Rating: 
Summary: I want to know this author! I want to shake her!
Review: I am just finishing this long, remarkable book, Fall On Your Knees (though I had to skip to the last, saving, pages in advance). With each page, almost, I wanted to shake this author, I wanted to say, 'How could you write this! How can you write this way?!' I can barely describe it -- raw, seeing 'too much', 'knowing too much', showing 'too much'. But a book with barely measured containment and excellent structure, in a way that I can read it, not want to throw it -- exactly.
Oprah, in her book club, introducing Ann-Marie MacDonald, says amazingly, 'Did you just come out of a mental institution, get yourself together and write this book!?!' I wouldn't have put it quite that way, but, still...
Each time I put the book down I found myself singing the chorus of 'O Holy Night'; the title of the book is exactly appropriate for this story. 'Fall on your knees' in...terrible humility and awe. The characters each have a heroic bent for survival, and fatalistic experiences which form them unknowingly and inexorably all their lives -- when one lets down or changes, another may take over her role. --The power of repressed, horrible experiences, the power of secrets, the skewing power of not telling. The beauty of this careful, constant re-forming of oneself in order to survive and make sense of one's life -- the angels, the daughters -- hear each of their (intertwined) voices.
I can only say, she writes with some humor, or something, which allows a reader to keep on being willing to look at the pictures she draws, though they are stark, rich, unholy and shocking. This writer is very clever (meaning: smart), industrious, poetic, a good, good writer. From the beginning of it, I wanted to find her, go over to her and say: How can you write this book? How can you?! Whatever that means. --It means I am still too close to it to say I am glad I read it, I liked it, it is a very good, amazing, story.
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Entertaining
Review: Before reading this book, I watched the Oprah show that talked about it, so I had a heads-up as to what this was about. Good thing, too, since the way this book started and continued was unclear and somewhat twisted. Without someone telling me that this involved incest and abuse within a family, I would have been wondering why they all seemed so weird.Despite this, however, this was a great novel. It was well plotted with many twists (who knew that Frances would do the things she did?) and was fascinating. There is also a scene towards the end involving the death of James that screams "MOVIE SCENE!". How I would love to see this played out on the big screen. Read this book. It's definately a page turner!
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to the other reviews!!
Review: After reading the other customer reviews I had to write! This is one of the most lush, beautiful, sad and engrossing books I have ever read. Yes, it is filled with tragic turns, but by the end you understand the deeper motivations of the characters and the fatality of the events in their lives that led ultimately to the release of the one at the expense of the many. An absolute triumph.
Rating: 
Summary: Pass on this one!
Review: This was a choice for our book club. It has a good start and seems like it is going somewhere, but never does. It was a great disappointment. I ended up skimming the last 75 pages, because I felt like I was wasting my time. Like another reviewer, I am glad to see Oprah giving her book club a rest.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in at least 1 yr!
Review: Beautifully written. Many characters but all deeply developed. Surprising plot twists and unexpected outcomes. Didn't find at all depressing and didn't drag out like some period novels can do.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe for some, not for most...
Review: As an employee for [a local book store], the staff and I couldn't figure out what the big deal was about this book. I took it out on a loan, and I am certainly glad I did-- I would not buy this book after reading it. It's horribly redundant, terribly long, and overall confusing and difficult to read. The characters I couldn't care about-- they never touched me that way. Oprah Club books are depressing and full of angst- this novel was no different. Even still, it was hard to get into and in the end, after 2 days of a struggling read, I was glad it was over. It never gave me any lessons on life or an enlightened perspective- all it made me do was fall asleep.
Rating:
Summary: Totally depressing
Review: The author utilizes beautiful, descriptive language to describe the scenery and Canadian countryside, but don't let this fool you. This book is totally depressing, the characters are difficult to like, and the flow of the words make it difficult to read this book more than a chapter at a time. I was very depressed when I finished this book.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing and depraved
Review: All I can say is I'm glad Oprah is giving her book club a rest after I read this book. When she first started her book club I read the first 4 books and decided that they all had one common theme centering a female and her struggles to get thru a horrible life. Reading one of her picks occasionally, I can see she has strived to find books with the same central theme. I found this book to have no point. It had mostly depressing points of view on life in general and had more than it's share of perverted plot twists. Because I absolutely hate to not finish a book, I forced myself thru this one. I really don't see what if any kind of point or lesson or morale this author had in mine or what she was trying to relay in her story.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: If you are a fan of the books on Oprah Book List, you will love this book. It was the most wonderful book I have read in a long time. Set in Canada around the turn of the century, MacDonald creates a tapestry of family tragedies and their outcomes. There is no happy ending, rather a bittersweet one, so if you can't handle that, do not read this. It is a typical choice Oprah would make, and a great choice at that.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, but emotionally manipulative
Review: I will admit this book was very well written, and kept me turning pages. But after getting through half the book, I was so frustrated and disgusted, I threw the book across the room. I forced myself to put it away, and only return to it when I knew that I could distance myself from the characters and read the rest without feeling as if my body and soul had been run over by a truck. "Fall on Your Knees" is that exhausting. I definitely enjoy a challenging read, one where characters don't lead easy lives and work to achieve things as they grow. This book definitely fit into that category, but there was no progress or relief at all. All the characters led miserable, dark lives and the only way they seemed to escape their torture was by dying. I felt as if my emotions were being constantly manipulated, and while I definitely respect an author who has the power to do that with his/her words, there *has* to be a limit. A reader should experience some grief along with the characters, but when it continues for hundreds of pages, there has to be a time to step away. And so I did. Reading this book almost made me vow to stay away from anything but the fluffy mysteries I indulge in every so often. And that's a truly scary thought to me, wanting to turn my back on books that make me think and feel. I really hate that this book made me question my tolerance as a reader. Being well written can only take a book so far, there has to be *some* heart in the middle of grief. There is none of that here. If you like your books raw and powerful, almost cruel, go ahead and buy this. But if you are tired of your emotions being manipulated and
tossed around, skip it.
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