Object Lessons

Rating:
Summary: And the Object of the Lesson is??
Review: I read Anna Quindlen's essays in Newsweek with passion and devotion. In picking up one of her books, I expected to see the same richness of language and depth of expression and thought that draws me to her exposition.

Unfortunatly, I was disappointed. One of the best things that a novelist can do for his/her book is to pare down the number of characters and then give them each many dimensions and depth...make them real, make them matter.

I felt as though there were way too many characters in the book to really become attached to any of them. 12 year old Maggie occupies most of the story, but her conflicts are not well examined. Why does she care so much about losing her ditzy friend? Why is she drawn to fire? What is her *feeling* about fire? Why does she cling to a grandfather that alienates her mother? Why does her ex-best friend's much adored older sister favor her so much and vice versa? Either the character has limited feelings, or the depth of her emotion is only slightly alluded to on the page. There are about five or six other characters that are given significant portions, but at a scant 261 pages, the reader doesn't get to know or love them well. You wonder what makes Monica so mean, why Connie considers cheating, why Tommy won't partner with his brother, why Celeste is in the book at all.

I felt that the end dragged on, and was riddled with cliches. Every other line seems to begin with, "And she knew..." ...[the voice in her head] was her grandfather's voice. ...that 20 years from now she would still hear all those voices ...that as long as they stayed there sheould be able to do all the things she had to do ...that even a week from now things would be different.

It is an interesting look into changes in the lives of the Catholic community in the 60's. The portrait of this family, while lacking in engaging detail, is heartwarming. There are some blatant and irritating clichés, but Anna Quindlen really does have a gift for the language. She is able to inflect ethnicity into dialogue without a lot of weird misspellings and apostrophes. It is an accurate picture of how much your course and destination can change based on your choices wherever you are in life, as well as some touching and truthful conculsions about marriage, love, and growing up.

For the flaws I've listed, it is still a strong literary work. Pick up a used copy from a vendor here for the next time you're headed out to your hammock or easy chair. It's a light and fun read, and I look forward to finding more of Anna Quindlen's novels in the amazon.com marketplace.

Rating:
Summary: And the Object of the Lesson is??
Review: I read Anna Quindlen's essays in Newsweek with passion and devotion. In picking up one of her books, I expected to see the same richness of language and depth of expression and thought that draws me to her exposition.

Unfortunatly, I was disappointed. One of the best things that a novelist can do for his/her book is to pare down the number of characters and then give them each many dimensions and depth...make them real, make them matter.

I felt as though there were way too many characters in the book to really become attached to any of them. 12 year old Maggie occupies most of the story, but her conflicts are not well examined. Why does she care so much about losing her ditzy friend? Why is she drawn to fire? What is her *feeling* about fire? Why does she cling to a grandfather that alienates her mother? Why does her ex-best friend's much adored older sister favor her so much and vice versa? Either the character has limited feelings, or the depth of her emotion is only slightly alluded to on the page. There are about five or six other characters that are given significant portions, but at a scant 261 pages, the reader doesn't get to know or love them well. You wonder what makes Monica so mean, why Connie considers cheating, why Tommy won't partner with his brother, why Celeste is in the book at all.

I felt that the end dragged on, and was riddled with cliches. Every other line seems to begin with, "And she knew..." ...[the voice in her head] was her grandfather's voice. ...that 20 years from now she would still hear all those voices ...that as long as they stayed there sheould be able to do all the things she had to do ...that even a week from now things would be different.

It is an interesting look into changes in the lives of the Catholic community in the 60's. The portrait of this family, while lacking in engaging detail, is heartwarming. There are some blatant and irritating clichés, but Anna Quindlen really does have a gift for the language. She is able to inflect ethnicity into dialogue without a lot of weird misspellings and apostrophes. It is an accurate picture of how much your course and destination can change based on your choices wherever you are in life, as well as some touching and truthful conculsions about marriage, love, and growing up.

For the flaws I've listed, it is still a strong literary work. Pick up a used copy from a vendor here for the next time you're headed out to your hammock or easy chair. It's a light and fun read, and I look forward to finding more of Anna Quindlen's novels in the amazon.com marketplace.

Rating:
Summary: Quindlen's BEST
Review: I read this after reading 'Black & Blue' and 'One True Thing'. I identified with these characters and found the storyline engaging. I would have to disagree with the reviewer who said it takes place in the summer of 1963. How could it when there is a reference to the fact that John Kennedy is dead? I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down

Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best coming of age novel ever
Review: I read this when I was just about the age of the main character and I loved every minute of it. The detail, the plotline, and the vividness not only of the characters but of their emotions and confusion make it definitely worthwhile. This may not be the best book ever written, but it is the closest to my heart.

Rating:
Summary: ummmm......
Review: I really liked this book and can relate to it very well, especially the parts about the fires and how Maggie learned that she didn't have to be apart of them to have friends. She and Debbie were such good friends but they grew up differently, Debbie only wanting to learn the good things about being older and Maggie being forced to learn the not so great stuff. Debbie would probably realize everything Maggie did if the story kept on longer but they would never be friends again. I'm 14 so a lot of this story is the same stuff I'm living right now. I read this book for school and if it had not been on my summer reading list I never would have even thought to pick it up. I'm glad I read it though because it reminded me that I'm not the only one who is growing apart from friends, losing grandparents, and learning to deal with peer presure and lots more. I noticed something in this book that I didn't see anybody else point out in their reviews. Towards the end Maggie and her mother begin to close a rift that you can almost see growing throughout the story. When I read this book I kept thinking about how my life right now basically paralles Maggie's. I think it's a great story but I think she could have done better with the style of writing.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to give it more stars ....
Review: I wanted to, I really did! But I just can't bring myself to do it. I read "One True Thing" and "Black and Blue" and loved them both. My copy of "Object Lessons" mentions B&B on it, which should have been a dead givaway that this was a weak fledgling effort first novel by the author, which it was. Oh, it had it's moments, but they were few and far between. Overall the feeling was just sadness bordering on depression, the kind of novels that were in abundance in the 70's. Perhaps that's when she wrote it. I would not recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: horrible, girl book, depressing, romantic, no plot, ........
Review: i was inexperienced enough to waste my pocket money on this dam book. i went into the bookstore and the only thing attractive about this book is its cover. i automatically bought this book and made one of my biggest mistakes this year.
the book is slow, and all, ALL, the ONLY thing the book talked about is who married who and had kids, and four uncles married and three of them divorced, married again, some romance that i bet many people find depressing.
my mom made me read this last night, and i just could not keep up, i have seen many reviews, whether positive or negative, cannot hide the fact that the book is hard-to-keep-up, complicated, and confusing. Mrs. Quidlen is a newspaper reporter, and she definitely need to cut out a load of useless scenes and details when writing a novel.
I anounce to every reviewers of this book, to the people who read this book only cuz their school made them to, to not lie and betray your inner feelings about this book, to the boys i suggest they let out their inner anger and frustration inside when writing a report and not let some sexy paragraphs in the book make you feel that the book is "good." To the girls, i dont know what to say to the girls, i have many reviews of this book, and the girls had always gave the book a high score. maybe girls enjoyed flat family and friends relationships more than guys do. and i accept that.
here is this basic profile of this book i have made up, i tried to make them as truthful as to anybody any sex as possible.

|plot- no plot, confusing
|humor- very rare, about 20 pages any funny moments appear.
|age- teen to adult
|dialog/narration- huge continous chunks of narration that sometimes seemed never-ending, then huge chunks of continous dialogs.
|mood- sad, with occasional depressive humor.
|sex- definitely a girl's book.
|details- many useless details such as a scar on someone's body without the description of where the scar is or how did he get that scar, with no details that moves the story forward such as the setting, the main character's age, and personalities, the reader has to figure out the personality of each character by reading their dialogs.
|style- Anna Quidlen's own unique and strange style.

i will end my review here by stressing the fact that future readers must express their real, deep feeling about this book, regardless of the author's other books, and other people's feelings. write only about what YOU feel and what you feel ONLY.


Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have read!
Review: I was looking for a book to read that was just in my house. My mom who is a Anna Quindlen fan suggested Object Lessons. Well a week and three days later I am done with it. It was a good fast week, which is the kind of book I like. I think she will be an author I will be reading a lot now. Thanks Mom for sharing the book with me!!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent summer read
Review: I was required to read this book for ninth grade honors English, and I can definatly say I enjoyed it. I liked the way that so many different point of views were displayed, so you could look at the situations from all angles. I found the mother the most interesting, but the main character was also entertaining. It's hard to define the young girl's character, I found myself often thinking I had figured her out when she would do something completely different. I guess that's what makes this book so different, because I found it related a lot to real life. I definatly recommend this book, don't count on a fantastic plot, but more of an every-day one.

Rating:
Summary: Silly pointless book
Review: I've been meaning to read some of Anna Quindlan's work, and this one was at the libary, so I thought, why not? Well, all I can say is that if Quindlen wasn't a well known writer, this is the type of manuscript that an editor would toss into the trash.

Too many characters, too many POV, to the point where you really got them confused. No plot, no story. The cliches were enough to make you cry, as were the stereotyped characters. The mean and demanding family patriarch, the family feud because a member married someone who wasn't their own kind, the precocious 13 year old girl. None of these characters are really explained, or have any depth. For example, why does Connie start seeing another man? Why is Maggie intrigued with fire? Why is her cousin so mean? And what's with the nun, who was reading Jane Eyre? Whatever was that about?

I couldn't wait to return this trash to the library. I seriously thought about just telling the library I had lost it, so no one else would mistakenly take this out, thinking that the Quindlen name means its a decent read.