Waiting for the World to End

Rating:
Summary: An Eternal Edict
Review: Awesome...Brilliant...Captivating...Provocative...Pervading...Poignant...Passionate...Relevent...Sensual...Spellbinding...There are not enough superlatives to describe Nicole Hunter's Waiting For The World To End. As a high school administrator, English teacher, and coach for over a quarter of a century, the highest compliment I can pay Ms. Hunter is that upon completion of reading her novel, I immediately purchased a classroom set for my students. Hawthorne had his Hester, Arthur and Pearl. Ms. Hunter has created Thomas, Mary and Ben. Where one contemplates the consequences and effects of sin, the other guides one's soul to seek peace and tranquility. I found myself reminiscing. I devoured every word...page...chapter. This is not a book one reads and passes along. Rather, it will become highlighted, dog-eared, tattered, re-read; the cover, the pages, each word scintillating with one's scent. Ms. Hunter states that she writes with "a healing voice." True enough, but she is much too modest. She writes with a voice that longs to heard over and over again. Whereas Hawthorne's Chillingworth states that he "knows not Lethe nor Nepenthe," Hunter allows us to not only "forgive" and "forget", but forever remember not the sin or sinner, but the "saint" the man has become because he refuses to give up. This "tale of human frailty and sorrow" will be kept alive in history because the focus of Waiting For The World To End is not just "a surreal accident", but a "divine mystery" and "an eternal edict".

--Randy Stelter; English teacher, basketball coach, Athletic Administrator, Wheeler High School, Valparaiso, Indiana

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful yet heartbreaking
Review: I am the sort of person who spends an inordinate amount of time watching movies of a decidedly low budget caliber. I spend so much of my time watching films that any spare time for books usually revolves around the drudge of forced reading for school. That is why it is such a delight to come across a novel like Nicole Hunter's "Waiting for the World to End." There is more genuine human emotion in this novel about a man struggling with loneliness than in any book I have read in the last year. How moving and thoughtful is this book? Here's an indication: I sat down with Hunter's book intending to read only the first couple of chapters since I had several other important things to take care of. The next thing I know it is the middle of the night and I am halfway done with the book. I finished it upon waking the following day. I cannot convey to you how rare it is for me to do something like this. I can always put something down and come back to it later, even if I enjoy it immensely. Not so in the case of "Waiting for the World to End." I had to finish reading to see what would happen to the protagonist Thomas Olsen.

In a way Olsen is also his own antagonist. He's a man in the prime of his life, forty-one to be exact, and a man in an enviable position. His job as an English teacher at an Indiana high school coupled with his success as head basketball coach has endeared him to his students, their parents, the school's administrators, and nearly everyone else in town. Olsen is the sort of teacher students remember for the rest of their lives, the sort of teacher that inspires students to use some of their free time in order to paint an ornate mural on his classroom wall. Can you see why he's in an enviable position? Most people would give anything to find something to do in life that garners such admiration and respect from others. Problem is, all of Olsen's accomplishments are external. Inside he dies a little more every day because of loneliness and bad memories. His loneliness stems from his inability to find the right woman with which to share his wonderful life. The bad memories are legion, starting with a former girlfriend's terminated pregnancy during his youth and leading up to the present day with recollections of his unpleasant childhood. His parents, both distinguished university professors, failed to bond with their only son and failed to support his decision to teach high school.

A ray of sunlight pierces the black veil surrounding Olsen's heart when he meets the beautiful Mary Wendling, the mother of Tom's star basketball player Ben. Her mere presence sends his mind racing, and subsequent encounters only confirm that this woman is the answer to all of Olsen's woes. He loves her in a way few people ever experience, but there are problems. Mary is married to a man who helped rescue her from a problematic youth. Moreover, Ben presents a significant barrier to any potential relationship. Tom worries that the boy will interpret any move he makes on Mary as a violation of their own close bond. That Olsen considers Ben Wendling the son he never had only further complicates matters. As the years pass by, the bond between Tom, Ben, and Mary grows stronger. Mary's son heads off to Tucson State at the same time Olsen gets a job offer there, so the two gain the opportunity to continue their relationship in a new way. Meanwhile, back in Indiana Mary encounters problems in her marriage to Virgil that could potentially clear the way for a liaison with Tom. Ben's impending wedding could finally be the time and place where Olsen conquers his eternal loneliness. Or perhaps not. It's to Hunter's credit that her novel refuses to deliver an ending of the type we have seen in hundreds of other books. Instead she gives us a finale approximating real life.

"Waiting for the World to End" is a triumph, a book bursting at the seams with intense examinations of human emotions, characters struggling with their relationship to God, and the problem of reaching across the spaces between people in order to make meaningful and lasting connections. This last point is particularly relevant to the Tom Olsen character. Try as he might, he has great trouble connecting with people. He has friends at the school, certainly, and he befriends an elderly neighbor who lives across the street from him (a situation that has repercussions later in the novel), but he never seems to follow through on his relationships. It's quite rare that anyone ever shows up at his house, and when they do they don't stay for very long. His home is a symbolic reflection of his lonely personality. He's a bit of a recluse, but an unwilling recluse. On this point alone I connected with the book; I'm a lot like this character in that respect, as I don't let many people into my life very easily. I consider any book great when I can relate to it in some manner, and I related big time with "Waiting for the World to End."

I suspect most readers will find something to identify with in this book. In an increasingly impersonal age, where computers and e-mail often serve as substitutes for face to face contact, we can expect to see more and more Tom Olsens. Nicole Hunter has written a memorable book indeed, one that ought to become a bestseller if there is any justice in the world. I'm going to hold on to my copy for many years to come; I have the feeling it's going to be worth a lot of money someday.



Rating:
Summary: If you liked Tuesdays With Morrie, read this book
Review: My tastes run more toward biographies and The History Channel, and my bookshelves are mostly filled with encyclopedias. But somebody recommended this novel to me, so I decided to give it a try. And I was hooked from the first sentence. I liked everything about the book, but my favorite part is Olsen's friendship with Mr. McCormick, the old man who lives next door to him in Indiana. It reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie. Elderly people are so forgotten in our culture with the way we worship youth. But Mr. McCormick is one of the most important characters in this story in some pretty cool ways. The old man was so real to me, I felt like I could see him shuffling around his yard and hear him talking to Olsen and felt like I learned a thing or two from him, too. There are a lot of things to like about this book, a lot of unforgettable characters, and Mr. McCormick is kinda quiet with his garden and his squirrel-dog. But watch out, because he will bring a few tears to your eyes before you're through.

Rating:
Summary: An exquisite novel that touches your heart, mind, and soul
Review: Normally, I review a book as soon as I finish reading it. That is not the case with Nicole Hunter's Waiting for the World to End. This novel is so profound, so exquisitely crafted, and so thought-provoking that further mental distillation was required before I could attempt to sit down and attempt to describe it. The words appear on the printed page, but this story is written on nothing less than the human heart itself. It is a book about right and wrong, making and coming to terms with difficult choices, and faith - but the author is quick to point out that this not a religious story; at its essence, this is a human story. It is in fact an exceedingly human story. Guys, don't turn away from this book because you think it might be "sappy" or something; ladies, don't pass this one over just because the main character is a men's basketball coach. This is a book crying out to be read by anyone who has ever searched for meaning in life, tried unsuccessfully to forgive oneself for past mistakes, or experienced (or merely yearned to find) love of the noblest - and, by its nature, sometimes most difficult - form.

Thomas Olsen would seem to be living one version of the good life. He is the head of the English department and head coach of the men's basketball team at Indian River High School in Indiana, and he is a local celebrity among the basketball-crazy citizens of the local area. He already has one state championship, and hopes (not to mention expectations) are high for him to claim a second title. In his early 40s, he could have his choice of any number of fawning females. The Thomas Olsen that everyone sees is not the real Thomas Olsen, however. Olsen is in fact a painfully lonely character molded incompletely in childhood by rejection and weighed down by the grievous weight of a painful decision he made two decades earlier. His is an empty body, long separated from what he considers his soul. Hunter uses pieces of poetry quite brilliantly in order to define the essence of Olsen in the most poignant of terms.

Some of the missing pieces that Olsen has all but given up searching for now begin to turn up, however. He develops a fatherly bond with Ben Wendling, his team's star player, looking upon Ben as the son of his very soul. Then he meets Ben's mother Mary, and in an instant he glimpses everything he has been searching for his whole life. There is, of course, a problem - Mary is a married woman. This doesn't stop Owen from insinuating himself into Mary's life - quite obviously, at times. The two become especially close when Ben suffers a horrifying accident on the court. Mary is a very religious person, and Owen opens up to her in ways he has never done before, revealing a large measure of his heart and soul.

The novel covers some six years of Owen's life. It is a story of constant pining, searching for life's meaning, doing the right thing no matter how unbearably hard it is to do, testing the waters of faith and prayer; most of all, though, this is a story of love in its purest, more soul-quivering form. I can't begin to do the novel justice; it's like trying to describe a deeply personal experience. That is exactly what Waiting for the World to End is - not a novel so much as a moving, heart-touching personal experience full of joy and sorrow, pain and relief, emptiness and fulfillment, and the most poignant form of human love. It's not a story you can ever forget because it becomes a very real part of you. Reading for entertainment is a fantastic thing, but the true wonder of reading is only reflected in the rarest of novels, one that makes you plumb the depths of your own heart and soul - and Waiting for the World to End is one of those rare examples of literature at its most powerful and enlightening.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting...for the sequel
Review: Over the holidays, my mother and I read "Waiting for the World to End" together. We took turns reading out loud to each other, and often paused to talk about the beautiful phraseology and the interesting philosophical aspects of the story.

We found the characters to be so real that we felt like we were living their lives right along with them, and we went through every gamut of emotion as we poured through the pages.

At times, I wanted to shake Olsen by the collar...then other times, I wanted to shake sense into Mary -- realizing eventually, that what I really wanted to do was give myself a good shaking, because I was tapping into a part of myself in each of them.

As I got more and more involved in the book, I wanted to start underlining things. But, I didn't want to stop reading long enough to get a pencil, nor did I want to sever the lifeline that connected me to the altered state I found myself in. So, I decided I'd have to go back and read the book again.

The essay on fathers, written by Ben, was absolutely beautiful. It made me cry. Every father should read it and aspire to being this kind of dad.

I took a journey into self with Lissa's calm response of, "It doesn't seem like your heart is really in this, Tom," and Cara's mature apology to Tom for judging Mary. It reminded me that the "all about me" response of anger when a relationship is in trouble isn't beneficial to anyone. It's not about "what you did to me!" -- it's about what we're here to learn from each other. It's how we grow from the experience of being together...whether good of bad, happy or sad.

My greatest surprise was that it didn't end the way I expected it to -- but that's the gift Ms. Hunter gives to her readers. She allows us the opportunity to come to our own conclusions as to where Olsen and Mary go from here. As Ben said, "You just make your life exactly what you want it to be." So, that's what I did. I envisioned their future the way I wanted it to be!

This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read, and I highly recommend it. It's also one of the most beautifully written books I've had the pleasure to read. Well done, Ms. Hunter! Keep writing!

Rating:
Summary: Relationships of many types and levels
Review: The main character, Thomas Olsen, appears to be living an ideal existence. He is chair of the English department and the head basketball coach at a high school in Indiana. His teams have been very successful, having advanced to the state tournament several times. If you know anything about the role of basketball in Indiana, you understand that this would place him slightly on either side of godhood.
However, under the crust of success, popularity, poetic talent and good looks, there resides a very lonely man. His parents were both intellectuals and distant, so he is unable to overcome the feelings of loneliness that still haunt him from childhood. Ben Wendling, the star on the basketball team and very talented in the English classroom, begins to become a surrogate son. When Thomas meets his mother (Mary), it is love at first sight on his part. Unfortunately, she is married and a deeply religious woman.
The relationship between Ben and Thomas continues to deepen and that between Thomas and Mary continues to sparkle and fizzle. She returns some of the obvious affection he has for her, but they never share any real intimacy. Mary's husband (Virgil) is a man who had in some sense rescued Mary, as she was an unwed mother with a child, an outcast, rejected by her parents with no place to go. Rather than bringing Mary, Virgil and Ben together, their past seems to create a chasm between them.
The relationship between Ben and Thomas becomes cemented for life when Thomas saves Ben's life after a freak accident. By coincidence, after Ben accepts a scholarship to Tucson State, Thomas is offered a job as assistant basketball coach at Tucson State. Thomas enjoys the life in the desert, falling in love with another woman and eventually getting engaged. However, even though there is distance in time and years, Mary Wendling still tugs at Thomas from time to time. Eventually, Virgil and Mary divorce and independently, Thomas and his fiancé split up. Thomas and Mary then meet at Ben's wedding, but I will not reveal the results.
This is a book where relationships between the characters are numerous and complex.

*) The male-/young male relationship between Thomas and Ben.
*) The male/older male relationship between Thomas and his elderly neighbor.
*) The husband/wife (white knight) relationship between Virgil and Mary.
*) The spiritual relationships of Mary and Ben.
*) The unfulfilled love between Thomas and Mary.
*) The woman/woman relationship between Mary and Thomas's fiancé.
*) The subtle rivalry over a woman between Thomas and Virgil.
*) The male/male relationships between Thomas and his fellow coaches.
*) The dysfunctional relationship between Thomas and his mother.
*) The relationship Thomas has with himself, where he seems to be unable to do anything to break out of his loneliness pattern. This is the dominant relationship in the book.

With all of these relationships, some of which are counter to others, this book contains a lot of subtle action. Even though basketball is a dominant theme, there are only incidental descriptions of events on the court, and then only when needed to set the stage for an aspect of the relationships. With so much going on in that area, there are times when the author gets very close to the limit of relationships overload, but never quite gets there. Thomas's life is full in many respects, yet empty in others, which is a way to describe all of us. I enjoyed the book, including the ending, but I am sure others will not approve of the conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: A Gifted Writer and the afterburn of Personal Agendas
Review: WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END is an exceptionally fine first novel by Nicole Hunter. She writes beautifully, creates atmospheres for the locations of her story that are palpable, paints characters so completely that they become visual, and spins a tale of love and life that is simple and direct in manner while complex in detail. She comes to this first novel well schooled and with the added currency of a devotion to her craft: she is the founder of Literacy Through Literature and when not writing, she volunteers as an adult literacy tutor with Project: LEARN in her home in Cleveland, Ohio. She is thoroughly grounded in poetry, philosophy, the great debate over the Right to Life, even the ins and outs of the game of basketball! All of this information serves as an introduction to an important new voice, but it also poses the conundrum of why this first novel doesn't become 'great'.

But first the story: Thomas Olsen is a 41 year old English and Literature teacher AND winning basketball coach at Indian River High School in Indiana, a man loved by his students, their parents, his fellow teachers, his team, even is elderly neighbor Mr. McCormick who shares Olsen's sense of isolationism in a world busy with 'success'. Olsen's life has been one of aching to find meaning and love: his parents were distant and cold, and he continues to live in the regret of agreeing to the abortion of his high school sweetheart's pregnancy, a deed which has prevented him from finding a life partner. Olsen is particularly drawn to one of his top students and players, Ben Wendling, who represents everything Olsen would want in the son he never had and whose mother Mary touches his longing for love but remains a married woman inaccessible to him. A near fatal sports accident occurs and Olsen saves Ben's life, bonding him tightly to Ben's family and to Ben. Events occur and Ben goes to Tucson, AZ on a full college scholarship and serendipitously Olsen accepts a new job at the same university as JV coach.

Time passes, circumstances change, and when climactic events occur back in Indian River, Olsen returns to be in Ben's wedding and to discover facts that bring Olsen to major decisions about his own life choices and changes. It is to Hunter's credit that she treats her readers with great intelligence and does not stoop to romance pulp fiction happy endings. She seems to understand the cycle of life and the consequences of choices and plays these to sensitive conclusions instead of pie-in-the-sky soap opera.

Having said all of that, the one thing for this reader that keeps this novel from entering the pantheon of great books is the author's tendency toward the evangelical religious convincing that she places in the mouths of not only the clergy, but also in Mary and in the important character Ben. For example, the following is well written, but..."It doesn't matter what happened before...and it doesn't matter what happens later. God gave us free will. Whatever happens, you don't have to fight it - you can just keep writing your own story, your own way, no matter what's going on around you. And it's never too late; you must just make your life exactly what you want it to be, starting today. Like mom says - Begin; the rest is easy." Too frequently the answers to questions raised by the author are attributed to God's will, and while there is validity in this response, it seems to prevent further fleshing out of story challenges.

But that is only a small point of contention that for this reviewer withholds a star in this otherwise five star book. Hunter is so fine a writer that her future success seems assured. One last point about the publisher: the cover of this book is a rather odd, unflattering photograph of what appears to be a young lad putting the shot, an act that has nothing to do with the story and suggests that the contents between this distracting cover may be dealing with physically or mentally challenged children, which it most certainly is not. Small promotional glitches such as this may serve to prevent eager book shoppers from approaching this novel for the fine work that it is. Grady Harp, January 2005

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Crafted, Immensely Enjoyable
Review: Waiting for the World to End is a beautifully crafted first time novel by Nicole Hunter. From the very beginning, I was intrigued at the richness of the story and complexity of relationships among the characters. Being a lover of poetry, I found the descriptive imagery in this book thoroughly enjoyable. This novel is a realistic portrait of the struggles of the human heart; I found myself stopping and thinking about the choices I had made in my own life. I would read, pause, and ponder. Read, pause, and ponder. With every chapter I read, it sent me into a new world of thought. Nicole Hunter is a talented word-smith. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys beautiful literature and thought provoking characters.

Rating:
Summary: fear of intimacy
Review: WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END is a cautionary tale about holding back, longing & fear of intimacy. It takes place over several years first in a small Indiana town, & later at a college in Arizona.

It is about a man who becomes devoted to a boy who is the son he never had, who is the age his child would have been, had he & his fiancee not had an abortion all those years ago. It is filled with gestures of friendships, moments of intensity that could portend intimacy, yet fade away from lack of passion. Because Olsen's passion is all tied up in Ben's life, & the woman he loves & cannot love.

Rebeccasreads recommends WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END because it will make you think about what you did in your past & how you want to live your future. It will give you moments of sheer panic & joy, as well as frustration & satisfaction.

Rating:
Summary: Explore the Depths of Humanity!
Review: Waiting for the World to End is an entertaining and poignantly heartfelt adventure into the soul of Thomas Olsen, chronicling his quest for personal freedom and peace of mind as a high school English teacher/basketball coach in suburban Indiana.

A must-read for those who've ever pondered Existence... the novel offers insight into the mysterious life force driving the human race, while encouraging unity rather than division.

Waiting for the World to End contains a depth that challenges the most intellectual and philosophical readers. However, the novel is crafted as a brilliantly simple, yet saturated story that appeals to all ages and both sexes.

A fun and fulfilling read for everybody!!!