Rating: 
Summary: Crash
Review: Reading this book was akin to watching a train wreck. Spare yourself the horrid memory that will be forever planted in your brain and avoid this book.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the best books i've EVER read -- and i've read a lot.
Review: wow. WOW. i woke my best friend up at some ungodly hour to shriek about this. i haven't read something in one night in a loooong time, but this was one such instance. i think everyone recognizes that bender is brilliantly imaginative, but she's honest and perceptive and a darn good storyteller on top of that. i work in a bookstore, and the tragedy is that a lot of books these days seem to be written for a market. fiction is really breaking down into niches: you have your dustycovered oprah-y books about women facing adversity and whatnot, in earth tones of course, then you have your sassy quest-for-mr.-right deals with bright covers that look like someone just threw a copy of cosmo in the blender, and then you get the biting generation-x-male-disillusionment ones in their sharp neon-colored covers.... this was written with total disregard to those emerging categories. bender just wrote a GOOD BOOK that's fun AND touching AND brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: That was just plain wierd
Review: I suppose there are people out there with greater imagination than myself who got more meaning out of this story than I did. The point of the story wasn't lost on me I just didn't get much meaning from it. What I really enjoyed throughly was the imagination of the story. I've never met any of these characters in anything else I've ever read. Like it or not there isn't much out there as original as this. Along with this is Aimee Bender's wonderful use of words. Her writing style is rich as her imagination. I doubt I'd have finished this book if the writing were ordinary. It is a difficult read but the reward is in the reading.
Rating:
Summary: Help is on the way
Review: Good books don't need to be explained. What we have here is a book in need of an explanation. Do the math. This book doesn't add up.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and touching
Review: Aimee Bender's first novel is a masterpiece. I loved it as much as her collection of short stories THE GIRL WITH THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT. Ms. Bender takes you inside the hearts and minds of her characters reveling their humanity with such wit and passion that it made me sad to finish the book. Mark my words Ms. Bender will someday be considered one of American's best writers. Knock. Knock. You heard it here first.
Rating: 
Summary: Unusual, imaginative, but unsatisfying
Review: The premise of the story is interesting. The relationships between adults and children were developed and had depth. While we don't need to take ourselves so seriously, the nuerosis and serious dysfunction that seems to effect the majority of the characters was a little "overdone" and grew irritating as the story progressed. This is not a "literary" criticism about prose, writing style, etc., I just didn't enjoy this book. Although not without merit, I would wait for the paperback or check it out at the library.
Rating:
Summary: I could use some help with this.
Review: I suppose that it probably isn't hard to find readers more erudite than I who "got" what the book was all about. I certainly assume that the author was trying to tell us something or had some message for us, but for the life of me I couldn't discern it. I also assume that that with respect to the numerous little subplots--(1) Ann, (2) the ax, (3) Lisa, (4) Lisa's mother, (5) Mr. Jones, (6) his numbers, (6) Mona's father and his illness, (6) the science teacher and his classes, (7) the soap, (8) the knocking, (9) the math, etc., etc.--there must have been some theme or common link running through them, but I couldn't tell what it was. Death? Fear? Overcoming fear? If not connected, all we would have is a series of unrelated vignettes being told simultaneously, which I assume was not the author's intent. Finally, while I would not be surprised if many readers who adored the book told themselves (or people like me) that it was "obvious" to them what the themes were, I would be suspicious of that opinion unless those people all reached the same conclusion. After all, what good is it to say that the answer is "easy" or "obvious" when every person has a different answer?
Rating:
Summary: Once I picked it up I didn't put it down until I was done!
Review: This book is excellent. I love the absurdity of the events and how they all somehow came together to form a work of art. I was only left with one question. What is Mona's fathers great illness. It seemed to mirror the very deepest point of depression..... I'm not a writer, I'm a reader - and this book was one of a kind. I recommend it highly!
Rating: 
Summary: Weird and wonderful
Review: Coping with dying is difficult, but this book gives the reader an interesting perspective on how one can go on living when someone close to them is ill or dying. Wearing our heart on our sleeve, or a number on our chest, doesn't guarantee that we'll be noticed or treated differently. Mostly, we are left to deal with life's troubles on our own. However, if we find like-minded souls in the world, and we reach out to them, we can help each other embrace our time on earth as a gift, while at the same time letting go of those who must move on. Although this story has many weird aspects and quirks (which I find refreshing), it also holds an important message for anyone who cares to notice.
Rating:
Summary: splendid
Review: Made life worth living for another day.
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