With

Rating:
Summary: One of those original and finely crafted novels
Review: At the tender age of 8 years, Robin Kerr had to learn how to fend for herself on a remote, inaccessible, mountain-top in the wilds of the Ozark mountain range. Until she was 18, Robin had no human company but she did not lack for animal companionship and the company of the"live ghost" of a young boy who had himself once lived on the mountain. With is a major, 491-page novel that is written by author Donald Harington (a professor and lecturer of art and art history) with a feeling for language enriched with southern idioms and an almost lyrical sense of expression. Very strongly endorsed and recommended, With is one of those original and finely crafted novels that will be discovered with appreciation over and over by generations of future readers.

Rating:
Summary: Discovery
Review: Harington has written a multi-layered, mystical tale about love and relationships, and the coming of age of a young girl, surviving alone in a mountain cabin. But this, as all his novels, is so much more than a simple narrative. An intellectual masterpiece,it is best enjoyed slowly, in sips, as the tale unfolds and the language enfolds. If you have not yet discovered Harington, you will be delighted with this book, and happier still to know that it is only one of a series about the people and events of Stay More, Arkansas.

Rating:
Summary: Discovery
Review: Harington has written a multi-layered, mystical tale about love and relationships, and the coming of age of a young girl, surviving alone in a mountain cabin. But this, as all his novels, is so much more than a simple narrative. An intellectual masterpiece,it is best enjoyed slowly, in sips, as the tale unfolds and the language enfolds. If you have not yet discovered Harington, you will be delighted with this book, and happier still to know that it is only one of a series about the people and events of Stay More, Arkansas.

Rating:
Summary: A tad slow at times, but a must-read!!!
Review: Harington obviously has a large arsenal of writing styles and imagination at his fingertips because this novel is unlike one I that have ever read before.

If you enjoy the country life in any fashion, then you must read this novel. Like I said, there are a few areas where it reads a little slow, but slosh through it... the middle of the book, the climax and the resolution are all fantastic.

Rating:
Summary: The best novel yet by the best writer in America!
Review: I actually had another book in my hands when I spotted this new novel by Donald Harington. My heart literally jumped for joy. A new novel by one of my most favorite writers! Immediately, I put the other book back and picked up this one. Later that same evening, I began to read...

And I was not disappointed. Although I have enjoyed all of his recent novels, I could not help but compare them with The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks, Some Other Place. The Right Place., and my personal favorite, Let Us Build Us A City. To my mind, those recent novels simply did not to the same degree elicit the same response (that wonderful glorious feeling!) in me as did those earlier titles.

But now, with WITH...I am beside myself with joy.

I cannot bear to relate the plot. There are too many surprises, too many narrative twists, too much...joy (there it is again!); to spoil any part of this with plot recitation is at the very least, a venal sin.

Audaciously written in a style and technique befitting the best the postmodern has to offer, WITH is a novel so rewarding, no reader can go wrong both reading it and pushing it into the hands of their friends. Those friends will thank you...over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Once again, Mr. Harington has created an amazing story from Stay More. I've always been enthralled with the saga...Thank you, Donald. I have found out that there is a 'May's Store' in the area where Stay More is supposed to be, and wonder if that had any say in the naming of the town. Whether or not it did, I'm always fascinated by the stories. Keep it up! Five stars!!!

Audreydog

Rating:
Summary: Wow - how refreshing
Review: Picked this book up without knowing what I was getting into, and boy, was I pleasantly surprised. This author's writing style and choice of topics, even, is unusual, refreshing, interesting, etc. I'm a big reader, but have never read a book like this before. Can't wait to read more of his stuff.

Rating:
Summary: A grown-up tale of wonder & humor
Review: Rebeccasreads highly recommends WITH for a scary, heartwarming & wonderful grown-up fairy tale set in the Ozark Mountains, in which a man bent of doing evil surprises himself, a girl bent on getting her own way learns how to survive, & a dog bent on a better life, makes it so.

Could not put this book down! One of the best for all ages over 16!

Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone
Review: The novel involves the abduction and abandonment of Robin Kerr, a seven-year-old girl, to the wilds of a mountain top in the Ozarks. With Robin are a menagerie of animals and a spirit presence.

I appreciated Donald Harington's writing. Several chapters are written in the point of view of a dog, something few authors could really pull off. His abandonment of reality really worked in the novel's favor. The characters are sympathetic and likeable, and I really wanted to see what happened to them.

However, Harington overestimated the cognitive and physical abilities of a girl Robin's age, and the story of her sexual growth wasn't realistic, either. There is a theme of pedophilia throughout which, while never grossly inappopriate, made me question the author's own sexual interests. For that, I gave the novel 3 stars instead of 4, and though I enjoyed Harinton's obvious talent, I don't think I could really recommend the novel to many people.

Rating:
Summary: "as long as the future tense will survive"
Review: This is the first novel by Donald Harington that I have read, but it will surely not be the last! I found myself thoroughly engaged with his characters, and with his own playfully intellectual voice. It is a novel that makes you care and that makes you think, but it is never cloying or pedantic. And while Harington uses many of the strategies of modernist fiction, he uses them in a way that actually makes this novel more accessible and more human, rather than less. I would describe this work as the very best sort of magical realism.