Rating: 
Summary: a let down
Review: The back of this novel says, "a triumphant celebration of self-determination". I don't think so. Because of a series of circumstances Ellen and her husband, James, must go and live with James' mother and father. They are old, bitter, and rude and appropriately live in "vinegar hill". James is not very motivated and becomes quite weak in the face of his parents. We are left with Ellen playing a stereotypical role, cooking, cleaning, caring for her kids and husband, and now, taking care of his parents. The plot simply unfolds psychological history. James' mother is nasty because James' father was/is abusive. James is a loser because his father abused him. And, although there are many good reasons to do so, no one really stands up to the father even though he is now old and somewhat frail. Ellen has a difficult time reconciling her Catholic beliefs to possibly leaving her husband. I really couldn't buy into this novel at all. I couldn't accept the limitations of these women's minds. We have too many options to settle for such garbage. The novel ends on a positive note, but not enough action...
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Downer
Review: I have read other books that tackled a serious or depressing topic and were able to engage the reader with humor and antecdotal writing (like Angela's Ashes), but not this book! This book was a downer all the way through. Not to mention the fact that the characters were twisted and uninteresting. If I hadn't been reading it for my book club, I would have taken the advice of one of the other reviewer's and tossed it in an open flame.
Rating:
Summary: Good fuel for the fire
Review: After finishing this book, which was a painstaking and depressing ordeal, I tossed it into the fire and watched it go up in smoke. The characters are all pathetic, limp noodles; the story lacks plot and character development. Page after page, I kept waiting and hoping for something to happen, for someone to rise up out of their quagmire and make me care about them. The comment of a 30-year old friend who also read the book was, "now I understand what it was like to be a woman in the 70's". I couldn't disagree more - life was NOT as it was depicted in this book in the 70's. Nor in the 60's or 50's, and I've been around long enough to know. I wouldn't recommend this lifeless, twisted, joyless book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: predictable-boring- blah blah blah
Review: The title of my review pretty much sums it up. The first Oprah book I read was wonderful (She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb).... but every since then they have been just awful. All boring, all predicatble, all 'poor me, what can I do to get a new life?' stories. This was the last chance I was taking on Oprah selections. No more. Ever.
Rating:
Summary: THPPFT !
Review: For so many words, I felt nothing for Ellen . Bad story not much guts to it. Seemed to me like there were many pages missing. Boring, boring ,boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard Oprah Fare...
Review: Vinegar Hill was just another mediocre Oprah book about a married woman trying to find her place in the world. It was nothing new that hasn't been written about or discovered before. However, that's not to say it was a terrible book; it just wasn't anything special. I would recommend it to women contemplating what to do in their loveless marriages.
Rating: 
Summary: Read "Read This and Tell Me What it Says"
Review: My opinion of Ansay is that she is one of the greatest short storywriters to ever live. Whatever your opinion of Vinegar Hill, Isuggest you read her collection of stories entitled "Read This and Tell Me What it Says." Vinegar Hill is a great book, but Ansay's strengths are best suited to the extremely potent nature of short fiction. Ansay's writing is almost too powerful; one must take care not to overdose on her writing because its wonderful benefits wane when taken in large quantity. Critics of Vinegar Hill are typically frustrated with the way it can make them feel sour and even depressed. Interestingly, these same critics read the book in one sitting. In this way, Ansay's writing is much like Flannery O'Connor's writing. O'Connor's novel, Wise Blood, was endlessly criticized while her short fiction was, and is today, praised and hallowed. All of O'Connor's writing was brilliant, but her short fiction was perhaps more enjoyable. Read Vinegar Hill in small chunks, taking time to digest the material. Better yet, read her short stories.
Rating:
Summary: "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
Review: I enjoyed the writer's style but felt the story had much more potential. Not a great ending at all. The main character (Ellen) who is used and abused throughout the story, just doesn't seem to get the justice she deserves. "Where the Heart Is" blows this one away.
Rating:
Summary: Hardly worth reading
Review: This novel leaves little room for any feelings of warmth for any character. Despite razor-sharp prose and a keen eye for precise detail, Ansay has left us with a story that horrifieswithout engaging. Shifting viewpoints several times, the novel gives us a chance to discover more about each character. Even this fails to reveal any truth. Jimmy, for instance, is presented as desiring a closeness with his children and his wife. However, he cannot break out of his own psychosis long enough to show us this, leading the reader to the conclusion that he is lying even to himself. Mary-Margaret and her silent sister, Salome, are also revealed only to the point of understanding why they are who they are, but not enough to draw any sort of sympathy or understanding. The central weakness of the novel is the characters' lack of growth. Through all of the family tragedies and revelations, each character remains static in their own misery. Only Ellen changes to any degree, and it is difficult to leave the book without wondering if she will truly be able to follow through on her promise and leave Vinegar Hill. The presentation of the Roman Catholic Church in its 1970's rural Midwestern stagnation is troubling. One wonders if the book was set in the 1970's simply as a tool to present the Church in this light. The entire town of Holly Hill appears to be Catholic. Perhaps if Ellen's crisis of faith had the appearance of being just that, instead of a rebellion against one priest in one parish in one town, the plot tool would be more plausible. As it is, it felt out of place in a novel which put no other great emphasis on its chronological setting. The prose, although dark and filled with Gothic imagery, is beautiful in its clarity. The language carries the reader through even where the story flounders and fails. Ansay aptly captures the ways in which people communicate with both words and gestures. Despite its problems, Vinegar Hill is a book worth reading as a peek into the prose style of a writer who could be a great artist and novelist. The relatively happy ending, too, leaves the reader with some satisfaction.
Rating:
Summary: Good Medicine in a Bitter Pill
Review: Much is written about dysfunctional families, and a novel about women oppressed by the patriarchy is not new. But Vinegar Hill manages to initiate the reader into the dark psychological world of a family torn by religious and sexual oppression-- and into the heart of a woman coming into consciousness amidst the maelstrom of changing social mores, festering family secrets,and the blindness of a Church whose impotence has blinded it to truth and compassion. Readers who want entertainment alone won't like this novel, but those who have sought courage and truth in the midst of paralyzing pain won't be able to put it down.
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