I Loved You All: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Abortion. Relationships. Understanding. Addiction. Secrets. Love. Healing. Intrigued? Paula Sharps's 'I Loved You All' offers all of the above and more. She has created a novel full of unforgettable characters and story that could easily happen. The characters will make you laugh, understand, shake your head, and gasp!

I Loved You All is set against the backdrop of the 1970's Pro Life Movement while a mother is battling an addiction and desperately trying to hold on to those she loves. The novel primarily centres on the mother-daughter relationship and how easily it can de disrupted by both external and internal forces.

Paula Sharp presents a very serious and debatable subject...abortion. She does this with class and does not belabour the issue. The true focus is on the development and repair of relationships not providing a forum for the Pro Life/Pro Choice debate.

I encourage others to seek out this book and other titles by Sharp. ~Kelly

Rating:
Summary: A long-awaited follow up
Review: Although Crows Over a Wheatfield was very gripping, I found it a bit heavy handed in certain passages. This book almost never gets that way. It flows along. I couldn't put it down. I found it very encouraging that the central family continued to support each other, when the pro-lifers assumed that the discovery of an abortion in the family would break it apart, and allow them to absorb the pieces. I think it's simple, you can't meddle in people's families, not even your own.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read in Chick Lit
Review: An engrossing tale of one family's struggle to keep it all together during the mother's (Marguerite) battle with alcohol. This story was very well written and takes place in the late 1970's in a small prison town in Upstate New York. The setting provides a character rich background to the colorful story as told through the eyes of the youngest daughter (Penny); and although she is only 8 years old at the time, the narrator wrote this story as an adult and provides for mature reflection as well as the child's first person point of view. The oldest daughter (Mahalia) is 15 and just beginning to enter womanhood during these turbulent times while the mother is charismatic and revels in her womanly charms and beauty. Mahalia is uncomfortable in her own skin and resents her mother's flamboyancy not to mention drinking problem and as a result is drawn to the town's self proclaimed defender of all things good, as proclaimed by The Bible. The juxtaposition of characters and events are beautifully woven into a great story that touched issues at the very core of what it meant to be a female in the 1970s and is just as relevant today: pregnancy, abortion, concept of beauty, love, family duties, and the role of a female in society. The only issue I had with this book - and it is a personal and slight one at that - was the portrayal of Mahalia. Even in spite of Isabel's fanatical bent, we saw her inherent goodness. Marguerite might have been over-the-top and an alcoholic, but we saw her sacrifice and love for her family. I felt Mahalia was the only main character who was never viewed in a kind light. This was a well written and emotionally charged story that can only get better with repeated readings. This book is a keeper!!

Rating:
Summary: FICTION DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!
Review: As someone who reads in excess of 80 books a year, I encounter a lot of bad novels. Even in books that are otherwise enjoyable, there are usually a few badly worded phrases or character anomalies that stop me cold. Paula Sharp's new novel "I Loved You All" has none of those errors. It is FLAWLESS. Step into the mind of Sharp's narrator Penny and I defy you to want to leave. Penny is sharp, quick-witted and observant in the tradition of Scout Finch. Her mother, Marguerite, a widow, is spiraling down into alcohol addiction. Penny has an older sister, Mahalia,who becomes friends with the a fervently religious neighbor named Isabel Flood. The neighbor disdains everything from the use of the word 'Jeez' to television and Penny loathes her. But, in Isabel Flood, Mahalia finds the mother she so sorely missed with Marguerite. When Marguerite is forced into residential treatment for her alcoholism, the children are sent to live with Isabel with terrible results for Penny. Reviewers are classifying this as an abortion book, which is a shame. With the exception of a few mentions early on, abortion rarely even enters the book until more than halfway through. It is first and foremost the story of a family, the most lovable family, incidentally, in modern fiction, set against the backdrop (yes) of the abortion debate in the late seventies. Paula Sharp definitely owes something to Harper Lee in her sharp characterizations of spirited Southern tomboys (no matter where they live at the moment) and the way that family loyalties are affected by political issues. The characters are true, the plot flows smoothly (albeit too quickly--this is a book you don't want to end) and the "moral" (such as it is) is there, without overstepping the bounds into preachiness. Whatever your beliefs about abortion, this is a book not to be missed. It is smart, kind and above all, loving in its handling of every type of person and problem. Thoroughly enjoyable, Paula Sharp gives the best of what popular fiction has to offer and a book that anyone who loved "To Kill A Mockingbird" should not miss.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, captivating characters, wonderful read
Review: Dear Readers, beware. This is a negative review. If you don't wish to read on, I completely understand.

Well, you know how your mom always told you, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything"? I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't stay silent about this book.

I dragged myself through this quagmire of a novel by my fingernails, hating every minute of it. It is an example of "When Writers are Awful and Editors Go Bad!" (Like "When Animals Attack!") Everything about the writing in this book feels forced -- the situations, the characters, the dialogue. Even Ms. Sharp's descriptions of her town sound redundant. If I had edited this work, I would have sent her packing with a thesaurus to come up with something else.

If you really want to read a story about an alcoholic mother and a dysfunctional family from Louisiana, go out immediately and get "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells. Now THAT'S a wonderfully written story.

Rating:
Summary: Ponderous, forced, awful!
Review: Dear Readers, beware. This is a negative review. If you don't wish to read on, I completely understand.

Well, you know how your mom always told you, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything"? I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't stay silent about this book.

I dragged myself through this quagmire of a novel by my fingernails, hating every minute of it. It is an example of "When Writers are Awful and Editors Go Bad!" (Like "When Animals Attack!") Everything about the writing in this book feels forced -- the situations, the characters, the dialogue. Even Ms. Sharp's descriptions of her town sound redundant. If I had edited this work, I would have sent her packing with a thesaurus to come up with something else.

If you really want to read a story about an alcoholic mother and a dysfunctional family from Louisiana, go out immediately and get "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells. Now THAT'S a wonderfully written story.

Rating:
Summary: Reading Groups Will Love This Book!
Review: I loved Paula Sharp's Crows over a Wheatfield -- it was so gripping, and so fearless in the way it delved into a controversial topic, and it had the kind of characters you're sorry to say good-bye to at the end of a novel. I Loved You All has those same qualities, but it's a completely different kind of book. While Crows over a Wheatfield was mostly serious (about domestic violence), this new novel is more like Sharp's earlier works, The Woman Who Was Not All There and Lost in Jersey City. It's laugh-out-loud funny, even though it's about a pretty heavy subject -- abortion politics.

I think Paula Sharp's ability to build characters is phenomenal -- when I read this book, sometimes I felt like the characters were more real than me! To begin with, there's Marguerite Daigle, a hard-drinking single parent transplanted from Louisiana to a bleak town in New York where everyone is apparently employed by the local prison or in it. There's her parole officer boyfriend who entertains her children by telling them stories about criminals. There's Marguerite's 8-year-old daughter Penny, a free spirit who knows no bounds -- who, for example, injures herself by riding a bicycle along the top of an eight-foot wall, and whose teacher tells her she's missing the piece people call a "conscience." Penny's 15-year-old sister is furious at her mother and so walks right into the arms of -- who else? A flaming, fanatical right-to-lifer with an agenda of her own. And of all the characters, the right-to-lifer Isabel Flood is the best. She's vivid and well-rounded and entertaining. Even if your politics diverge from hers, you admire her for her energy and uniqueness, and come to accept her on her own terms.

Even though this is a very funny book, I found it also made me think a little more deeply about right-to-life politics. The novel shows what happens when someone who is fundamentally religious finds her religious beliefs compromised by people within her own movement who have a political agenda that is clearly not godly. The novel also shows how someone who is not a violent right-to-lifer might be led to violence inadvertently by associating herself with the wrong people.

There are very few literary writers in America today who tackle these hard political subjects. We're lucky to have a writer like Paula Sharp doing it. This novel is great! I Loved You All is also a perfect Reading Group novel, both because it's beautifully written and because the way it handles the controversial topic of abortion is fresh and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, captivating characters, wonderful read
Review: I loved this book. The characters grab hold of you and don't let you go. Even though the main character, the right-to-lifer Isabel Flood, is probably not someone I'd want to know in my real life, Sharp does such a great job in portraying her and revealing Isabel's motives and thoughts that I found her surprisingly sympathetic. This is my idea of a really great novel - one that makes you see the world anew, from a perspective you never would have considered before.

It's probably worth adding that in the wake of the events of September 11, this novel prevents an enlightening view of American religious fanaticism and our own home grown forms of political violence. No one is better than Sharp at writing about the links between Americans' personal lives and their politics. This was a brave book to write, besides -- it takes a alot of courage for a novelist to plunge into the tempestuous waters of the great abortion debate.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written, engaging story
Review: I Loved You All is the story of a family in small-town USA in the late 70's. The book is narrated by 8-year old Penny and is divided into three sections for her mother, Marguerite, her sister, Mahalia, and a seemingly harmless babysitter, Isabel Flood. When Marguerite's drinking problem gets out of control, and she is taken back to Lousiana for rehab, Isabel takes over control of the house. Isabel is a fanatical pro-lifer and converts Mahalia to her cause and her church. Over the course of the novel, Mahalia is torn between the perfect, straight and narrow Isabel and her chaotic family. Penny is probably the most objective narrator, due to her young age and ability to get into troubles of her own. Although this book is projected to be about the abortion issue, I thought it an extreme version of both views. Keeping in mind that most of us are somewhere in between, the book flows along at a fairly smooth pace. Through most of the novel, I had a difficult time sympathizing with Mahalia and Isabel; but the other supporting characters, such as Marguerite's brother F.X. and her husband, David, keep the story interesting. Overall, good weekend read...

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read...
Review: I Loved You All is the story of a family in small-town USA in the late 70's. The book is narrated by 8-year old Penny and is divided into three sections for her mother, Marguerite, her sister, Mahalia, and a seemingly harmless babysitter, Isabel Flood. When Marguerite's drinking problem gets out of control, and she is taken back to Lousiana for rehab, Isabel takes over control of the house. Isabel is a fanatical pro-lifer and converts Mahalia to her cause and her church. Over the course of the novel, Mahalia is torn between the perfect, straight and narrow Isabel and her chaotic family. Penny is probably the most objective narrator, due to her young age and ability to get into troubles of her own. Although this book is projected to be about the abortion issue, I thought it an extreme version of both views. Keeping in mind that most of us are somewhere in between, the book flows along at a fairly smooth pace. Through most of the novel, I had a difficult time sympathizing with Mahalia and Isabel; but the other supporting characters, such as Marguerite's brother F.X. and her husband, David, keep the story interesting. Overall, good weekend read...