Rating: 
Summary: Mind Guerilla
Review: "The Life Before Her Eyes" is an interesting idea for a book. You kill off the main character in the first 6 pages and then spend the time wondering what her life would have been like, kind of an "Our Town at Columbine High School." Recall the John Lennon song "Mind Games" where he sing about "mind guerillas." This book is a mind guerilla. If this were a reflection piece, I might have connected with Diana McFee and her life. Instead, we're sent into the mystery of reading the details of her rather boring adult life with little clues peppered in that the whole thing is really a dream, kind of like "Matrix 2 At Jonesboro High." The emphasis here is the rather contrived technique of leaving the reader wondering about whether what they're reading is reality or a long 250 page dream sequence. The real casualty is the character of McFee who comes off as an addled faded beauty queen concerned about the size of her breasts and her figure rather than one that generates much sympathy. Combine this with some of the incidents: Timmy the cat dies; a black cat similar to Timmy shows up in Diana's bedroom; we spend a chapter & a half on whether this is really Timmy or not. So? Diana looks at 2 young people swimming nude and making love in the neighbor's pool; she agonizes over her attitude while taking voyeristic peeks; finally chapters down the road she opens the window and shouts at them only to find it IS the neighbors. So? At the end of the book, she spends 3 chapters wandering around a zoo trying to find her daughters, repeatedly forgetting that she's lost them, bumping into nuns and teachers and communing with an elephant. So? This book handles a difficult subject of teen violence in our schools. The best of authors would have a difficult time treating this with the sensitivity needed to make this topic work. Instead, Kasischke plays a book-long mind game at the expense of any real story or proximity to its characters. I give this book two stars because the dust jacket is colorful and convinced me to read it. Don't judge a book by its cover!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and Unexpected
Review: A carefully written and timely story about a woman who was involved in a school shooting during her senior year, _The Life Before Her Eyes_ was both a quick read and difficult to put down. At the beginning of the book, the reader is introduced to a pair of best friends primping in the mirror when gunshots ring out. Just as they begin to realize they are in danger, the shooter --a boy from their biology class-- walks into the bathroom. Reminiscent of some of the stories to come out of the Columbine tragedy, the girls' classmate asks them which one he should kill. The rest of the book flows from that moment in both flashbacks and in the present day, when the girl who tells the shooter she wants to live is a grown woman. The book ends with a poetic twist, but most astute readers will not find it entirely surprising. A very enjoyable and well written book.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Unexpected
Review: A carefully written and timely story about a woman who was involved in a school shooting during her senior year, _The Life Before Her Eyes_ was both a quick read and difficult to put down. At the beginning of the book, the reader is introduced to a pair of best friends primping in the mirror when gunshots ring out. Just as they begin to realize they are in danger, the shooter --a boy from their biology class-- walks into the bathroom. Reminiscent of some of the stories to come out of the Columbine tragedy, the girls' classmate asks them which one he should kill. The rest of the book flows from that moment in both flashbacks and in the present day, when the girl who tells the shooter she wants to live is a grown woman. The book ends with a poetic twist, but most astute readers will not find it entirely surprising. A very enjoyable and well written book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Page-Turner
Review: A completely engaging novel; it wades through the life of Diana McFee, rolling the reader back and forth between her young life as a teenager and her future life as a 40-year-old wife and mother. You become mezmerized by the language and detail of her story, all the while wondering when the line between reality and the dream had been crossed. I couldn't wait to reach the end, turning page after page, to discover the result of young Diana's life-changing decision.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative Theme Fails to Live Up To Its Promise
Review: A student gunman, during a Columbine-type seige, demands that high school student Diana make a choice -- her life or that of her best friend. This thought-provoking introduction launches a novel which chronicles Diana's life as a 40 year old wife of a "successful, sexy, and attentive" college professor and the mother of a "pretty and happy" third grade daughter, and discloses how a horrific decision seemingly casts a shadow over Diana's charmed life. Unfortunately, the tale that unfolds does not maintain the promise of the opening sequence. The novel appears to degenerate into a hokey supernatural thriller -- complete with a resurrected cat --or is it a descent into madness -- featuring a deranged nun? As Diana attends to the mundane chores of her "soccer-mom" life, she reflects on her sexually-charged, carefree teens, questions the "indulgences and excesses" of her generation, and concedes that the "women she'd become wouldn't have trusted that girl with her wedding china, with her car keys, let alone her home, her child, her life." The closing sequence of the novel answers many questions, particularly why the cultural references of Diana's teens, including Nirvana, the 2000 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," suggest that the main action occurs in the future, when there is nothing in Diana's adult life to support that conclusion. Yet, the "surprise" twist seemed a bit too pat and uninspired.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely book
Review: Diana McPhee, a high-schooler, is in the bathroom with her best friend when a boy carrying a gun comes in and tells them that he will kill one of them. Which one will it be? Diana begs for her life, and the book immediately shifts to grown-up Diana's world. She's happy, married to a wonderful man and mother to a wonderful daughter, until it all starts to fall to pieces. The book travels in time constantly, shifting from young Diana's perspective to older Diana's view. The author uses gorgeous, lovely imagery to express the sheer pleasure and pain of growing up and then simply living and being happy. You really start to care for Diana and her friend who died. They are like all the teenagers we used to be. A wonderful, beautiful book that appreciates how much just being alive means
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting concept, but often hard to follow
Review: Honestly, this book is about a 3 and 1/2 stars. Again, a book with a great concept- posing the question- who wants to die? Would you offer to take the place for your friend? The book held my interest for the most part, however the frequent changes between when Diana was young & when she's a housewife, are often hard to follow. There's some sequences that don't seem to belong to either- they're like dreams. And they're never really explained. This book is like you're in one big dream- with a lot of poetry & prose. To some degree I enjoyed the flowery writing and the strangeness of the dreams. However, after a while, it got very frustrating and I just wanted to know what was REAL and what was not. Also- as she's describing the younger years between Diana & Maureen, she never uses names, it's just "the girl" or "the friend"-- thank god sometimes she'll say "the blonde"- then you know it's Diana. Often I found myself not sure of who was who. And frankly, being an avid reader- if it confused me, I think it will confuse most people. I guess I'd recommend this book with caution. Nothing is cut & dry, it's pretty much all up to you to figure out what's going on and what the ending means. I was really hoping there would be more of an explanation at the end or a study guide, comment from the author, but there wasn't any of that.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting concept, but often hard to follow
Review: Honestly, this book is about a 3 and 1/2 stars. Again, a book with a great concept- posing the question- who wants to die? Would you offer to take the place for your friend? The book held my interest for the most part, however the frequent changes between when Diana was young & when she's a housewife, are often hard to follow. There's some sequences that don't seem to belong to either- they're like dreams. And they're never really explained. This book is like you're in one big dream- with a lot of poetry & prose. To some degree I enjoyed the flowery writing and the strangeness of the dreams. However, after a while, it got very frustrating and I just wanted to know what was REAL and what was not. Also- as she's describing the younger years between Diana & Maureen, she never uses names, it's just "the girl" or "the friend"-- thank god sometimes she'll say "the blonde"- then you know it's Diana. Often I found myself not sure of who was who. And frankly, being an avid reader- if it confused me, I think it will confuse most people. I guess I'd recommend this book with caution. Nothing is cut & dry, it's pretty much all up to you to figure out what's going on and what the ending means. I was really hoping there would be more of an explanation at the end or a study guide, comment from the author, but there wasn't any of that.
Rating:
Summary: really weird and suspenseful
Review: I read a negative review of this book in the LA times that made me want to read this book, and I'm really glad I did. I stayed up all night, and now I can't stop thinking about it. It scared me, and in places I was completely confused, but in a good way, if you can imagine that. My favorite writer is Joyce Carol Oates, but now Laura Kasischke is my second favorite.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I read this book after I read the review in the New York times. I won't get into the plot here as others already have. I do not read poetry, so I was surprised to enjoy this book so much. It has been my experience that most poets do not write prose well, especially novels. Ms. Kasischke is an exception to that rule. I did not like the main character of Diana at all. But I don't think that Ms. Kasischke wants you to sympathize with Diana; that's part of what makes this book so good. Diana is a totally unsympathetic, unlikeable character, but you can't wait to see what happens. The first chapter would stand alone as a great short story. Read it and you will be hooked. I've recommended this book to several people already and I recommend it to you. Read this book. Tell other people about it. You will agree with me that Laura Kasischke is an incredibly talented writer.
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