Rating: 
Summary: Highly charged with emotion
Review: Anyone who reads this excellent novel and fails to be moved by the characters and the backdrop of recent history in this country has no heart! The last book I reviewed on Amazon was Gail Sheehy's "Middletown, America", one town's healing after 9/11. "Four Spirits" reminds us that crimes of hate and domestic terrorism occured long before that tragic day in 2001. The difference is simply that in "Four Spirits" the hate crimes are committed by "Americans" against Americans. Even if you are too young to remember the Civil Rights movement of the South in the 60's, this book is so vivid in its telling of the situation, that you will find yourself transported back to this time and place and you will ask yourself "How in this country did this happen?" Ms. Naslund's use of fictional characters against the backdrop of Dr. King and his followers and most of all, the events in Birmingham, Alabama is not new; however, her telling of these events is so real that I found myself smiling at the triumphant moments and crying at the tragic ones. Whether you are a fan of modern history, books about the Civil Rights Movement, the 60's, or none of these-read this book and remember that the human spirit, no matter how beaten down, will always rise up and triumph. As harrowing as this novel can be, it's sense of determination and strength will make your heart sing. This is, quite simply, a "must-read"!
Rating: 
Summary: "A story of Birmingham in the 60's...riveting"
Review: Birmingham native and author of the phenomenally best selling Ahab's Wife, Naslund's latest book looks to be equally as wonderful. It's the story of Birmingham in the 60's-a portrait some may recognize and others, surprise. Portico excerpted a chapter in the August issue, and I've been lucky enough to see an advance copy and it's riveting stuff. My wife wouldn't hardly share the copy with me she was so entranced.
Rating: 
Summary: 8 readers
Review: Eight of us read this novel for our book group. All of us appreciated the history lesson and Southern perspective on an issue that for us, growing up in mostly white neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest, was not as visible.
However, as a novel, we were at times disillusioned. Too many characters left a lot of lives half constructed and then going no where. Even the book's title was given scant time. It felt as if the author had numerous starts and stops to ideas when putting the book together. Relationships between several of the characters seemed to take off and then end abruptly.
Those of us who read Naslund's Ahab's Wife were especially disappointed. In the end we all felt a good editor could have made this book a lot less frustrating and time consuming to read.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: Having lived and grown up in Birmingham, AL during this period of its history, this book was of particular interest to me. Ms. Naslund has captured the flavor, the ectasy, the heartbreak of this time in a very ingenious manner, focusing on the lives of some ten to twelve individual people during this time of turmoil and heartbreak. Her chapters are short, which makes the book more compelling and difficult to put down, and the ending is truly magnificent. Ms. Naslund with her latest book continues to add to her reputation as a tremendously gifted and deeply sensitive writer. It is truly a breathtaking and unforgettable novel.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ!!!!
Review: I am not going to type a long review. (Though there is nothing wrong with it.) But, I will say this is a great book and give it a chance before you put it down!!!
Rating:
Summary: in the spirit of To Kill A Mockingbird
Review: I have lived in Birmingham, AL since 1977 so the events described in this book remain a living legacy. Unfortunately that legacy is one both of shame and ongoing hostility between the races. Ms. Naslund has intended this book to contribute to the healing of our community, but only time will tell if she has succeeded.One thing is certain, anyone who was not alive when these events occurred should read this book. Up through November 22, 1963, I was as mesmorized as I remember being when I read "To Kill A Mockingbird" at age 14. I have to say I found the second half disappointing but equally compelling. I would also recommend that anyone wanting to understand these events better should see Spike Lee's documentary "4 Little Girls."
Rating:
Summary: Not like any reading experience I have ever had.
Review: I just finished "Four Spirits" this weekend--after TWO MONTHS of reading. In part, it took me this long because it is over 500 pages; in part, because I kept it at work and only read on my lunch break; and, in part, because the emotional weight of this story is so intense that it just isn't material that you breeze through...you have to absorb its impact if you are to reap the full benefits of the experience.
Naslund brilliantly weaves real events (such as the bombing of a Birmingham church in which four little girls perished) and real people (Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the civil rights movement) into a rich tapestry of fictional characters and events. Through these fictional characters, we see and feel the impact of the horrific events of this shameful period in our history.
In the beginning, I had a hard time with the format--each short chapter was about a different character, so it might be many chapters before the storyline you were most interested in would resume. I understood that it was necessary to introduce the characters fully and deeply enough that I would care about them when the tragic events of this story start unfolding. In that, Ms. Naslund was very successful.
It must be said that this book is very difficult to read--not journalistically or linguistically, but emotionally. That is not to say it is a story that should not be told or read. I am deeply grateful that I have experienced it and yet, there were times when I said "I can't take any more" because the intensity of emotion and piling-on effect of tragic events was just too much (the irony that the people in Birmingham--and all across the South--in the 1960s may have been feeling the same way is not lost on me).
I have read many sad books. I have read many books that have made me weep, that have made my heart ache. But this...this goes beyond that. Reading "Four Spirits" is like going into battle...it is not a passive experience. I am better for having read it, but it was not without a price.
Rating:
Summary: ought to be required reading for ALL Americans
Review: I just finished reading Four Spirits last night, on - quite fittingly (and, incidentally) - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2005. It was NOT a difficult read, nor a slow one...perhaps four evenings? Unfamiliar with Ms. Naslund's writing until quite recently, I had finished Ahab's Wife, found it amazing, and quickly purchased Four Spirits, settled in for a good read before the winter fire, and immediately saw that I was headed for a powerful lesson in American history - one that I should have already been taught, having been raised in Montgomery, Alabama in the 60's. My childhood was comfortable and overly sheltered, though, and I was for a large part unaware of the large scale of atrocities that so many, many innocent people suffered for the name of justice and freedom. This fine novel, in delicate vignettes, guides the reader - quietly at first, then boldly into what is horrific and, as always with tragic history, certain and unstoppable in its events - through and past a series of happenings that are excruciating to read about (and this, from the safety of distance - god help the ones who truly suffered), shameful from this side to know, but necessary to understand so that this world can be changed into the better place it needs to be today. I for one am fuller for having read this book, and have shared with my teenaged sons some of the knowledge that I learned from its pages. Thank you, Ms. Naslund, for what turned out to be a fine, if at times difficult, education.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Keep Track of the Characters
Review: In the author's note, Sena Naslund writes that she wanted to "write about the acts of courage and tragedy" that took place in Birmingham where she was a college student. I feel she did a very good job of portraying the difficult choices people involved in the civil rights movement had to make and the effect of those choices and the courage it took. For this, the book is worth reading. I had difficulty however with keeping track of the various characters and who they were, for some reason. It is a long book, but even by the end I often felt myself saying, "now who is that again". I just didn't feel engaged with the characters, they are not ones who will stick with me.
Rating:
Summary: 8 readers
Review: One of the best books I have read in a long time. Buy it.
|
