Lou's namesake, is fond of saying that "learning is best learned by doing, not showing."
Immediately I fell in love with the main character, twelve-year old Lou. She has enormous courage and a heightened sense of her self. She is thrilled to be given her father's room as she has always adored him. I was surprised to discover Lou's vulnerability lies in wishing for greater love from her mother. And since that chance at love may now be gone forever, Lou is desperate to gain it. She also feels that foolishly hoping for Amanda's recovery will only make the inevitable loss more unbearable, and tries to maintain a distance from her mother. Grandmother Louisa, always wise, has Lou get to know her mother through letters that Amanda wrote to Louisa over the years. The scenes in which Lou reads these letters are very poignant. Lou's feelings become even more complicated when a small-town attorney friend begins to visit and read to Amanda and seems to be falling in love with her, even though she doesn't respond.
Oz, the little boy, is somewhat fragile in the beginning of the book. Oz has always been treated gently by those around him, and he has been over-protected by his mother. Lou is his self-appointed caretaker, more so now since their parents cannot care for him. He is a delight to watch as he questions and learns his way about the mountain and surprises Lou, as well as the reader, with his strength and courage.
The two children befriend a mysterious mountain boy that seems to have done everything there is to do, and as a result know everything there is to know. His mystifying past is something Lou is determined to uncover, and when she does, she grows another notch toward mature understanding of our fellow man.
Grandmother Louisa is a fascinating character that has thrived, living on the mountain all of her life. She lives by the belief that everything she needs is right there on the mountain, and she has a firm, unshakable conviction that God will provide everything that is needed. Her gentle loving of the children and her selfless care of Amanda are just two traits that make her a formidable woman worth knowing.
Like all good Baldacci novels, the suspense in WISH YOU WELL kept me reading and made me want to be in the story, helping Louisa, the children, Amanda, and the rest overcome the nasty obstacles Baldacci throws in their way. Can Louisa's land be saved? Can an abusive neighbor's wife give birth without the help of a midwife? Can the characters overcome the death of two others, one by stroke, and the other by accident? Will Amanda wake up? To name just a few. Whew!
WISH YOU WELL teaches a valuable lesson, and that is life is hard, but it can be lived well. And when lived without all the comforts of the world, builds character seldom found. Well done.
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Summary: Coming of age in Appalachia
Review: Writer Jack Cardinal and his family are returning home after a picnic. An accident leaves Jack dead, and his widow and children forced to leave the city for the small coal town in which Jack was born and raised. Lou and her younger brother, Oz head for Dickens, Virginia, accompanied by their mother, Amanda. Paralyzed while protecting her children, Amanda has a nurse, hired by friends to stay with her ahile.
In Dickens, there are the townsfolk and those who live on the mountain. We meet Diamond Skinner...George Davis...Cotten Longfellow. A Huck Finn, a farmer, and a lawyer, respecttively. Standing as ex-officio mountain matriarch is Louisa Mae Cardinal, Lou's namesake and the childrens' great-grandmother. Louisa quickly dismisses the nurse, and takes the three into her home. She has never met them, but they are family.
Alienation, rivalry, desperation. Family, loyalty, love. This may be Virginia in 1940; the story could easily take place today.
Baldacci is literate and approachable. Simplicity and struggle run parallel. Life happens when they converge.
"'Well, people seem to spend most of their lives chasing something. Maybe that's part of what makes us human." Cotten pointed down the road. "You see that old shack down there?" Lou looked at a mud-chinked, falling-down log cabin they no longer used. "Louisa told me about a story your father wrote when he was a little boy. It was about a family that survived one winter up there in that little house. Without wood, or food."
"How'd they do it?"
"They believed in things."
"Like what? Wishing wells?" she said with scorn.
"No, they believed in each other. And created something of a miracle. Some say truth is stranger than fiction. I think that means that whatever a person can imagine really does exist, somewhere. Isn't that a wonderful possibility?'"
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