Family Secrets

Rating:
Summary: An actor's view of Family Secrets
Review: After recently reading 'Family Secrets', I felt compelled to comment on it from an actor's perspective, as well aspersonal view. As an actor, I am impressed with the author's chaacter development and cohesive transitions. Each character could easily be visualized. Having grown up in a town much like the one he described, I can say he was dead-on in capturing the psychology, prejudices, and morays of the people. I have read it twice, and have recommmeded it to many friends.

Rating:
Summary: Family Secrets, June 13, 2002
Review: Being a teenager who has lost his mother is hard enough, but the young hero of this book also has to deal with a murder mystery, family tensions, teenage peer pressures, and the protection of his family. This book shows us the transformation of a teenage boy into adulthood in small town America, and is enlightening for those of us who did not grow up in a small town. As this book illustrates, however, small towns are not boring towns. Much to the contrary! The characters in this book are real and the friendships strong and genuine. I really cared about what happened to Jim and I couldn't wait to pick up this book to see what would happen next. The plot kept me captivated. I can't wait for Mr. Hall's next book.

Rating:
Summary: Family Secrets a Winner
Review: Family Secrets, by David Hall, pays tribute to a long lost era the wonderful 1950s), and era of simplicity in a small, rural town, a town devoid of pretense, ambition, and cruelty . . . or so it seems to the casual observer. David Hall has re-created what today's kids will never know, a town free of malls, billboards with gross advertisements, free of spoon-fed over-stimulation, a town which provides the serence environment where one can think clearly and begin that delicate journey to full emotional development. Mr. Hall has re-constructed the town square, complete with the nostalgi "Woolworths", which every babyboomer recalls, the one movie theater -- the RItz -- the well-driven town "drag", which revolves around the teenage "coke" spot -- in this case "Leroy's" -- a place mainly of parking the car and wlaking up to order a ten-cent Coke, a place where one went to "see who is out tonight", a connection place in which to observe prospective future romantic interests and maybe lost loves as well. And, we see the newly-constructed competitive "hamburger joint" -- the "D.Q." - offering air-conditioning and an indoor setting! An era prior to Big Brother, Walmart, and so-called progress, a place where "if you step on a crack, you'll break your mother's back."

Underneath this serene setting, though, the reader is introduced to characters of strength, wisdom, courage, and humor, but also characters unbelievably selfish and power-driven, who commit crimes not just for financial gain or to satisfy their hunger for power but even against family members. "Family Secrets" acknowledges that each and every family has known and unknown "skeletons in the closet", no matter their socio-economic status. But above all, the story leaves the reader with acceptance and optimism. A sotry of an adolescent boy, who has to come to grips with the untimely death of his beloved mother, and how he and the rest of the family deal with this loss, how it affects the actual town itself: such is the basis for this "who done it?" fictional masterpiece.

"Family Secrets" is a heartwarming story that celebrates babyboomers, who will recognize themselves in this re-counting of one boy's awkward, but wonderful, transitional life journey. It's also a story well worth reading for today's kids, who really need to know that wile time, culture and events change, human behavior is constant; the common denominator, which connects today's kids with their parents.

An unbiased reader in East Texas!

-- Linda Gail

Rating:
Summary: Missed Opportunity
Review: Simon Schuster's loss is ex libris's gain. (For S-S read Houghton Mifflin, St. Martin's, Farrar, etc) The mainstream houses missed an opportunity to publish a beautifully crafted, engrossing story, one that surely would have reached a large audience. The man knows how to write. (For an example of some lovely words, spend some time with page 220.) It's a pity that many of today's editors (agents too?) are not discerning enough to recognize talent, even when they've got a manuscript right in front of them! Summation: YEA DAVID HALL! BOO ESTABLISHMENT EDITORS!

Rating:
Summary: Family Secrets, June 13, 2002
Review: The problems and concerns facing this family are no different than those we all face during our lives. Divided loyalties and family friction fill the pages of this well-written novel and also the pages of our lives. I especially appreciated the trip back to a simpler time when everything we faced could be dealt with by understanding our roots and having a solid foundation of those roots. Family Secrets is a book for all ages and is filled with interesting characters and a surprising twist. I really enjoyed this non-stop read.

Rating:
Summary: Family Secrets unlocks all our secrets
Review: The problems and concerns facing this family are no different than those we all face during our lives. Divided loyalties and family friction fill the pages of this well-written novel and also the pages of our lives. I especially appreciated the trip back to a simpler time when everything we faced could be dealt with by understanding our roots and having a solid foundation of those roots. Family Secrets is a book for all ages and is filled with interesting characters and a surprising twist. I really enjoyed this non-stop read.