Rating: 
Summary: Ellen Gilchrist got the last laugh
Review: The story is solid: the world is full of people who make stupid important decisions like those in the book all the time. They marry the wrong people in full awareness, and deal with it more poorly than Sarah, Jack et al. When I got to the part where he goes to Paris and things don't look as rosy as before, I thought I was starting to get the meaning of the book: some things are better left unrevisited. Sarah refuses to write a happy ending for her script. I think I knew how the book itself was going to end, but hey, Ellen Gilchrist is good at what she does, and she got the last laugh. The book ends on a happy, hopeful note, and that's her best revenge. I have to agree with other readers that this is not her best work (my favorite novel is The Anna Papers), but as a whole I think she is a superb writer. Her characters are exuberant, amoral and make no apologies, and this novel was no exception. I enjoy the common points in her writing, the alcoholism, the atypical motherhood feelings, the weight problems, and the detailed descriptions of clothing and decoration. If you are new to Gilchrist, maybe you should try something else first. In any case, this was a worthy novel and I wouldn't pass it up.
Rating: 
Summary: An insult to the trees sacrificed for the printing.
Review: The worst 'novel' I've read in recent years. The characters are one-dimensional; their dialogue consists of drivel and farce. The structure of narrative is weak and you finish with absolutely nothing resolved other than the reinforcement of the author's failed ambition. Gilchrist (and you) should read "The Drowner" by Robert Drewe, an exquisite example of contemporary literature. This is simply terrible.
Rating: 
Summary: unlikable main character
Review: This book was awful. I could not find any redeeming or likable qualities in Sarah. Snobby, self-centered, and worst of all, boring. The plot could not possibly have been more blah. Not even good beach reading.
Rating:
Summary: unlikable main character
Review: This book was awful. I could not find any redeeming or likable qualities in Sarah. Snobby, self-centered, and worst of all, boring. The plot could not possibly have been more blah. Not even good beach reading.
Rating:
Summary: Read Like An Outline, Not A Novel...
Review: This could have been a good story, if it just had some detail! Reading it was kind of like listening to someone describe a book they've read: "This woman gets a call from her childhood best friend's husband, who tells her the friend is dying and wants to see her. She flies out to their home, the friend tells her to take care of her husband for her, and she dies. Then the woman and the dead friend's husband realize that they're in love". And that's about all there is in the book. There's maybe five pages devoted to how the two women met as teenagers, and half a page given to mentioning that, oh, by the way, Sarah has a son who's been estranged from her since he was a child. I wanted to know so much more! The characters are never developed at all. No one grieves for even a paragraph after the poor childhood friend's untimely death (which happens conveniently in the time it takes Sarah to arrive back at her former and future lover's home after her first visit with poor Eugenie in decades) - and the dead woman's husband declares his love for Sarah before the body is even cold. It gave me very little sympathy for either Sarah or Jack, and the lack of plot just made me yawn. "Sarah Conley" was an interesting premise that was never realized. The elements were there. The story wasn't.
Rating:
Summary: promising story falters...
Review: While Sarah was comtemplating her past and current life, she was called to visit her childhood and dying friend. Would there be explanation and redemption for both women's lives? Would there be growth for this woman, someone who the author repeatedly referred as a "survivor", finally acquire some understanding and acceptance for other people's weaknesses? At that point of the novel, it was full of mystery and wonderment as Sarah embarked on her journey to visit her friend. Unfortunately, her friend immediately died after a brief meeting; Sarah picked up her love affair with the friend's husband; the only thorn to their happiness was that she had to go to Paris to write a script for a large sum of money. All of sudden, we are reading a romance novel where the hero and heroine were enjoying the wonderful scenes in and outside of Paris. I couldn't help but feel the author wanted to enjoy a trip to Paris while she worked on the book; so she conveniently developed her story in that direction. Disappointing book. One the other hand, I picked up the book from the deep discount pile. So it's my own fault to waste money and time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: promising story falters...
Review: While Sarah was comtemplating her past and current life, she was called to visit her childhood and dying friend. Would there be explanation and redemption for both women's lives? Would there be growth for this woman, someone who the author repeatedly referred as a "survivor", finally acquire some understanding and acceptance for other people's weaknesses? At that point of the novel, it was full of mystery and wonderment as Sarah embarked on her journey to visit her friend. Unfortunately, her friend immediately died after a brief meeting; Sarah picked up her love affair with the friend's husband; the only thorn to their happiness was that she had to go to Paris to write a script for a large sum of money. All of sudden, we are reading a romance novel where the hero and heroine were enjoying the wonderful scenes in and outside of Paris. I couldn't help but feel the author wanted to enjoy a trip to Paris while she worked on the book; so she conveniently developed her story in that direction. Disappointing book. One the other hand, I picked up the book from the deep discount pile. So it's my own fault to waste money and time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: With its cheesy dialogue and unconvincing characters, I couldn't even finish this book. Ellen Gilchrist needs to spend more time observing human nature and listening to real-life conversations if she wants to write well. The really bizarre thing about this book is that she doesn't tell you when it takes place. In the first chapter, the protagonist is 14. In a later chapter, 1996, she has a 32-year-old boyfriend. Because the boyfriend is "younger," I assumed she was in her late thirties. Many chapters later, I discovered that she was in her fifties. Suddenly her fear of pregnancy as a college student made sense, but why didn't the writer make that clear in the first place?
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