These Granite Islands: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Portraits of Relationships
Review: "These Granite Islands"
is like a beautiful patched quilt...every piece unique, intricate, not sewn in a particular order, but displayed perfectly at the proper times.

Isobel is on her deathbed reflecting her long, sometimes tragic life. Fragmented memories of her husband, Victor, her children, Louisa and Thomas, and her dear friend Cathryn. This story is really about Isobel's relationship with Cathryn. Their friendship is extroidinary. But how far should a friend be willing to go?

Isobel finds out.

She becomes the "Sentinal" while Cathryn engages in an adulterous, lustful love affair. It was almost as if the three of them were making love/.

I still don't understand why Isobel was willing to be the scape-goat. Maybe unconciously she wasn't content in her marriage, needed excitement, something fresh, naughty.

Anyhow, she seems to live vicariously through Cathryn, who has introduced her to poetry, books, nature, and some sort of unknown fullfillment.

Sarah Stonich brings us directly to Isobel's bedside... but she doesn't just leave us sitting. She brings us into an unforgettable world of relationships and powerful human emotion.

She brought me into a place I wanted to stay, inspite of everything.

The stillness of water is felt everywhere, even in death. I feel it now... Still.

"What images return.
...This face, less clear and clearer.

The pulse in the arm
less strong and stronger-

What granite islands
towards my timbers.

And woodthrush calling
through fog...

---These Granite Islands---

Rating:
Summary: Best Fiction I Have Read in Years
Review: Don't think I am biased just because I am from Minnesota & so is the author AND the story is set there. IT TRULY IS GOOD! I am not understanding why there are so many poor reviews for this book listed here. Yes, you have to be A LITTLE on your toes while reading, as the plot DOES shift from past to present regularly, but it is soooooo interesting and offers so many insighful reflections into the human condition! I felt as if I were living the plot myself, or experiencing it visually, if nothing else. I loved the characters and I could not wait to see what they would do next! The ending somewhat disappointed me, as I expected soemthing else, but I forgave the author (*smile*) because she had to do what she had to do with her craft of writing. And I was fine with that. It is just the whole experience of the book: it is like a movie you don't want to walk out on even to get a snack or go potty! I read the whole thing in 2 days, which is AMAZING for me, since I live the world's busiest life & usually don't make time for books.
Try this out! It is worth it!!

Rating:
Summary: A friend in need
Review: Isobel seems to admire Cathrine's flair for the dramatic and considers her own life drab by comparison. Cathrine does so much to help Isobel get her business started and organized that Isobel seems to feel comitted to helping Cathrine even against her own judgment and comfort. The question this novel seems to be asking is how far should a person go in helping a friend.

Rating:
Summary: Confronted with humour, bravery, and pathos.
Review: Sarah Stonich has written a family story, a relationships story, a 'women's' story in "These Granite Islands," some would say of loyalties, desires and emotional renewal, but handled with intelligence and restraint that elevate it beyond a romantic tale.

Drifting off to death, the elderly Isobel recalls one summer in 1936 when a newcomer to her small town in Minnesota changes life forever, offering a glimpse of love's possibilities as well as its dangers. Massaging the space between past and present so that memory's most tender spots are poked, Isobel now sees Cathryn's friendship as a two-edged sword, slicing through her emotional guard, but also releasing self-destructive urges for them both.

Others are doomed to play out Isobel's greatest fears as well as her desires in a plot full of ironies, while a teasing mystery regarding various deaths ensures a suspenseful narrative drama.

A well written debut novel.

Rating:
Summary: Like going home,back in time... the voices of my grandma's
Review: Sarah Stonich has written a magnificent book, taking your hand by the 2nd page and your heart throughout... her words are a cadence on the pages that were my youth and childhood. Touching, thoughtful and organized in a spendid way..... she tells you what you want to know in the order of your heart rather than chronilogically.... a talented tale!

Rating:
Summary: A friend in need
Review: Stonich's novel is a touching story of the way people invest in each other, the things we are willing to put into a relationship and what we get out of it. The story is told in non-linear fashion, drifting from past moment to past moment, framed by the present at Isobel's death bed, while maintaining the central story of Isobel and Katherine's friendship. The attitudes and conflicts of the period are present in the characters actions and dialogue, whithout ever being forced or heavy handed--in that way, Stonich put us in the period with authentic characters. Stonich's prose flows easily and quite often I found myself pausing to appreciate a particularly nice turn of phrase, beautiful metaphor, or stunning image. This is a book I will easily and readily recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and powerful prose
Review: Stonich's novel is a touching story of the way people invest in each other, the things we are willing to put into a relationship and what we get out of it. The story is told in non-linear fashion, drifting from past moment to past moment, framed by the present at Isobel's death bed, while maintaining the central story of Isobel and Katherine's friendship. The attitudes and conflicts of the period are present in the characters actions and dialogue, whithout ever being forced or heavy handed--in that way, Stonich put us in the period with authentic characters. Stonich's prose flows easily and quite often I found myself pausing to appreciate a particularly nice turn of phrase, beautiful metaphor, or stunning image. This is a book I will easily and readily recommend.

Rating:
Summary: An Eloquent Life
Review: These Granite Islands is an eloquent and revealing portrait of a woman who has lived and rejoiced and suffered, and, perhaps most importantly, has learned ninety-nine years worth of life's lessons. As Isobel lay dying at the end of the century she has lived, she muses over one long-ago summer that changed her outlook and awakened her compassion and intelligance held in check. A poem buried in Isobel's subconcious (TS Eliot's "Marina")is slowly revealed to the reader, and to Isobel herself. The inclusion of this elegant poem parallels events in Isobel's life, defines them, and pays homage to the poet, reminding us that writers are by nature readers, living amongst a great wealth of words. The novel is a character study wrapped in a mystery and a heart-wrenching series of personal tragedies. This first novel by a talented new writer will surely succeed, assuring Ms. Stonich's place in contemporary fiction. This author's careful and precise use of language reminds me of earlier writers of similar tales; Virginia Wolff, Katherine Mansfield, and Edna Ferber (to whom the author respectfully nods, mentioning a similar story of fate versus free will). While this book will doubtless become a film, I say grab it read it well before that eventuality, for the emotional depth of this story cannot be portrayed on a screen in a few brief hours. If a few minor bits of the plot of These Granite Islands seem laid on rather thickly, the character development and very real dialoge redeem Stonich's lovely, memorable story. This is one to recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Storytelling With Style
Review: This book is written in my favorite writing style ~~ it jumps from the present to the past and back to the present with a fluid style ~~ which makes it easy for the reader to know where she is at in the book. Stonich is a very talented writer who writes with passion and feelings as well as very powerful descriptive style. You, the reader, is right there with Isobel as she remembers her past as she lies there on her deathbed. You can see her memories as vividly as if you are right there with her ~~ Stonich has a imaginative writing style that not very writers can capture.

While on her deathbed, Isobel talks to her youngest and surviving child about the summer of 1936 when a young couple has disappeared and caused a scandal in the small town where they resided. What Thomas, her youngest son, didn't know is that Isobel knew the couple in question. She was often their look-out for them as they hide from the woman's husband during the afternoons of a hot summer. Isobel became very close to Kathryn even though she questioned Kathyrn's infidelity with Jack, a man who wanted to enter priesthood at one time.

This novel explores the relationships between husband and wife, between friends, lovers, children and parents. It tackles the question of infidelity, love, death and aging. Stonich has a wonderful way of drawing you in ~~ and leave you feeling like you've just returned from a lovely but hard journey. She makes you think and question what you're reading ~~ in a delightful way. This isn't a trivial novel ~~ but it's not hard on the eyes either. This isn't a forgettable book. I recommend this to all readers.

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) The geography of friendship in another time and place.
Review: Water serves as a powerful metaphor for isolation, death and conquering personal fears. The searing heat of summer, the frozen fingers of Fate in winter, all form the images of a story lived against Nature's immutable canvas. At the end of a long, often lonely life, Isobel Howard replays each chapter behind failing sensibilities, as her last living child, Thomas, holds his own vigil at her bedside.

The most defining attachments in Isobel's lifetime are her marriage to Victor Howard and a summer friendship in 1936 with Cathryn Malley, who has come to the mining town in Minnesota with her husband, who travels often on business. That this short acquaintance so impresses Isobel's remaining years, says much about the repression of the times, as Isobel vicariously experiences Cathryn's infidelity, drawn to the adventure and unpredictability of Cathryn's inclinations. In reality, Cathryn suffers from a yet undiagnosed mental illness, and remains untreated, as do many whose errant behavior is labeled wildly inappropriate at that time.

Cathryn tumbles into Isobel's world as a funny, generous, helpful surprise while the more stolid Isobel struggles to fill the summer with an enterprise of her own, as Victor and her two young sons camp on a nearby island he purchased for his family's enjoyment. Isobel remains at home with her young daughter, hurt that Victor has failed to comprehend her innate dread of water, although she's never mentioned this fear to him.

When Cathryn becomes emeshed in an affair with Jack, an island man, Isobel is both attracted and repulsed by their unbridled passion, and shamefully implicit; Isobel inevitably conquers her own fear of water, paddling daily in a canoe as she serves as sentry, prepared to alert the lovers should Liam return unexpectedly. Aware that this affair can only end in tragedy, Isobel remains a passive onlooker, unable to precipitate any action, a choice that will haunt her conscience forever. At the end of that fateful summer, Cathryn, Jack and Liam are shrouded in the mystery of disappearance and death, the town humming with supposition and suspicion. Victor returns to comfort his wife, and Isobel carries her questions to the grave without resolution save her own imagination.

It is unclear at what age Isobel is widowed. Since her marriage and children are the foundation of her contentment and the fulfillment of her early years, I found it incongruous that the death of her son Henry was given so little attention, while the passion of a short-time friend consumed so much energy throughout the many years ahead. From the beginning it is clear that Isobel is at the final destination of her long life, tying the loose threads together in her mind; Stonich handles these particular moments with a subtle awareness. While the story line is somewhat frayed, Stonich has written some beautifully descriptive passages, intuiting a softening of memory and the need for a last peaceful compromise with the immanence of death.