Rating: 
Summary: A book you will want to read and reread again and again,
Review: A friend gave me her copy of "The Alley of Wishes," to take along with me on my flight overseas. Reading this wonderful story made the long flight seems like only moments in the air. I loved this story and am thrilled to have found a new writer that I enjoy and will now go in search of more books by Ms. Johnson.
Rating:
Summary: A book you will want to read and reread again and again,
Review: A friend gave me her copy of "The Alley of Wishes," to take along with me on my flight overseas. Reading this wonderful story made the long flight seems like only moments in the air. I loved this story and am thrilled to have found a new writer that I enjoy and will now go in search of more books by Ms. Johnson.
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Summary: Haunting, beautiful story by an exceptional writer
Review: A friend gave me this book as a gift, and a gift it is in the finest sense of the word.A young Kansas farmer's innocence and idealism die in muddy, bloody trenches at the Front in World War One. He deserts the Front and finds his way to Paris, where he tries to drink himself free of guilt and sorrow. He finds a kindred spirit in the person of a shy chanteuse. Her one experience with sex and "love" has been a nightmare. She lives on the Alley of Wishes, an appropriate name because she wishes for a tender lover, a kindly man. The ruined farmboy eventually becomes that man. They struggle together to create a life of love and peace out of tragedy and despair. I'm an avid reader and a tough sell. This book is choice, and beyond my ability to describe.
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Summary: A Superb Novel!
Review: As a reader who has read widely and, I think - allowing myself the boast - discerningly, I would announce from the rooftops: The Alley of Wishes as a superb novel, whose author, Laurel Johnson, dares to explore such ambitious themes as love and war and the unbreakable bonds of friendship during one of the most unstable periods in recent history. She brings it off admirably with vitality, passion and humor.
Mrs. Johnson's prose is rich and deep and thick - a throwback to the best of the sumptuous prose before Hemingway came along and put literature on a starvation diet. This is certainly not to say that Laurel Johnson's work is not lean and muscular. It is that, in spades. In fact, very little of her novel could be excised without severing a vital part of its life force.
What makes her novel rich and deep and thick, though, is how she approaches her characters - with dignity, respect, and above all patience. Don't expect to get a few pages into her novel and find a character you can define with any long-term accuracy. Linger. Plan to stay a while. Plan to learn about the people who populate her novel in the same tortuous, roundabout way you learn about your neighbors, your fellow workers, your wife or husband. Over time, slowly, with many turnabouts and surprises. Her novel, like the works of other novelists who use the omniscient viewpoint, is written for the reader who still, stubbornly, shares the mental makeup of his intellectual ancestors - those patient, unhurried, pre-television readers (who did not unconsciously race through the pages driven by the felt, while unarticulated, urgency of a fifteen minute period framed by commercials).
Laurel Johnson plants her reader smack in the deeper parts of her characters' minds, allowing - no, encouraging - the reader to eavesdrop on the thoughts and feelings there. In no novel of my recent reading have I visited so diverse a literary population and at such depth - been able to revel with, to love, to hate so fully, and unapologetically, to celebrate with, to grieve for, to grow along with as those characters who are moored so solidly in its pages, or those who drift in and out, giving brief color, fragrance and flavor. There is the innocent, but driven Beck Sanow and Cerise, the sweet object of his indefatigable ardor; the cruel and evil Paul; then, there are Beck's and Cerise's friends, Rance and Colette, who define friendship on its most profound level. For flavor, throw in Jean Clerc, the loveable Concierge of Paris's DeVille Hotel, and Beck's mother and father, the parents we would all love to call ours.
The Alley of Wishes is just a little over 300 pages long. Even a slow reader should be able to knock it off in about a week. I say that only because it took me better than a month before closing the back cover. Problem was, I got stalled in the middle of it. Why would I close the book in the middle, and not open it again for a couple of weeks? Why, if it was so good? Very simply, I had arrived at a critical juncture for one of the characters. It was touch or go what would happen to (I don't want to give anything away) that character. So, I literally buried my head in the sand! It was only after a couple of weeks more that I reasoned, "It's only a book!" So I launched back into it. And I finished it. And, after all is said and done, isn't it the mark of a fine book, like The Alley of Wishes, that it forces you, viscerally, to care so much for a character that for a while you can't bear to witness [that character's] possible destruction?
And, for you, Laurel Johnson: as a writer, is that what getting your reader involved means, or what?
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Summary: MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW SAYS "OUTSTANDING!"
Review: How much sorrow can the human Spirit endure? What is the limit of anguish that will finally destroy the life flow within us? Cerise and Beck , the main characters of Laurel Johnson' novel, The Alley Of Wishes, could answer these questions for you. Meeting in the glamorous city of Paris, France, Cerise and Beck were two wounded souls that fate, or perhaps a God who loves us, brought together. Beck, a farm boy from Kansas, had come to France to fight for the idea of liberty, not knowing the stark truths of war and death would sear his soul with scars so deep that surely he could never be free. Cerise, caught in the throes of an affair with a sadistic man, struggles to maintain life with a crushed and broken spirit, never allowing herself the thought that any man, other then the cruel heartless Paul, would want her. The Alley Of Wishes is a story of tragedy and defeat, heartache and deep sorrow, but one that shows how love, reaching deep inside our being, can result in a meaningful life of happiness. Cerise and Beck share their past sorrows and struggle to overcome unsurpassing obstacles that life bestows on them as their spirits become one.The loss of a child, the loss of one's mind, are only two of the many battles that they must overcome. I have read and reviewed many a novel, but never have the characters stayed within my heart as Cerise and Beck have. A love affair that will draw you into its very essence awaits you in this outstanding read. War, lust, murder, love, hate and forgiveness all play a part in The Alley Of Wishes. This is a story you will not soon forget.
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Summary: One of my three favorite writers today!!!!!
Review: I am such a Laurel Johnson fan. I love her books! Ms. Johnson is a wonderful writer whose every word she writes the reader feels. An emotional writer that puts her heart and soul into each book she writes. I can see why THE ALLEY OF WISHES has become such an INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! Do yourself a huge favor and order her books today!
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Summary: a reader from Nebraska
Review: I bought a copy of this second edition at an area bookstore because I so loved the first edition. I was happy to note the changes in this version are negligible. Beck Sanow is a delicious character!! From the first stirrings of sexual desire he's ever known, to his passionate adoration of Cerise L'Oiseau and his selfless devotion after tragedy, I LOVED THIS MAN as if he were real. He is a haunted warrior, so deeply troubled, and yet his capacity for genuine love is bottomless. I liked this book because the characters are alive, the story so real I lived it. I'm hoping for a sequel soon.
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Summary: Even Better The Second Time Around !!
Review: I really enjoy this writer. I had orginally read "The Alley Of Wishes," when it first came out and I loved it! When I saw this book being advertised in an updated version, new cover and all...I just had to order it! I am thrilled that I did!!! This great story is even better then I remembered! Do yourself a huge favor and order this book TODAY, you'll be oh so happy that you did !!
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Summary: A Must Read Romance!
Review: Laurel Johnson, is a beautiful woman as well as a beautiful writer...SUCH A TALENT! ~ I have been a fan of this fantastic writer since her first book, "Grass Dance." Ms. Johnson has a way with words that make her stories come alive...so alive in fact that the characters she writes about seem to jump out of the book and come to life in front of the readers eyes. "The Alley of Wishes," by super-writer Laurel Johnson is a book I know you won't want to miss...not in this lifetime anyway! (Highest Recommendation!)
V~
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Summary: Now that's what,
Review: Now that's what I call love! I found this story to be a very beautiful love story with a lot of feeling. I was quite moved by it! This writer is a very talented lady!
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