A Place with Promise

Rating:
Summary: Fulfilling its Promise
Review: A PLACE WITH PROMISE is filled with the characters that Edward Swift loves. In this book, Edward Swift weaves memory with wonder and satirical jabs that will be appreciated long after he is gone from this earth. Mr. Swift loves the people who populate his mind and his memory. In A PLACE WITH PROMISE, Mr. Swift causes us to join him in caring deeply about the people whom he translates well from his mind to the pages of his books. Mr. Swift first did this with the people in the East Texas town, which was the setting of his first book, SPLENDORA. He also caused us to care deeply for the people in CAMP RUBY, CHRISTOPHER PARK REGULARS and MY GRANDFATHER'S FINGER, which is actually a memoir of his early years with his mother who created his magical world for him and taught him to appreciate the humor in the eccentricities of those around him. Mr. Swift's books cause us to want to read them again and again and to share them with all our friends. We truly feel that his books grow more meaningful with time and we also feel that Mr. Swift is now entering the time in which he was born to live.

A PLACE WITH PROMISE will zing you with humor and zap you with the pathos of the inner lives of the characters. You'll find yourself and all your friends within these pages and you'll love your world and your friends more after you have read it.

Rating:
Summary: Fulfilling its Promise
Review: A PLACE WITH PROMISE is filled with the characters that Edward Swift loves. In this book, Edward Swift weaves memory with wonder and satirical jabs that will be appreciated long after he is gone from this earth. Mr. Swift loves the people who populate his mind and his memory. In A PLACE WITH PROMISE, Mr. Swift causes us to join him in caring deeply about the people whom he translates well from his mind to the pages of his books. Mr. Swift first did this with the people in the East Texas town, which was the setting of his first book, SPLENDORA. He also caused us to care deeply for the people in CAMP RUBY, CHRISTOPHER PARK REGULARS and MY GRANDFATHER'S FINGER, which is actually a memoir of his early years with his mother who created his magical world for him and taught him to appreciate the humor in the eccentricities of those around him. Mr. Swift's books cause us to want to read them again and again and to share them with all our friends. We truly feel that his books grow more meaningful with time and we also feel that Mr. Swift is now entering the time in which he was born to live.

A PLACE WITH PROMISE will zing you with humor and zap you with the pathos of the inner lives of the characters. You'll find yourself and all your friends within these pages and you'll love your world and your friends more after you have read it.

Rating:
Summary: I have long waited for this book to see life in paperback!
Review: Way back in 1988, I obtained a publisher's copy of htis book in hardcover and it promptly made the circuit of my book-reading friends. Dog-eared as it was, it always made its way back to me numerous times after a high praise review from that pal. Many compared it to Marquez's Hundred Years in Solitude. I loved this story so much. It is funny, heartbreaking and so deserving of an audience. Edward Swift's books have always flown beneath the radar but certainly enjoy a cult status. This is one of my alltime favorites though. I would love to see this book added to the Oprah Book Club shelf at my local bookseller. And with Oprah in mind, I can see it as a film with the eye Spielberg used in his Color Purple.