Four Corners

Rating:
Summary: An emotional experience
Review: A book that is hilariious, beautiful & deeply sad. This book carried me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I was laughing out loud one second and almost crying for the children the next. The children in this book will stay with you for a long time. This is a book well worth reading. You won't be sorry if you do.

Rating:
Summary: A Hard Childhood
Review: A ten-year-old girl's mother is institutionalized for mental illness. The girl lives in upstate New York with siblings, an aunt and her father. They moved there from the Bronx. The aunt talks tough to overcome an abusive childhood. The events look big to the girl, but minor to the reader, with some dramatic exceptions. The child's hopes, fears and misconceptions are well-protrayed. The lyrical descriptions of the countryside, the weather and the physical world do not sound like a ten-year-old's. The characters are believable.

Rating:
Summary: A Mesmerizing Must-read
Review: Diane Freund has created a world so real, you feel the characters sitting next to you when you close the book. The elegent, lyrical writing makes Rainey's world view all the more pragmatic. She is at once wise, innocent - and compelling. This family saga is folk art, a piece of Americana that avoids sentiment, yet clutches your heart and won't let go. I can taste those sugar sandwiches - and recommend them highly.

Rating:
Summary: A Mesmerizing Must-read
Review: Diane Freund has created a world so real, you feel the characters sitting next to you when you close the book. The elegent, lyrical writing makes Rainey's world view all the more pragmatic. She is at once wise, innocent - and compelling. This family saga is folk art, a piece of Americana that avoids sentiment, yet clutches your heart and won't let go. I can taste those sugar sandwiches - and recommend them highly.

Rating:
Summary: Heartfelt and Hilarious
Review: Diane Freund's "Four Corners" is a compelling, poignant, and beautifully-written novel. Feisty, lovable Rainey Dougherty's first words, "I was ten the summer we drove our mother crazy" grab you by the scruff of the neck, drag you into her offbeat world, and hold you captive until you've finished the last page. "Four Corners" is a heartfelt, hilarious read - one I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Heartfelt and Hilarious
Review: Diane Freund's "Four Corners" is a compelling, poignant, and beautifully-written novel. Feisty, lovable Rainey Dougherty's first words, "I was ten the summer we drove our mother crazy" grab you by the scruff of the neck, drag you into her offbeat world, and hold you captive until you've finished the last page. "Four Corners" is a heartfelt, hilarious read - one I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Heartfelt and Hilarious
Review: Diane Freund's "Four Corners" is a compelling, poignant, and beautifully-written novel. Feisty, lovable Rainey Dougherty's first words, "I was ten the summer we drove our mother crazy" grab you by the scruff of the neck, drag you into her offbeat world, and hold you captive until you've finished the last page. "Four Corners" is a heartfelt, hilarious read - one I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Looking Forward to the Next Installment
Review: For a first outing, Freund demonstrates tremendous skiill in her craft while refraining from freshman emotional tactics. I pay particular attention to (and am often critical of) character development. In this novel, Freund doesn't so much develop her characters as she reports on them. In other words, each person in this ensemble seems to be intimately familiar with the author and vice versa. The voices are clear and distinct, the pictures painted in vibrant, if muted, colors. Like most good novels, one can suspect that at least some of the book is autobiographical. If this is the case, I'm anxious for Freund to mine more of her experience and breath even more life into the characters in her next effort.

Rating:
Summary: A coming of age gem
Review: I always enjoy a coming of age story with a scrappy, resilient heroine, and Four Corners does not disappoint in that department. It's 1953 and ten year old Rainey and her four siblings must deal with their mother being carted off to the "nuthouse", a well meaning but absent father, and their bitter Aunt Merle who has come to care for them with her "fourteen going on forty" daughter Joan in tow. While the story is often humorous and makes for an entertaining read, there is a darker undercurrent prevalent in this novel. The author touches ever so subtly on a variety of subjects that often had me re-reading passages to make sure I understood just what she was saying. A fine effort for a first novel,I look forward to reading more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: A coming of age gem
Review: I always enjoy a coming of age story with a scrappy, resilient heroine, and Four Corners does not disappoint in that department. It's 1953 and ten year old Rainey and her four siblings must deal with their mother being carted off to the "nuthouse", a well meaning but absent father, and their bitter Aunt Merle who has come to care for them with her "fourteen going on forty" daughter Joan in tow. While the story is often humorous and makes for an entertaining read, there is a darker undercurrent prevalent in this novel. The author touches ever so subtly on a variety of subjects that often had me re-reading passages to make sure I understood just what she was saying. A fine effort for a first novel,I look forward to reading more from this author.