The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel

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Summary: The author has some enemies.
Review: I thought this was an excellent book. It moved me in many different ways. I have just read through the reviews posted here and am pretty disgusted at the obvious 'witch-hunt" exhibited here by what seems to be an I-Hate-Ms.-Robinson club. Clearly, these are people who know her and for some reason, choose Amazon.com to show their jealousies! Read this book. It deserves all 5 stars.

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Summary: THE COCKROACH CRIES
Review: I found this book to be extraordinarily manipulative and painfully pedestrian in its writing. If there was not such a huge push by the publisher in marketing, it would have died on the vine. The fact that the book never hit the level they tried for gives me some hope in the reading public. There's a good deal of mean-spiritedness in the writing. Main players are portrayed as idiots and fools. What a surprise. Hollywood people aren't saints? Perhaps if the author were a major player, this would hold heavier weight and come with more insight and bite, but coming from a neophyte, it's lacking. The book plays up all the hankey tricks. However, this is where much of the manipulation came in. This is the story of someone who never really suffered, who came from privelege and, from the sound of the story, spoiled, who suddenly finds themselves with, god forbid, problems and suffering. As the narrator says: When bad news comes-- you never believe it will happen to you. Not me?! We have in both the narrator and the author a self-absorbed girl , who's been playing inside a mean industry, suddenly standing up and crying. With this, I found , often, that the book took on a manipulative tone. I was turned off as well by the lack of craft and the overall simplicity of the writing, which often comes off like an MFA writing project.

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Summary: This is fiction?
Review: I suppose it takes some talent to write a novel in the form of letters from oneself, but having read magazine interviews with Elisabeth Robinson in which she shared what happened to her sister makes me wonder exactly how much creative talent is in play here. There's the usual legal disclaimer at the front of the book, about how any character's resemblance to a real person is "purely coincidental"...Well, not really. Not her sister's, certainly and probably not some other people's either. Having read the book, it seems like she essentially wrote a memoir, but gave herself some imaginative latitude as far as her dealings with Robin Williams, et al. and perhaps took a few shots at some ill-disguised movie industry folks whom she had some business dealings with - or bad dates with. And then called it fiction. So I wouldn't put Robinson's talent on par with someone who actually works to create a novel and a plot. Sure, most people's short stories and novels no doubt include some of what happened to them in it, but one gets the impression that Robinson didn't work too terribly hard on this piece of "fiction." She can turn a few phrases, but without her Hollywood "platform" she probably wouldn't have gotten a major publisher for this first effort. Overall, rather disappointing.

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Summary: inappropriate review
Review: I haven't read Elisabeth Robinson's book and unlike the reviewer beneath from Big City USA I've never met her, but I still take exception to the highly inappropriate review. It's personal, offensive and I suspect libellous. It's simply not constructive to other readers to hear personal opinions of the author which have no bearing on the book whatsoever. This is not a messageboard for gossip, it's supposed to inform other customers in their choice. Personal vendettas have no place. Happily for Elisabeth Robinson I'm sure she has much more interesting and important things to do now than worry about such petty bitching. Unlike the author of the review.

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Summary: Good, not brilliant. Half and half.
Review: As someone who knows and has worked with the author, I tried to read it with as much an objective eye as possible. However, the book is really all about the author. This is not too surprising for someone who has always been a bit of a Look At Me...ME Me Me Type...so it does not surprise that this was the route she took in writing the book. The book isn't brilliant, but it isn't terrible either. I didn't know she had it in her to actually write a book. The irony here is that her persona in Hollywood has always been that of one of the hard-core 'phony' types who she looks at as being unlike her. She has also always had a reputation for working her way upwards through the stereotypical not very honorable way that females who advance tend to be cited with and which one had hoped was just a myth or a casting-couch bygone day. So some of her crying in the book about being a genius in a sea of oafs is a little odd (also, this 'producer' didn't know, in the days of her first movie job, what the Holocaust was. No kidding here.) So I take some issue with the author. That's clear. Otherwise, putting that aside, I do think that some passages are well done. There does tend to be some formulaic laziness. The movies overshadow the literary here in that it does tend towards the usual cookie cutter tricks, and the letter writing style unfortunately only emphasizes the ego of the author. It would have been nice to see someone else's point of view, however, I am not sure that the author is compable of such a thing.

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Summary: Rave Review
Review: I didn't know people could still write like this in the 21st century; I had given up hope. This book is a wonder, a story to treasure. Beautifully drawn characters of Olivia and Maddie, who are so real. I never wanted this book to end, yet I devoured it every day. I loved it!!! Contrasts the phoneyness of Hollywood with the tough and prosaic Midwest. Everything is here, from pathos to genuine humor. Hollywood was screwed to a tee. The combination of life-threateneing illness with a Hollywood movie is certainly treacherous ground for a debut novel, but it succeeds brilliantly. Olivia Hunt - someone to remember. Be sure and read the copyright page, where you will see that Robinson did actually attempt to put together a film of "Don Quixote" with John Cleese and Robin Williams. Lends a certain authenticity to the novel.

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Summary: Interesting Mix That Turns Out WONDERFUL
Review: Reading like a cross between "The Devine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" and "My Fractured Life," this is clearly an interesting mix. You have your female prospective relationship based story on one hand and your affects of the harsh reality of death and loss in a world (entertainment) where reality is misunderstood if understood at all. The writing is very creative and expressive, but not overblown or melodramatic. It is touching and all-in-all wonderful.

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Summary: All There in Black and White
Review: Cancer and Hollywood might not seem like a "normal" mix for book subjects, but if you get into symbolism they are wonderfully compatible. The great thing is, though, that Elisabeth Robinson doesn't beat you up with symbolism. It's there if you want to look beneath the surface, but you don't have to. The story is great without looking too deep. Writers who know about Hollywood first hand tend to write the best books that deal with the human beings that inhabit Hollywood. Comparisons to Rikki Lee Travolta's "My Fractured Life" and Carrie Fisher's "Postcards From the Edge" are astutely made not because they books deal with Hollywood people, but because those books like this one deal with Hollywood people with a realistic view. "Hunt Sisters" is a great book because it lives and breaths with the human spirit in that same way.

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Summary: Similar to Others in a Good Way
Review: The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel by Elisabeth Robinson covers similar territory as My Fractured Life and Postcards From the Edge. It's does a good job. Some of the subject matter is very moving. At times I did have to put the book down but that I think is a compliment and not a bad thing at all. I think if people enjoyed Fractured Life and Postcards then this is one that is also going to be good for them. I liked it myself at least.

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Summary: Disappointment
Review: After reading the reviews, I was looking forward to this book - but to be honest (and I feel a little guilty saying this, since it was a moving topic), I was bored to pieces. The part about the sister battling cancer and her families' reaction was interesting, especially the reactions to the various doctors and hospitals - but even that - especially about the alcoholic father, was formulaic. The part about Hollywood, the letters to the boyfriend, etc, were just plain boring. I ended up skimming much of the book, and was not moved, even at the ending. What is going on with literature lately - poor writing and emotionally manipulative books seem to get this incredible publicity.