Rating: 
Summary: A Journey into Feeling that will Touch You, Also
Review: I remember Anna Quindlen when she was a reporter, but I have never read any of her books. I bought this one, not knowing that a movie had been made of it (ok, so I live under a rock), but rather because it was in paperback and I "needed something" to read. "You" says Ellen Gulden's father, as he throws her stuff out on the porch after she suggests he "hire a nurse" to take care of her dying mother, "have a Harvard education, but you have no heart." And so starts her journey back into her family (she quits her job in the big city), back to the mother she never really identified with. So starts her learning process--about human nature...not just about books, or concepts. So starts her learning process about what love is, and what communication between human beings is. It is not just analyzing some dry tract, or being the "Star Pupil". It is far more complicated than that. And this is a complicated, super book. With her mother's inevitable death, her learning process continues and she changes, finally, into a person "with a heart". I cannot express how moved I was by this book. I was absolutely entranced from page one and read it in three days. I sense that many of the people who review in this section ( the book section) like me, love to analyze things and appreciate beautiful, honest writing. Well, guess what? You get that here, but you also get something more--a look at yourself, and how you must communicate with your family and loved ones, in less "removed" ways. I did, anyway. I am going to try to see things from a more human perspective, because of this book. It is good to judge, and yet sometimes it is better to act from the heart. Oh: and I will TRY to COOK MORE. Can't swear I'll clean any more than I already do, but nobody's perfect. :) best, Jean
Rating:
Summary: Resounding ........... loudly!
Review: This book is about the evolution of a relationship, the relationship between the Gulden women Ellen and Kate. Ellen has sought her whole life to command the respect of her father on purely intellectual merit. She does it because she sees her hero father disregard her mother. Indeed, Kate's character, examined solely from the intellectual standpoint, is weak and pathetic. She effectively lays down and dies the day she marries him. She gives him no reason to respect her mind, her intellect. She makes babies, cookies and a beautiful home. She is the window dressing on his life. Ellen strives to be the antithesis of her mother. As an adult, she is exactly what her mother is not. She grows up to be just like dad - self-absorbed, dismissive of her 'intellectual inferiors' of whom her mother is one. This, then, is the least attractive aspect of the relationship between mother and daughter. But, in the words of reviewer McGinnis, "As the novel progresses, Ellen realizes that there's a lot more to her mom and less to her dad than she had previously thought." We have here a thorough study of an adult relationship. Ellen thinks, like her father, that her mother is ........ wait, does she think of her mother at all? It is the exploration of the depths of her mother's personality, her spirit, that then leads Ellen to the realization that her mother is a complex, comprehensively beautiful woman, the woman who gives Ellen a license to break with her father's expectations, to become her own person, to acknowledge and appreciate the heart-mind continuum. What an amazing gift! And what a journey for us, the readers! We start with one of 'the less attractive aspects of the relationship at the core of this book' and end with Ellen's realization that 'there's a lot more to her mom than she had previously thought', her one true thing. This is a good trip, a thorough exploration of complex relationships. This is what gives the book its resonance, the resonance that will inspire me to read this book again, just as it did Ms. McGinnis, the resonance to give this book to my siblings and to my friends who have not been so fortunate as to have wonderful mothers like mine, that of Ellen Gulden and Joyce McGinnis.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: I felt that this book was well written, with a lot of passion and emotion. It was a true depiction of mother-daughter relationships. If you like the writer, you will truely love this book! You will NOT be dissapointed! I could not put the book down for a minute! This was the second book of Anna Quindlen that I have read in three weeks, and I bought another book of hers today!
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging Inner Thoughts
Review: Features a very engaging and insightful insight into the inner thoughts and experiences of the main character (Ellen) as she nurses her dying mother. Anna Quindlen makes these seem very real and believeable. The family dynamic portrayal is also interesting. A very satisfying read. Some of the supporting characters (such as the nurse) are a bit one-dimensional. Quite different from the film in detail, emphasis and point-of-view.
Rating:
Summary: very good, but also very intense
Review: this is not a book for the faint of heart: there are plenty of graphic descriptions about the effects of cancer on the human body. ellen's narration is gritty and direct. she describes her own flaws and relates anecdotes that reveal her shortcomings, which are juxtaposed with the mother's incredibly down-to-earth, caring and gentle qualities. the mother is still believable as a character because she, too, has moments of sarcasm and anger, but overall she is an inspiring figure. this is an excellent, absorbing book that will bring you to tears.
Rating:
Summary: The architecture of intimacies
Review: This book was very well written. It explores many complex relationships - those between siblings, between lovers, between friends, between physicians and their patients, .... The central relationship is, of course, between Ellen Gulden and her mother Kate. Quindlen draws the reader into studying his/her own relationship with the mother. This book was a great journey. It kept getting better - all the way to the end.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Caregiver Stories I've Read
Review: This is a work of fiction, but it is one of the best caregiver stories I have ever read. The thing I like about this book was the development of the daughter into the role of her mother's caregiver. It needs to be said that we are all reluctant caregivers. There isn't one of us who looks forward to making major changes in our lives to accommodate a chronically ill or dying person regardless of our connection with them, regardless of the disease process we face. The majority of us, even when we have a deep and abiding connection with our person faces feelings that can only be described as dread. For most of us, the relationships we have are fraught with difficulties: old patterns of behavior, unresolved conflicts, little injuries, big injuries and complicating all of it are the relationships with the 'other'family members. The one who steps up to take on the role of caregiver is often the one thrust into that role, as is the 'daughter' in this book. But, for so many of us, this daughter included, we somehow manage to take on the tasks, we manage to find a level of peace in those tasks, and more often than not, we find a new relationship with our person that softens the old memories and patterns and hurts. So many of us discover it is possible to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. I work with Caregivers facing Alzheimer's and having been a caregiver myself, a story I relate in my book, "he used to be Somebody, A Journey into Alzheiemr's Through the Eyes of a Caregiver, I know something about this process of changing roles. I know a great deal about finding a new love and relationship as a disease process takes over a life. "One True Thing," is a caregiver story that pulls no punches and yet it is a true picture of what we caregivers face including those of us caring for someone who is less and less able to participate in their worlds, such as those with Alzheimer's I recommend this book to Alzheimer families everywhere as an exmple of successful caregiving.
Rating:
Summary: a book that keeps on giving
Review: I read "One True Thing" several years ago, before the movie came out, and still am impressed with the richness of it. It is a beautiful, deep story that keeps giving till the very end. The events regarding the mother's illness and the mercy killing charges are mere backdrops enabling the main character to fully learn just who her mother was. This is a story of discovery, which culminates at the end with the greatest discovery of all. It is beautifully written. I was, and still am, greatly touched by it. It is remarkable book dealing with the subtle yet astounding realization that people are not always who we perceive them to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeply felt, but not so true
Review: I read this book when it came out, and I picked it up again recently. My mother has cancer, and she has moved in with my husband and me. I thought the book might comfort me and help me gain some perspective at this difficult time. I was wrong. Ms. Quindlen doesn't attempt to write about things she doesn't understand, but she understands so little of the mother/daughter relationship that the book is rather empty. The mother, Kate, is so wonderful, so nurturing, so accepting. She spent her life creating a beautiful home and loving her family. She bears her illness with grace and courage. The daughter, Ellen, has only to watch, learn, and forgive. With Kate for a teacher, she could hardly do otherwise. Ellen is not jealous or resentful of her mother. She is merely dismissive of the way her mother chose to live. As the novel progresses, Ellen realizes that there's a lot more to her mom and less to her dad than she had previously thought. Welcome to adulthood, Ellen. 'One True Thing' wraps an inherently messy experience up in a very neat package. The novel rings true only to those of us fortunate enough to have wonderful mothers, only to those of us whose lives have never been touched by terminal illness. At its core, it is Anna Quindlen's elegy for her mother and her childhood: touching and personal, deeply felt, but without the resonance that would have come had she explored the less attractive aspects of the relationship at its core.
Rating:
Summary: Truth or Dare
Review: Beware, gentle reader! Do not buy this book! If someone gives you a copy, do not open it. For if you do, the tendrils of human passion in Anna Quidlen's poignant narrative will reach up to you from its pages, seize you by the throat, and not let go until long after you have gasped through to the last page. You have been warned!
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