Rating: 
Summary: On the road across the U.S.
Review: "Ash Wednesday," by Ethan Hawke, is a novel about a young couple: soldier James Heartsock and his pregnant girlfriend Christy. They go on a journey that takes them from Albany to New York City, to Ohio, and to other places in the United States. But this young couple is on an emotional journey as well as a physical one.The talented Hawke has really impressed me with his work in film (particularly his stunning performance in the film "Training Day"), and with this novel he proves his talent as an American storyteller. Hawke had me gripped from his powerful opening chapter, in which Heartsock has to perform a difficult military task. Hawke's writing is marked by vivid descriptive language and intriguing characters--a number of his minor characters have almost mythic qualities. "Ash Wednesday" is a story of family ties and disruptions. A key theme of the book is growing up and making the transition to adulthood, and accepting the responsibilities that go along with this transition. Along the way Hawke raises a number of religious and spiritual issues. He deals with such issues as faith, ritual and grace; he seems to be asking if they are still relevant today--whether they can still bring meaning and joy to life. This is a thoughtful and moving novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Close, but no cigar
Review: As I read this one I could not get over the feeling that I was fooled into reading it. Yes, there's a good story somewhere beneath all the whining, posturing and falseness, but I just couldn't find it--no matter how hard I tried and no matter how much I like Ethan as an actor. At times, the book was actually a pain to read. A specific example involves a grating, melodramatic scene in which one character places pictures into a bag. (It's just plain BAD!) Another problem is that too many adjectives are strung together, such that you are forced to choose between them, and also the adverbs "slightly" and "lightly."
Some people say that what makes acting great is also what makes writing great, but they're wrong. Good writing requires much more structure, time, thought and just plain intelligence (and you don't have to look good to be a good writer). It's not simply a matter of putting yourself in a character's frame of mind and seeing what you come up with, and if it is, you should at least be able to tell what to keep and what to throw away. As I read the dialogue (and tried to ignore it when he interrupted the speech with superflous character actions) I found myself wondering how much Mr. Hawke got paid to write this story about a blithering, directionless young couple. I identified with Christy, and could see her as a real person, a worthwhile character, but most of the time, Jimmy's actions and dialogue seemed incongrous and inane. I just couldn't understand him at all.
People considering buying this book should think about the fact that it only got published because of Mr. Hawke's pre-existing fame. (I can't see another good reason. After some research on the author, I discovered that he was only writing it to fill the space between movie gigs! Some serious author he is...) There are literally 100,000 people out there who want to have books published in the way that Mr. Hawke has, and half of them could have done a much better job (because they would have had to try harder, and possibly would have wanted to.) I felt like giving up on this more than once. By halfway through, I could see it was going nowhere, and would reach no fufilling conclusion. It is simply a collection of random philosophies on life--wistful and irrelevant to boot. Thank God I bought it second-hand, for 90% off the cover price.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Actor, Very Good Writer
Review: Ethan Hawke has always been a strong actor in such movies as Dead Poet's Society, Reality Bites and Training Day. I was a little skeptical about giving this book a try, but I'm glad that I did. It was a very compelling story about a young couple trying to get started in a world that wanted to throw obstacles in their way, right and left. Relationships aren't easy, love isn't easy and marriage is flat-out HARD. More books need to paint this picture. The characters were interesting and multi-dimensional. I'm looking forward to reading The Hottest State in the next few months.
Rating:
Summary: Manically engaging
Review: Ethan Hawke pulled me along with his story in Ash Wednesday, the same way that Jimmy in the story carried Christy to the altar, she already pregnant with his child: by a flood of words. Every turn of the bus that Christy rode alone toward Houston, every turn of Jimmy's stoned thoughts, leads straight into a loud remembered party or childhood moment, then right out again. It's like taking every third exit off the interstate through a huge city, only to get right back on the entrance ramp without stopping. The chapters in Hawke's story alternate between the voice of Jimmy - maybe AWOL, but really just extending an official trip - and his girlfriend Christy. Both of them make regular digressions from the main story, Jimmy more often and at higher speeds than Christy, whose stream of consciousness is less verbose and pontificating than Jimmy's. Jimmy cusses his way through pseudo-logical argumentation, proclamations, self-justifications and unnecessarily harsh self-criticism (good fodder for later self-justification, no doubt). He relishes exclaiming about Christy's "dynamite ass" and her "great big tits," as well as her "long queenly fingers." Jimmy is convinced that her beauty, intelligence, and grace put her way out of his league. Christy thinks nearly the same thing. She is out of Jimmy's league, but not for the same reasons as Jimmy states. It's just that Jimmy is immature. He doesn't know what he wants. She doesn't either, Christy admits, but she's not trying to live her life otherwise. Christy only knows that, after one failed marriage already in her young life, she isn't willing to chance it again. Even though she's pregnant with Jimmy's child - BECAUSE she's pregnant with Jimmy's child - she wants to go back home to Houston, alone, and...and she doesn't know what, after that. These two voices aren't as distinct as they might be. Both take frequent detours in their individual narratives to recount memories; they are both quite aware of the tight rhythm of sex that shapes their young lives; they both speak rapid-fire most of the time; and they are both being driven toward a distant point in their respective personal histories - Christy to her childhood home in Houston, and Jimmy to his marriage to Christy. Their journeys are reckless and lonely, and they only accompany one another like two cars racing down a highway together, side by side, nearly touching all the time, actually touching and bumping and scraping together frequently, and veering wildly away from one another at several rough spots. It's a crazy ride for both, and a wonder that there isn't a fatal crackup right at the start - the most dangerous and critical time of a journey. Hawke's pace and pen don't let up; he carries us along with these two young, fragile beings, scraped up and agile, dizzy and resolute, lonely and hanging on to each other with care and tenacity. If the reader holds on, too, it's worth seeing where these two lovers race and careen to and, maybe for a moment, come to rest.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the time
Review: Hawke has proven himself not only as an actor but also as an accomplished author. The Hottest State, his debut novel was well written and set the standard very high for Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday lived up to The Hottest State and pleasently fulfilled expectations with a surprinsing amount of depth and insight.
Ash Wednesday is a true to life, coming of the ages, loss of innocence novel. Lenghty character development in the beginning of the book seems to drag on, but the book builds some momentum and finishes very strongly. There is a unique and interesting style that this book is written in, swapping back from the perspective of the two main characters. This adds a well deserved depth to the book. A well written book that is an easy and enjoyable weekend read.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not quite sure what this is about but I loved it.
Review: I picked this up at a major .za bookseller's January sale this year. It was the big paperback edition, retailing at a third of the regular-sized novel, so I scored 60 bucks in local currency and went for the cheap one. Ironically, I had gone in there to purchase the smaller paperback, so I didn't just pick this up and think "Oooh - Ethan Hawke. I'll take it." The book recounts the ill-fated and wacky tale of Jimmy and Christy, newlyweds, on a trip across the country. The prose itself is written in two styles as the author recounts aspects of it, narrating in part as Jimmy and in part as Christy. Although the tale is written as it happens, each aspect is peppered with incidents - likewise, or just ones which are related or reminisced about - from Jimmy and Christy's youth, adolescence and young adulthood. Both of their characters have a fairly positive outlook on life, but both have had to deal with adversity while growing up. You get the sense that Jimmy fared worse than Christy and has had his perceptions and morals scarred by these events. The story reminds me of a French art-house film, for want of a better description. What I mean is that there is not a plot, per se; the story is almost like a live documentary of the tale in which the viewer is treated to a look-in to the lives of Jimmy and Christy, but the tale has not yet concluded and the producers do not yet know what is going to happen at the end. It's kind of "a day in the life of" and there isn't really the sense that the story will end out going anywhere. Whether or not the story does is up to you, the reader, to decide. I got the distinct impression that the author started to write from a skeleton of a few key events and let the story evolve as he went along. The tale is fairly dark and harrowing, particularly the recounting of Jimmy's various bleak incidents of his youth. Youi will find Jimmy loathsome at times; and Christy sometimes comes across as a bit of a hopeless case as well. As far as redemption goes, well... I don't want to give too much away. The book itself, though, is not put-downable and I managed to tear through it whenever I could get a few minutes to read in about 4 days. Tis is the author's 2nd novel; both were published to critical acclaim. I have long admired Mr Hawke as an actor, particulary in Gattaca which is a fine example of brilliant science-fiction, and I hope he has success with his future endeavours as an author.
Rating:
Summary: I could read it over and over
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the roller coaster these two characters paved. I liked how the author weaved the story through different lenses. I feel like I was understanding who Ethan Hawke wanted us to believe these people were and what the fiber of them was. Many pages wanted to make me cry, but fortunately a few lines later I would be made to laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Great Job.
Review: I was blown away by this book. I would rate it as one of the best books I've ever read. I think is captures the emotional cycles of marriage and parenthood as The Catcher in the Rye captured teen angst.
Strange that some people did not like it. Not sure I understand their points. I think it was a true to life, original, and well written story. But then again, hundreds of people said gave Catcher in The Rye a bad review. Again...Wow!
Rating:
Summary: Good enough
Review: I was intrigued to read a novel by Ethan Hawke and was very pleasantly surprised with his wonderful, believable use of dialogue. I felt the characters were so screwed up they wiped out any empathy I might have mustered for their situation, but there was so much thought put into this book, so many different ideas concerning our very being on this planet, that I set aside my dislike for the characters and enjoyed reading a novel with so much soul. An excellent actor and a much greater author than I expected. And he shares his beautiful first name with my son, so how could he possibly do any wrong?
Rating:
Summary: Great Actor, Excellent Writer
Review: In his second novel, Ash Wednesday, Ethan Hawke tells the story of Jimmy and Christy, two twentysomething lovers who are on the brink of a quarter-life crisis as problems and consequences are thrown into their faces. Christy is pregnant, and Jimmy is AWOL from the Army after an "all around bad day" where he, while strung out on drugs, has to tell a mother that her military son was killed. They embark on a road trip where they each go back to their home towns, see their parents (Jimmy has only has flashbacks of his father, who committed suicide), get married, and face consequences for Jimmy's absence without leave from the Army. This book is heavy with dialogue, which is, in my opinion, a good thing. One line of dialogue can tell more about a character than pages and pages of a narrator's description, and Hawke definitely has an ear for it (possibly from all those scripts he's read?)These characters are complex, and so real. You believe them as real people, possibly someone you might know in life, and you are dying to know what happens to them next.
This is one of the best books I have read all year.
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