Rating: 
Summary: Brutally honest but important
Review: A bitter book without a Disney ending, but an important story. Throughout reading this book, I was impatiently waiting for Ellen to stand up for herself, or if not for herself then at least for her children. The complexities surrounding her, are those of my mother's generation, and I understand so much better now why many women of my mother's generation didn't just simply "leave". Ellen's mother-in-law, who appears incredibly cruel when seen through Ellen's eyes, becomes a woman to be pitied for the cruelties that are perpetrated against her, and while we can't completely forgive her, we can at least understand.
Rating: 
Summary: Acid melancholy.
Review: I enjoyed its acidic melancholy. But really... I think I need to watch a week of Disney films to pull me back out of the well.A woman trapped in a loveless, sexless marraige seeing for the first time the choices around her and the choices that others have made. The distance that her sisters and mother place on Ellen really surprised me. Their disappointment in her failure to fulfill her husband in all the ways a good wife should just blow my mind. The embarassment she is going to cause the family. A story about the life of Salome might be interesting... more of her strange angle. And the whole of idea of all the strange angels in our lives. It wasn't the feel-good-hit of the Summer. But a good read all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Cruelty & Dispair in the Midwest
Review: This was not my favorite "Oprah" book, but it was an interesting story. If you grew up Catholic, you can probably relate to a lot of it. I found myself really rooting for Ellen, hoping that she'd be able to stand up to these horrible people. I listened to the audio version, and Debra Monk did a good job. Go ahead and try this one--it's pretty short even if you don't like it!
Rating:
Summary: Realistic
Review: I felt Ellen's despair and anxiousness in this novel, felt the dysfunction of James' German family and the loneliness as the two of them going to sleep together night after night without touching, felt her boundaries as her family urged her to stay with her husband. A good novel, no ridiculous sunsets in the horizon.
Rating:
Summary: The Title is Exactly What it Says-Bitter and Angry
Review: This book is all bitterness and plays the scene of a highly dysfunctional family. It is 1972 when cicumstance carries Ellen Grier and her family back to Holly's Field, Wiscomsion. Dutifully accompanying her newly unemployed husband James, Ellen has brought her two children into the home of her in-laws on Vinegar Hill-a loveless house suffused witrh the settling dust of bitterness and routine. Cruelty is a way of life, preserved and perpetuated in the service of a rigid, exacting and angry God. Behind a facade of false piety, there are sins and secrets in this place that could crush a vibrant young woman's passionate spirit. And it is here that Ellen must find the strength to endure, change and grow in the all-pervading darkness that threatens to destroy everything she is and everyone she loves. The book is a bit disjointed in places and was bit disappointing to me. There was never a happy moment in it.
Rating:
Summary: leaves a bitter taste in your mouth
Review: The writing is good, but the story is so depressing, there are no happy or funny or good moments. The final two pages offer a brief glimpse of possible hope, but otherwise, the main character's life is thorough hell. The vivid depiction of the mother-in-law's early days of her marriage are harrowing and creepy.
Rating: 
Summary: Reminiscent of Faulkner
Review: This is definitely not the book you want to read to feel warm and fuzzy. It is a glimpse into the world of a family that is terribly unhappy and, at times, cruel. Yet there is still hope and tenderness to be found in this dismal life...and that can be an inspiration to people who feel just as trapped and depressed as the Griers.
I could not put this book down...it was a very fast read. The imagery and descriptions were full-bodied...you could almost chew them. The emotions were raw and realistic. And Ansay's style was reminiscent of Faulkner's Sound and the Fury with the narrator changing from one emotionally tormented character to another with each chapter.
Ansay's writing is complex but does justice to emotions many of us feel (hopefully not to the same extent as the Griers). The repeated theme of people's smell and the metaphor of being swallowed alive or in part by something tie every chapter together with being very obvious.
Another thing that I liked about Ansay's book is how each character gradually reveals part of the family's story. One character hints at a family secret, another reveals a little more about it, and then another, and so on. I sensed the story unraveling and did not want to put the book down until I understood the complicated and cruel life of the Griers. It made me reflect upon my own life and realize the power, control, and choice that I have to make my world better.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip It!
Review: This book is extremely depressing from beginning to end. I found very little redeeming in it. You do get to find out why the characters are so horrible, but by then you don't care. This book went right into my garage sale pile after reading it. It is not one that I would pass on to a friend.
Rating: 
Summary: One of THE most boring books I've ever read.
Review: This has to be one of the most boring books I've ever read. And I consider myself to be a well-rounded reader; I read everything from Charlotte Bronte to Thomas Hardy, from J.R.R. Tolkien to Stephen R. Donaldson, and from Stephen King to Dean Koontz. I am glad of only one thing: I checked this out of the library and so I didn't have to pay for it. The book is slow, the story telling is disjointed, and the author didn't make me care about the characters or where the story was headed. If this is what a typical "Oprah Book Club" book is like then I will only read it if I can snag a copy from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Long Journey
Review: This book was like a long journey. I loved it. It was a great story. I even felt like I learned something. I couldn't put it down.
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