Almost Heaven

Rating:
Summary: griping writing of war, lose, inner life
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the language Marianne Wiggins used throughout her book, especially the scenes when Holden is explaining what he saw and how he reacted in Bosnia. As an ex-patriot American who just returned from "home," I thought he captured those feelings right on. Europeans never quite understand the American weather in the summer and could learn a lot with Wiggins' descriptions of the way American heat skies can get. I became somewhat bogged down in the implausibility of the trek West, despite the lush sex scenes, but was WOWED by the ending! Personally, how well a writer pulls off an ending is one of my gauges for success. Wiggins sure caught me there. One of the reviews in my book jacket tells of re-reading the book almost immediately. I can understand that.

Rating:
Summary: griping writing of war, lose, inner life
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the language Marianne Wiggins used throughout her book, especially the scenes when Holden is explaining what he saw and how he reacted in Bosnia. As an ex-patriot American who just returned from "home," I thought he captured those feelings right on. Europeans never quite understand the American weather in the summer and could learn a lot with Wiggins' descriptions of the way American heat skies can get. I became somewhat bogged down in the implausibility of the trek West, despite the lush sex scenes, but was WOWED by the ending! Personally, how well a writer pulls off an ending is one of my gauges for success. Wiggins sure caught me there. One of the reviews in my book jacket tells of re-reading the book almost immediately. I can understand that.

Rating:
Summary: Postmodern with Emotion
Review: Marianne Wiggins writes an impressionistic, poetic and heart-breaking story. Her descriptions of emotions are wide and deep and revelatory. She weaves the numbing experience of the loss of self in war and the distressingly innocent, blank experience of amnesia. What is memory? What is feeling? Can we recover our memory without mourning its loss?
If you give yourself to the depths of this book, without demanding a conventional "story" (although there is a plot) you will experience depths that turn over your heart.

Rating:
Summary: definitely heavenly
Review: the author's phraseology jumps out at you at expected times and you savour its impact. she weaves a subtle yet obvious plot around experiences that we all have had and takes you to boundaries of emotion few of us seldom reach. i sincerely hope there is to be sequal.

Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: The language is beautiful and the story engrossing, but it doesn't have a conclusion. It was like seeing only acts 1+2 of a three act play. I don't want to spoil the book, so I'll only say that there's an impending doom in the story, at the heart of the story really. The book ends when the doom strikes rather than coninue and show the ramifications of the doom and other actions in the book.
Another analogy would be a disaster movie that ended as soon as the disaster hit. That's not a satisfying story because we want to see how people deal with the disaster and, in this book, we don't get to.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book club selection EVER
Review: This was our February book club selection. The consensus was that this was the worst book that we had ever read. Some members couldn't even finish it. Reading it resulted in a 10 minute discussion on how we've never hated a book worse. Horrible plot, story, and characters. The main character Holden is dispicable and abusive. The book concludes at the climax, with absolutely no resolution.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book club selection EVER
Review: This was our February book club selection. The consensus was that this was the worst book that we had ever read. Some members couldn't even finish it. Reading it resulted in a 10 minute discussion on how we've never hated a book worse. Horrible plot, story, and characters. The main character Holden is dispicable and abusive. The book concludes at the climax, with absolutely no resolution.