Rating: 
Summary: Writing on the edge
Review: Like the subject matter of this work, Quindlen's writing is extremely unpredictable. There are moments of incredible poignancy in this serious story of wife abuse. At times I could truly empathize with the protagonist's plight. However, there are other instances when Quindlen's writing is less like a pulitzer prize winning journalist, and more like a first year MFA student--and that's being unfair to MFA students. Quindlen introduces two minor characters so cliched that they bring a bit of hilarity into this gruesome tale. Unfortunately that was not the author's intention. One of the characters is a twin survivor whose counter-part was killed as a little girl by the blades of a tractor. The other is Mrs. Levitt who was "liberated" by her husband during the holocaust. All so sad, yet instead of creating depth, these characters come out as flat as a cardboard movie display. It is the main story that kept me reading this book. If it wasn't for the strength of the main characters, this book would have been a good candidate for being thrown from a speeding car.
Rating: 
Summary: Very accurate depiction of a horrible psychological reality.
Review: Quindlen's description of an abusive marriage and its aftermath is so accurate I wonder if she was married to ex-husband: his voice, and my voice and feelings are portrayed with an uncanny precision through the characters of Bobby and Fran/Beth. Quindlen has once again proven her ability to capture the female spirit with precision: _One True Thing_, also shook me to my foundations. Very well done!
Rating:
Summary: This was an excellent story told in a very sloppy manner.
Review: This was not my first Anna Quindlen novel, but if it had been, it may have been my last. The story was compelling, but the way it was written and (not) edited, was torturous. I wanted to be able to sing it's praises, like other books I've read. However, I can't sing it's praises without also pointing out it's flaws.The grammar and sentence structure was unbelievable for a successful author and a more successful publisher. Random House needs to send the editor of this book back to English class. That said, the story was compelling and I was entranced by the main characters as I should be with a good book.
Rating:
Summary: a good, quick read
Review: it was good, though not as good as i had expected, given all the hype it has received. The story dragged in some places and Fran frustrated me more than once. Nonetheless, i enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Glad to see I'm not the only one...
Review: Apparently I'm not the only one who found this book to be disappointing. I wanted to feel something ... anything ... for the main character; but after all was said and done, after summoning so much inner strength to take such a courageous step, she simply gave up. And I lost respect for her as a character. Everyone else in my book club raved about the book, but I could not get past the lack of character development, the rambling train-of-thought prose, the predictable plot, and the apathetic ending. It seems as if the author also lost interest in the plot, or maybe she too was disappointed with the turn of events her heroine allowed to occur, but whatever the reason, I found the denoument to be empty, shallow, and deflating. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but I don't think I can really recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing book, cardboard characters, predictable
Review: I would never have believed that this book was written by the author of One True Thing. This book does a pretty good job of showing how Fran feels about her husband, but the plot after she leaves him is very weak.
Rating:
Summary: Bully Cop gets Just Desserts....
Review: Anna Quindlen's novel Black and Blue is one of the most provocative and compelling stories I have ever read on the topic of spousal/domestic abuse. In simple and direct language, Ms. Quindlen's protagonist, Fran Benedetto, becomes a real, complex person. I was taken with Ms. Quindlen's ability to convey to us, the readers, the pain and inner turmoil of a wife and mother who fears for her life on a daily basis. In many ways, I found I could relate to Fran's constant battle with shadows jumping at her from all corners of her new home in Florida, where she flees after leaving her abusive husband. Her fear is real and it keeps her senses sharp, for herself as well as for her son. I did not condemn Fran for still having some attraction/love for her estranged husband. If anything I feel it made Fran seem even more human, more real to Quindlen's reading public. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the deeply disturbing and complicated reasons why women stay...
Rating:
Summary: Anna has reached into my heart, touching me with compassion.
Review: Anna Quindlan writes"Beth Crenshaw is two people...there's the one who, for just a moment, forgetting, loves her lovely little life. And there's the one with the hole inside her, bigger than anything. Everyone says that I did the right thing, that I shouldn't look back, that I had no choice. Maybe they're right. I still don't know." I've often thought that if I put my experiences of the last two years down on paper, even as fiction, no one would believe me. I have suffered the abuse of an alcoholic and lost not one but five children. How can this happen? I still don't know. Maybe I didn't have a choice but to leave, maybe I did. I believe that Anna feels my pain, but I'm not sure how.
Rating:
Summary: This book haunts me still.
Review: Black and Blue was my first Anna Quindlen book, and WOW, what a way to start. I believed every word, felt every blow, and could not believe it when I reached the last page and found that it was over. It was absolutely riveting. And best of all, it inspired me to purchase One True Thing--an even better novel, if you can imagine such a thing. Check out all of Anna Quindlen's novels. They are well worth your while.
Rating: 
Summary: A serious topic, but I really disliked this book.
Review: I do not want to diminish the seriousness of this books subject matter, and I hope a similar story will be told again by a more capable author, but this was a terrible read. The writing style reminded me of the endless essays we had to listen to in Writing 101 back in college, where the professors would try to teach us how to be descriptive. I am convinced that the ability to describe for readers a given situation is an art form that is from nature, not nuture. I know very little about the author, but I hope the Pulitzer she won was for her columns and not her novels. I will be greatly disappointed to know that a masterfully told story like Angela's Ashes, that so deserved the Pulitzer it won for its author, could be sharing the same level of achievement.
|
