Rating: Summary: Great audio Review: By this, the 80th review, everyone knows the story of "Big Stone Gap" so I am not going to re-hash it. I will say that I loved the story of Ave Maria. Having just read stories of strong, independent women in Elizabeth Berg's "Never Change" and JoAnn Mapson's "Bad Girl Creek", this fit right in with them.I had no interest in reading this as a book, but bought the abridged audio for a car trip and was entranced by the story. Maybe the book would have been too long. This seemed just right, and it was a good audio too. By this, I mean that here were no gaps in the story as sometimes happens with abridged audios and Trigiani did a masterful job of narrating. I was delighted to meet all of the characters who lived and worked in Big Stone Gap!
Rating: Summary: Love, life and wonderful writing!! Review: This was a wonderful novel about a young woman in a small mountain town in Virgina. Her name is Ave Maria. She is fiercly independent but is afraid that she is missing something critical in her life, and she always feels like an outsider. Ave Maria runs a pharmacy and is on the Rescue Squad. She spends all her time helping to take care of everyone and everything, when her world is turned upside down. A mysterious letter appears. She learns things about her past and then about her future, and most of all about life, the big picture!! While she has two men in her life, she has no one special to trust and love. This is where the story starts. The people of Big Stone Gap are so real and so whacky you begin to feel that you have met some of them somewhere. The feelings and thoughts expressed by the people are so open and honest that you feel you have listened in on private conversations. Several sentiments professed in this beautiful novel were very profound, like when one of them says that the best thing a father can do for his son is to love the mother. The scene between Ave Maria and her father's sister, when they are discussing hiring lawyers was so vivid that when you are done your stomach is in a knot, as if you were standing nearby when it happened. The strongest and most emotional part for me was when Ave Maria talks about her relationship with her mother, it was so perfectly explained and so beautiful. Adriana Trigiana is a truly gifted author, with the ability to evoke pure emotion in her writing. I loved this book.
Rating: Summary: a perfect summer read Review: The seemingly thin plot thickens as you go, but fails to take away from the charm of this mountain community. The character development is excellent, and their names were delightful: Ave Maria, Iva Lou, Tayloe. You're in for a treat with this one!
Rating: Summary: Mountain Magic Review: 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan has grown up in the tiny Virginia mountain town of Big Stone Gap with her Italian mother and moody, reserved father. She lives through her books, a small assortment of colorful friends, her work as a pharmacist, and her hobby of the ancient Chinese art of face reading. Content with her lot, the feisty Ave Maria is resigned to the life of a small-town spinster. And then, suddenly, on one fateful day in 1978, her life makes a 360-degree sea change. Ave Maria is both shocked and thrilled to learn that she is not the person she always assumed herself to be, nor is her fate to be that which she had envisioned. The reader is indebted to the talented Adriana Trigiani for her richly textured, perfectly lyrical prose as we follow Ave Maria on her journey of self-discovery, renewal, and growth. Ave Maria's evolution is a joy to read and the twists and turns which lead her to new planes are purely magical. I will not do the potential reader the disservice of divulging the surprises destiny has in store for Ave Maria. Rather, I will simply advise you to get this treasure of a book ASAP and discover for yourself the beautiful elixir conjured up by Ms. Trigiani from the soil and stone of the Virginia mountains (where I am proud to live).
Rating: Summary: a book that works well at depicting the folk of appalachia! Review: i come with two perspectives to share. (1)i read this book as a part of a reading group. many of the people in the group are from northeast tn and southwest va. most were critical about trigiani's writing style and felt the resolution to the story was overly sentimentalized. (2) i however found trigiani's writing style, the plot, and the resolution to be very true to the life patterns and speech patterns of those of us from the hills and vales of these mountains. i am from kingsport, tn (the closest big city to big stone gap). i could truly visualize people i have met talking and acting like this and living these stories out. that said, i found myself rather frustrated by the author's geographical references. seldom were they accurate. likewise, i believe she located johnny wood at the tv station in kingsport, but forever and ever amen he has been at the station in bristol. these skipped-over details tripped me as i read. nonetheless, i enjoyed it very much.
Rating: Summary: good read on small town Review: Ave Maria Mulligan has a passion for the ancient Chinese art of face reading. Through this art form, she believes that her 35th year of life is going to be a big one. And she wasn't wrong! Although she lives in the small town of Big Stone Gap where nothing much seems to happen, it does indeed to turn out to be a big year of change. First her mother succumbs to cancer, and then there is that letter she receives from her lawyer.....a letter from her Mother. Even though Ave Maria feels she is the town spinster, it is also a year of marriage proposals, one she thought she wanted, and one she didn't expect. I got a nice sense of place with this story, with the closeness of the community, the gossips and the characters of the town. Jac Mac wasn't particularly well 'fleshed out' for me though, it seemed a little like, because all the characters said he was nice and a catch etc, that I had to take their word for it, instead of feeling it through the writing myself.
Rating: Summary: What a miserably slow read! This is a warning. Review: The major downfall of this novel is that there are too many characters who are too poorly developed. It's hard to keep track of all the personalities in this town. Another problem is the fact that the storyline is too predictable. Ave Maria is basically out to find a man. This is a glorified romance novel, made to seem like a deep read. You know the guy she'll pick from the beginning (the tired "he smells so good, looks so rugged & manly, but why would I be interested in a guy like THAT?" routine). This book was a long, slow read, with few exciting moments to break the monotony ...
Rating: Summary: Normally not my kind of book. Review: I really enjoyed Big Stone Gap. Although this is normally not not my kind of book, I found it to be very enjoyable...after my wife kept prodding me to read it. I really enjoyed the characters, and the plotline was non too predictable. For me as a minister though, I was semi-disappointed that the climax of the book, at least in one part, was Ave Maria finally sleeping with Jac Mac. O well, I don't think that it detracted too much from a great book, and I'll look foward to reading more from this author.
Rating: Summary: "Gap" reveals mysteries of love and joy of self-discovery Review: Capable Adriana Trigiani joins such inspiring Southern authors as Lee Smith and Kaye Gibbons with her moving debut novel, "Big Stone Gap." Her heroine, Ave Maria Mulligan, possesses strength, dignity and, ultimately, vulnerability as she sets out on the most important journey of her life, the search for authentic identity and fulfillment in love. Trigiani invests Ave Maria with the literary gifts of believability, supporting characters who vex and delight the reader, and a setting (the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia) absolutely real and gracious. "Gap" defies easy categorization, as it has both comic and deeply sad moments; yet it is a quintessential American book -- big-hearted, conflict-riddled and triumphant. The protagonist, shattered by the death of her beloved, immigrant mother, outlines the basic challenge she faces as a middle-aged, independent, but lonely woman: "Pracitical Ave Maria must go. Me. The never-married town pharmacist who is never caught without her first aid kit...The girl who built her life so carefully so she'd never have to ask anybody for anything. I have had it with me." Trigiani sculpts her novel around Ave Maria's inability to feel, to act on impulses of love, to become something other than Big Stone Gap's sensible, efficient, spinster-like institution. Soon enough, Ave Maria must determine not only how to treat multiple marriage proposals but to come to grips with her own startling origins. Trigiani is simply extraordinary in he resolution of Ave Maria's quest for identity, never compromising real epiphany for cliched answers. We are fortunate to lie in times where American women authors are so adroit in mining the human heart and presenting works of literature which instruct us as to what loving relationships are and how we, in our stumbling, awkward ways, learn to accept ourselves and have faith in each other. Trigiani prophetically states that "the great mysteries in life can only be solved person to person. We can pull each other through." Americans are lucky to have yet another Southern woman to be our guide to the truths of the heart.
Rating: Summary: Ya'll read this book, ya hea'? Review: If Jan Karon, Billie Letts and Fannie Flagg could be made into one person, they would create Adriana Trigiani. All the essentials are present: Jan Karon's quaint community charm, Billie Letts's honest and triumphant storylines, and Fannie Flagg's quirky and one-of-a-kind characters. A lively mix, to say the least.... According to the Chinese art of face-reading, something extraordinary is supposed to happen in the 35th year of Ava Maria Mulligan's life. Well, it's been 35 years -- and Ava Maria is getting impatient! Being the town spinster, town pharmacist, and all-around good gal just isn't good enough anymore. Even though Ava Maria tries to convince herself that she likes being alone and predictable, fate has another scenario in mind. With the discovery of a very big family secret, the entire world and life as Ava Maria has come to know and depend on is turned upside down. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing... Plenty of surprising things and supressed feelings come to the surface during the course of Ava Maria's 35th year, which makes it one that will never be forgotten. Readers will fall in love with the town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia and all it's wonderful residents: Sexy bookmobile driver and jewelry peddler Iva Lou Wade, who has sampled many of the town's male appetizers; Theodore Tipton, director of the high school band and Ava Maria's very best friend; Jack MacChesney, the big, burly coal-miner who lives with his momma out in the holler; and Pearl Grimes, a 15-year-old mediocre mountain girl with potential that's just starting to crack the surface. Readers will see themselves in one or many of these characters, which makes this novel so appealing. A must read for Southern fiction fans and those who enjoy down-home humor and characters with heart.
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