Unravelling

Rating:
Summary: Breathtakingly beautiful
Review: A wonderful novel -- for its language, its characters, and its exploration of how life can unfold richly for people on society's margins. I found it truly haunting and can't wait to see what she writes next.

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Summary: Not easy for a girl to break out in the 1800s in New England
Review: Aimee Slater lives on a farm in New England, but she's got a modern girl's desire for a bigger life. Against her parents' wishes, Aimee goes to work in the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. What happens between then and when we see her again in her 30s living alone in the woods with only 2 other outcasts for company forms the meat of this utterly simple and graceful story.

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful book
Review: Elizabeth Graver has written a thoughtful book that spoke to me on many levels. First of all, it is a book that makes one realize the importance of forgiveness, and yet how hard the truth is to see when you're in the middle of conflict, hurt. Secondly, the mother/daughter relationship is portrayed in all it's complicated mess so beautifully here. The push/pull relationship is very poignant. Aimee's conflicted feelings about wanting to leave her childhood home, yet how she cannot forgive her mother for letting her leave is very realistic. And Aimee's mother's feelings are palatable. Loved this book!

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful book
Review: Elizabeth Graver has written a thoughtful book that spoke to me on many levels. First of all, it is a book that makes one realize the importance of forgiveness, and yet how hard the truth is to see when you're in the middle of conflict, hurt. Secondly, the mother/daughter relationship is portrayed in all it's complicated mess so beautifully here. The push/pull relationship is very poignant. Aimee's conflicted feelings about wanting to leave her childhood home, yet how she cannot forgive her mother for letting her leave is very realistic. And Aimee's mother's feelings are palatable. Loved this book!

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Elizabeth Graver's first novel proves once again that the workshop process is the best way to learn to write dull, predictable fiction. I saw the incest subplot coming from practically the first page and quickly grew tired of the main character's constant litany of pain against her mother. She also belongs to that group of women writers who seem to think puberty comes to their characters as a complete surprise, but it's not exactly a revelation to the girls who grew up on farms. What could have been a wonderful slice of 19th-century life turned out to be a therapy session in sepia tones.

Rating:
Summary: Graver captures the heart and makes Aimee "loved."
Review: Graver's Aimee Slater reveals herself without shame, not only through the unraveling of her tangled story, but also through her dreams, fears, hopes, and memories. A tough New Englander rooted in and by the soil, Aimee holds stubbornly to her ideals in an unforgiving environment, thereby becoming a truly "modern woman," one with whom the reader will certainly identify. Her totally candid views of her stultifying life on the farm, her obvious need for comfort and love, and her fears and loneliness in the Lowell mill, where she, friendless, attempts to become independent, all give warmth and power to her character. One also cannot help but respond with sympathy to the role her mother is destined to play, while understanding, too, the inevitability of Aimee's rebellion and its consequences. The story structure itself is somewhat contrived and the plot predictable, an illustration, perhaps, of the lack of choices in the lives of mid-19th century women, but this is a character story and the lack of a unique plot may be appropriate. Whether Aimee's story is approached from a psychological, historical, geographical, or feminist perspective, one will find much satisfaction on every level.

Rating:
Summary: A breathtaking novel!
Review: I cannot remember a book so beautiful or so moving. I found myself holding my breath for the protagonist, crying for her, hurting for her, cheering for her--and was altogther immersed in the world author Graver has created. I read dozens of novels each year and recommend this as the very best I have encountered in years.

Rating:
Summary: This was my favorite novel of 1997
Review: I loved this novel. Aimee is a character I will always remember, for her fierce independence, her sensuality, and her capacity to love despite the hardships she's endured in her life. I'm so glad this book is coming out in paperback. I've been waiting to read it with my book club.

Rating:
Summary: A book of heart and soul and a must for a woman to read
Review: This book had me catching my breath when reading some of Graver's insights. Some descriptions of Aimee's feelings and thoughts were so close to the heart and soul of a teenage and young girl's relationship with her mother that they left me astounded. Anyone with a kinship for life in New England in the 19th century and an interest in milltowns of the NorthEast will have the countryside in New Hampshire and the factories of Lowell, Massachusetts brought completely to life. A must read and I hope Oprah finds this one! Charlotte Rabbitt, Fairview, TX

Rating:
Summary: A haunting, beautiful memoir...
Review: This book surely deserves more notice than it's apparently gotten. Graver nails the details of experience in a way that will make you think 'well, of course!' She has a voice much like Toni Morrison's, but even more tightly focused. Overall, a soul-bending work that will connect you with sensations and sorrows you have always somehow known, but could not articulate. A perfectly-rendered first novel.