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Summary: CAUTION: IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN
Review: It's been several years since a book kept me up all night. But, I had to devour "Coming Back to Me" in one sitting. Caronline Leavitt writes so deeply, so directly into people's struggle to become themselves, to like themselves that I had to finish he book, to see not only if they triumph in this universal struggle, but how they go about their stuggle. Her characters are real, the are not limited to either heroic or antagonistic actions. They learn about how it's human to be caught up in each, and I follow along with them in this journey. I find that I laugh, or cry, at moments, people, I recognize. Something's funny or frightening, because that's what I do. Caroline Leavitt had me doing a lot of that kind of laughing and crying with her tremendous, gripping book, Coming Back To Me.
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Summary: The strength of love endures and is honored.
Review: Having already passed this book on to someone I love, I can endorse the quiet wonders of the story and the clear and insightful writing of the author. The courage under duress of one of the main characters pull at the heart and his stuggle is one to which most of us can relate. The Family and difficult and complex relationships are at the heart of this well-told and can't-put-it-down novel.
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Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I predict that you will too.Molly and Gary are very much in love and looking forward to their first child. But when he is born, Molly develops complications from the birth and Gary is thrust into a situation that he is not prepared for. In desperation he is forced to ask Molly's estranged sister, Suzanne, for help. What an awesome story this becomes as personalities begin to change and adjust to what has been thrown at them. Beautifully written - probably one of the best reads of the summer.
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Summary: The Best Book Caroline Leavitt has written
Review: I read Coming Back to me in one weekend. It is heartfelt, heartbreaking, eloquent, and tells a gripping story of real people that you come to know and desperately care for.
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Summary: Great read!!!
Review: A wonderful, wonderful book, beautifully written. The descriptions of the characters' feelings and the realities of their relationships were insightful and written with sensitivity. I was up until all hours wanting to read more and more. This book is a must!!!
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Summary: What a refreshing read!
Review: I spotted this book at the store, picked it up and was instantly hooked. You will be, too. I loved the characters, who were so alive they seemed to be breathing off the page, especially Suzanne, who I started off wanting to smack and then began to feel a kind of grudging "well, maybe I like her", which full-bloomed into affection. Terrific writing, terrific story, terrific author. Bravo!
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Summary: Just wonderful!
Review: A friend of mine pressed this book on me and I took it home and began to read. I read through the night! I could not put it down until I had found out what had happened to Molly, Gary, Suzanne and even baby Otis! This writer knows so much about the ways families work (and don't work), the ways sisters fall away from each other and then come back together, and the ways communities pull together during bad times. This is an important book and now it's my turn to urge another friend to read it.
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Summary: In a word: Wonderful!!
Review: I stayed up all night reading this. From the first chapter, Caroline Leavitt's writing style captivated me like a delicious bar of chocolate I could not bear to put down. The characters of first Gary, and then Suzanne had such clear voices, I feel as if I know them. As if I've had a peek into their lives. I found that I was privately rooting for Suzanne to "pull through" just as much as I was rooting for Molly. One thing this book illustrates is how each one of us copes with stress in different ways: Gary, plodding along on 'auto-pilot', Suzanne rebelliously smoking in the house while mentally muttering to herself about how unfair her life has been, the neighbors remaining withdrawn, almost invisible (yet, as it turns out, helping in their own clandestine ways), the doctors all the while fueling the frustration by admittedly not knowing what's wrong with Molly.....and Molly, poor Molly, perhaps proving herself to be the strongest of them all, excepting of course for baby Otis. Hope paves the way to faith in this frighteningly realistic (and from what I could gather by the hints dropped in the acknowledgements section, semi-autobiographical) story, and anger, fear and over-reactions give way to compassion and forgiveness. I look forward to reading another Caroline Leavitt novel!
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Summary: Marvelous characters, compelling story
Review: Caroline Leavitt is a wonderful writer! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I took it with me everywhere, even into the bathtub! The characters are so vivid that you can relate to them even though you may never have been in the same situation. I was sad to see the book end because I was so immersed with the story. I liked how Caroline (I feel I could be on a first-name basis because her writing was so personal) introduced the family background of each character so the reader really felt as if he or she knew them. I have recommended this book to all of my friends who are looking for a great book written by an intensely gratifying writer.
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Summary: A Keeper
Review: COMING BACK TO ME by Carolyn Leavitt is everything I want a novel to be. The story is told as a narrative in a way that you know how each person thinks and feels. I found myself captured by the essence of the story, by the sadness as Molly is insidiously abandoned by her mother and her sister, by the joy that Gary brings back into her life. I've never read any of Carolyn Leavitt's books before and might not have noticed this one had it not been for the cover. At first, I thought it was one of those shallow stories about a woman who has a baby and gets sick and is then miraculously cured. This book is anything but shallow. It's very real and very good. I was reminded of Alice Hoffman's style, the words wrapping around me like a friendly voice, Leavitt's phrases pleasing me like a warm cup of tea. There were nights when I would wake up after midnight thinking of Molly and Gary and Otis. I'd turn on the light and reach for COMING BACK TO ME to read a few pages before I'd fall back to sleep again. If you like Elizabeth Berg, Cathie Pelletier, Anita Shreve, or Alice Hoffman, you deserve to give yourself a gift by reading this book.
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