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Summary: A Common Life: The Wedding Story
Review: Very good, Fun to know more about the wedding day and thoughts and preparations for it.
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Summary: Will definitely read this book more then once.
Review: I find it interesting that so many obvious fans of Jan Karon were disappointed by A Common Life. It was such a wonderful book and was very well written. Yes, I will agree that the timing seemed to be a little off, having it published AFTER the fifth novel, but I don't believe that that made this book any less wonderful. And for those who were wondering what will be published next, check out the end of the book. Coming this fall we can expect to be awed by Jan Karon's work once again.
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Summary: Father Kavanaugh: A mush-puppy?
Review: After being thoroughly delighted with the Mitford series and it's refreshingly innocent view of American "down home" culture, I was thrilled to hear that another book had been added to the "middle" of the series. However, my disappointment was tremendous when I read the book. The characters are transformed from real, likeable people into insipid, romantic mushers. I wouldn't recommend this book to my worst enemies! I hope Karon's next efforts revert to her previous talent.
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Summary: A Good Story
Review: I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I have enjoyed the previous Mitford books. This one is a bit of "fill in" about Father Tim and Cynthia's wedding and all the preparations for it. I still recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good and uplifting story.
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Summary: A Delight
Review: For anyone who read the other Mitford Years books, this one fills in the gaps about the wedding of Cynthia and Father Tim. It actually is very quick reading, easily read in a night or two. I love all the Mitford Books. However, I always missed the important parts that she leaves out between the books, such as the wedding. I was thrilled to finally see how Father Tim and Cynthia were wed. There is something very genuine and soothing about her writing. There is nothing of nudity, cursing or immoral behavior that is found in so many books. Her writing is relaxing and truly enjoyable.
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Summary: Missed the mark!
Review: While the previous 5 Mitford books were each a sumptious feast, The Wedding Story was more like an appetizer. Got far too over the line into just mushy emotions, not the fun and rich and inspirational story lines of previous series. This could have been better handled on fewer pages within the series time line. But I have no doubt I will buy the next Mitford book. Hurry, Jan and get it to us!
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Summary: Quit complaining
Review: This book is short. It's about a single event. No matter how detailed a scrapbook of a wedding may be there is only so much information to record. I think it's great! If you are upset because you've living in Mitford and this visit was a little too short then you're missing the point. Mitford is a place to catch a glimpse of really living, and then we need to get out there and live. "Like brandy in coffee," she's done it again. Well worth reading.
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Summary: Still Waiting
Review: After reading the first few pages of A Common Life, I knew this was not the sixth book of the Mitford series that I'd long been waiting for. Instead what I read was a pretty little book that, for someone who's read the series twice, contained nothing but yesterday's news. My recommendation: Buy this book as a gift for a friend who's never read anything by Jan Karon. It's a sweet story and a new reader will love it. As for the rest of us Karon fans - all we can do is hope that our book is still out there!
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Summary: Hmm...
Review: I wonder if I am one of the few that enjoyed this. I like A COMMON LIFE a lot, but then I've never read any other Mitford books before. Maybe I should, though.
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Summary: REVIEW of Jan Karon¿s A COMMON LIFE
Review: A Common Life was written, as I understand it, in response to a clamor from the readers of her books, to write "more" about Father Tim and Cynthia's wedding. I did not feel that same need, although I bought the book the minute it arrived in my town. This book has been referred to as a novella, which is appropriate; it was never meant to be another major novel in the Mitford series. This novella presents a different perspective than the other five. After some introductory pages of At Home in Mitford, we gain practically every bit of our knowledge and feeling for the characters through the experience of Father Tim. Everything comes to us through his eyes. Almost nothing takes place--no conversation, not a piece of information-- that does not come through his direct experience or his reflections or through conversations to which he was party. Even the author's commentary, which would from a lesser writer come to us from the distance of the third person--the author as author--seems to come from Father Tim's own thoughts and feelings. Jan Karon hides herself so beautifully within her central character that she and he become one and the same. She herself, the author, hardly ever intrudes upon his mind and heart--at least, not that we are aware of. Rarely have I read any author who does this so delicately and with such skill. Then, of course, we, too, become Father Tim: we know everything he knows and feel what he feels and as he feels. This is what makes, I believe, these books so delightful and reaches so many people, touches them so deeply. And, then, of course, it is simply genius to write a book through a man's eyes, have him fall in love with a beautiful neighbor, and we (I suppose it is mostly women who first read these lovely things and then introduce them to their husbands, as I have done) then revel in all her delightful ways and so cherish reading about how his feelings for her plummet and soar. So, then, we are, in an odd way, the object also of his deep and romantic feelings that grow and blossom page after page. And how I have loved reading what is like a beautiful hymn to love, to good, wholesome love, and, of course, to this special Cynthia--and then feel as though I, too, am Cynthia! Don't you? The novella gives us the thoughts of many characters from Dooley and the Bishop, to Emma, to Miss Sadie and Louella, and Hessie, and the boys at the grill. It is a completely different perspective. In The Common Life, the chapter about the Bishop was amusing. The response of Cynthia to Timothy's letter and her fears were poignant; and we felt with her. The last chapter is a lovely thing. How many authors can, in a minimum of words and in only a few sentences, describe a man's reflections on his first joyous steps into the inexpressible and delicate mysteries of married love. Some books almost treat their readers, at best, as bystanders of the action, or at the worst, as intruders, collective peeping Toms, those who don't belong, unwelcome outsiders, probing into people's lives in an unseemly manner, like gossips or nosey old ladies. Jan Karon treats us as cherished, invited guests and beckons to us with charm and winsome words to come so that she can reveal her heart to us and the heart of Mitford. She urges us to come; she wants us to come. There are no dilettantes in Mitford, no secondhand experiences, no third- party observers. It is at one and the same time, as comfortable as an old shoe and as uplifting as a poem or a verse from the Bible. What a treasure! How can we wait for the next novel? What will it be called? Don't you just lick your chops over the prospect?
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