Rating: 
Summary: well written but depressing--great foreshadowing
Review: "Books, purses, three empty bottles of Diet Coke, and the remains of a large pizza littered the card table that had been set up near the open window." The purpose that Belva Plain, the author of the book Looking Back, portrays through this book is that friends are close during college but as they grow up their relationship begins to have some hard times. These friends have to decide whether their friendship is worth holding onto or if they need to just let it fade away.
Three friends leave college. Two go back to the same hometown, but unfortunately one goes to a different town. Amanda goes to Michigan and Norma and Cecile go back to New Orleans. Norma invites Amanda to stay with her in New Orleans so they can all be together. Norma's brother, Larry, is in love with Amanda. They talk about it and decide to get married and move in together. Well after a couple of years of marriage, Amanda has an affair with Larry's father, LB. Amanda has a baby and Larry thinks it is his but really it is his fathers. They try and keep this a secret, but it gets out. This makes LB have a heart attack and puts Larry into deep depression. Since Amanda has totally screwed up Norma's family, her and Amanda never talk again. Meanwhile the third part of this trio, Cecile, is married to a loving husband named Peter who is working very hard on a big business project. Somehow Norma steals the idea and gives it to her brother to help him get back on his feet.
The setting of this novel sometimes gets very confusing. Most of the conflict takes place at either one of the three friends houses or at an old run down house where Amanda and LB have their affair. Every other chapter takes place in a different location and it gets very difficult to keep up with. The setting is realistic, but just changes places quite a bit.
Looking Back contains a lot of flashback. One of the three friends almost always flashes back to the earlier years, when they use to be such wonderful friends. This method of writing sometimes gets hard to follow because, its either flashback or present, and it gets hard to tell which one it is at times. This plot is very dramatic also. This book is a Soap Opera. There really is not one specific climax to this novel. That makes it very interesting, though. The plot of this book keeps the reader wanting to read more to find out what happens next. The structure of the plot is very well done.
Most all the characters are protagonists. This is good for a book, except each character is given in good detail. It's good to know the characters, but some need to be a mystery and not every little detail be known about them. A lot of the characters are in conflict with each other. The conflict keeps the book interesting.
The author uses everyday language. This is very easy for high school age people to understand. If the reader understands the language of the book, the book flows easier and is easier to comprehend. This makes the reader want to read more of the book because they understand what is going on.
This book is very good. It keeps the reader interested with its plot, setting, characters, and use of language. This book needs to be on every readers reading list.
Rating: 
Summary: Looking Back: Moving forward by looking back.
Review: "Books, purses, three empty bottles of Diet Coke, and the remains of a large pizza littered the card table that had been set up near the open window." The purpose that Belva Plain, the author of the book Looking Back, portrays through this book is that friends are close during college but as they grow up their relationship begins to have some hard times. These friends have to decide whether their friendship is worth holding onto or if they need to just let it fade away.
Three friends leave college. Two go back to the same hometown, but unfortunately one goes to a different town. Amanda goes to Michigan and Norma and Cecile go back to New Orleans. Norma invites Amanda to stay with her in New Orleans so they can all be together. Norma's brother, Larry, is in love with Amanda. They talk about it and decide to get married and move in together. Well after a couple of years of marriage, Amanda has an affair with Larry's father, LB. Amanda has a baby and Larry thinks it is his but really it is his fathers. They try and keep this a secret, but it gets out. This makes LB have a heart attack and puts Larry into deep depression. Since Amanda has totally screwed up Norma's family, her and Amanda never talk again. Meanwhile the third part of this trio, Cecile, is married to a loving husband named Peter who is working very hard on a big business project. Somehow Norma steals the idea and gives it to her brother to help him get back on his feet.
The setting of this novel sometimes gets very confusing. Most of the conflict takes place at either one of the three friends houses or at an old run down house where Amanda and LB have their affair. Every other chapter takes place in a different location and it gets very difficult to keep up with. The setting is realistic, but just changes places quite a bit.
Looking Back contains a lot of flashback. One of the three friends almost always flashes back to the earlier years, when they use to be such wonderful friends. This method of writing sometimes gets hard to follow because, its either flashback or present, and it gets hard to tell which one it is at times. This plot is very dramatic also. This book is a Soap Opera. There really is not one specific climax to this novel. That makes it very interesting, though. The plot of this book keeps the reader wanting to read more to find out what happens next. The structure of the plot is very well done.
Most all the characters are protagonists. This is good for a book, except each character is given in good detail. It's good to know the characters, but some need to be a mystery and not every little detail be known about them. A lot of the characters are in conflict with each other. The conflict keeps the book interesting.
The author uses everyday language. This is very easy for high school age people to understand. If the reader understands the language of the book, the book flows easier and is easier to comprehend. This makes the reader want to read more of the book because they understand what is going on.
This book is very good. It keeps the reader interested with its plot, setting, characters, and use of language. This book needs to be on every readers reading list.
Rating: 
Summary: A well written novel about friends and betrayal.
Review: A definate page turner, I did not guess the ending correctly at all! The author skillfully weaves the stories of these three friends and thier marriages. A great book with an important moral; always marry for love, not security!
Rating:
Summary: well written but depressing--great foreshadowing
Review: After Cecile's miscarriage, Norma profoundly thought about Peter, "..to lose yourself into another human being...to have that kind of love opens your heart for grief, but if I could feel it just once I would willingly take the risk." That about sums up the fate of all these characters. This book was a little depressing. Belva Plain takes you on an emotional roller coaster. The characters are not fleshed out well in the end, but she shows emotions and human affairs never follow logic.Amanda was a true heroine. She loved until it hurt, then pieced her big broken heart together to start a new life without the son she loved. She out grew her hometown in Mississippi and was strong-armed into life in Michigan via marriage with the successful but boring Larry who happened to be Norma's brother. Norma thought with her beauty and Larry's love that Amanda was lucky and should want for nothing else. Amanda and Norma both wanted real love and fulfilling careers like Cecile and her husband Peter. Larry wanted the beautiful trophy wife and kids like his friends. Fearful of disappointing his father LB, he didn't use his own potential. This is why he misunderstood Amanda's need to reach her own. LB saw Amanda for who she really was and confronted her when he could no longer put his "head over heart". They shared an intense love. In fact, their first time was so good she passed out! Unfortunately LB encouraged his son's wife to live a double life and even pass off his baby as Larry's. Too bad he was only strong on the surface. He was correct in telling Amanda she was the strong one. After the truth came out about them, he suffered the fatal stroke while she endured everyone's scrutiny. The real shocker was Norma. The loyalty and devotion she had for her brother was blinding. She couldn't see that Amanda was drowning. She was jealous of Cecile and Peter's "perfect life" even after Cecile miscarried twins. Then she found it unforgivable that Cecile helped Amanda. She got Amanda the boutique job and gave her a shoulder to cry on after her LB was gone and Larry filed for divorce. Norma got back at her by stealing Peter's bldg development plans for her brother and then denied it.
Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to a better book by Belva Plain
Review: As a long time reader of Belva Plain, I wonder where she has gone to. I'm afraid to say that her last few titles have left me shaking my head thinking back to some of her earlier books and hoping her newest books will be as good. Sadly her latest book, Looking Back, didn't do anything for me and fell into the category of, "I wish I hadn't bothered." Unfortunately, Looking Back, was a rather dreary and almost predictable read which had me had me thinking same old, same old. And while I realize that themes are often repeated these days, this one wasn't well developed or the characters either memorable or even interesting. Like many of Plain's more recent books with present day themes of rape, incest, child abuse, sibling rivalry and embezzlement, Plains newest title further explores family life at its worst and fits right in with other titles such as The Carousel, After the Fire and Secrecy. Looking Back begins on a college campus where three good friends are about to graduate and proceed with their lives. In time they will all marry, some for better, some for worse. But then jealousies arise between the three friends, two of whom who are sisters in law and one woman goes so far as to have an affair. The climax and end of the book, while fairly predictable is also rather ridiculous but by then I was looking forward to selecting my next read. I doubt it would have even bothered me if I hadn't bothered to finish this title. I think I continue to read Belva Plain's books hoping for another one as good as Evergreen or other titles in that series. It hasn't happened recently except for Legacy of Silence published a few years ago. So I offer a bit of advice for those not familiar with Ms. Plain's books. Either get a copy of Evergreen, her first book and other titles in that series or her later book, Legacy of Silence, which I loved to see how good she once was at writing family sagas. And if you've already read these books, eithe reread them or join me in looking forward someday to a better read from this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Friendship and Betrayal
Review: Cecile, Norma, and Amanda met during college and have remained good friends in spite of their different backgrounds. Cecile comes from a wealthy family and was raised with many privileges and is the first to marry. Amanda agrees to marry Norma's brother, Larry, even though she's not sure she really loves him, and Norma remains single for a long time but finally marries one of her fellow school teachers. The novel seeks to answer the question of whether the bonds of friendship forged in their early years can stand the tests of time. The novel alternates between telling the story of their lives from the perspective of each of the 3 women, but the book is lacking in character development and I never really felt that I knew any of them well. Amanda is self-absorbed, selfish and uncaring of her devoted husband and ultimately betrays him in the worst possible way. From the moment of her betrayal, I could see no possible way for a satisfactory ending to this novel but I plodded on until the end anyway. "Looking Back" chronicles in a plodding, uninspired manner the many sad and frustrating experiences of the characters, and is simply not the caliber of writing I have come to expect from Belva Plain, one of my favorite authors.
Rating:
Summary: I liked the beginning, but...
Review: hated the end. The final 50 pages or so were just awful in my opinion. I was following the story, although I didn't really strongly like or identify with any individual character, but Amanda's "announcement" and everything that followed...well, it all just left me feeling very dissatisfied. Several characters acted in ways you would not have expected, and moving characters that had been somewhat peripheral to the forefront nearly at the end of the book just felt contrived. I also found it hard to believe that Amanda would have made the final choices that she did without any question or fight. I normally enjoy Belva Plain novels, but I would not recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book at all!
Review: I am one of those people who tend to pick up a book, and if it's good, read it in one or two days. This book took several attempts before I could ever get into it enough to even finish. The first 200 pages are painfully boring and monotonous. The plot is lifeless and predictable and the characters are shallow and under-developed. I have read other books by Belva Plain, and I have to say that this is her worst effort in my opinion. For fans of the author, I wouldn't recommend paying full price because you will be disappointed. For readers who are not familiar with Plain, don't read this book first, or you will never give her other, better books a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Was this really Belva Plain?
Review: I cannot believe the author of "Evergreen" wrote this tripe. There was no character development, just an unveiling of each persons' worst traits. Why were these women friends? If you are going to tell a story abut friendship you need to have more to go on than that they roomed together in college! None of them seemed real, just caricatures (smart ugly girl, most popular rich girl, poor scheming girl). This was a useless book.
Rating:
Summary: If Plain is what you want, plain is what you get
Review: I chose this book as my "crap" book. Meaning I read it while I'm taking a big crap. Although other crap books have extended my craps into the half-hour range because they were so interesting, this book gets me through a crap in under 5 minutes.
From page one it has been a struggle to even find the will to turn the next page. The characters are boring as hell: White, middle-class midwestern people. The author plays off as if she "thinks" she is a great writer by going on and on with monotonous descriptions of landscapes, flowers, the characters thoughts and feelings, etc. But all it really amounts to is a lot of "page filler".
I'm on page 100 right now. And apparently there is a twist in the story to come. But if you haven't hooked the reader by page 100, you need to start thinking about a different profession.
The paper wasted on this book will be better used as a fire starter for the nice warm fire that you'll want to get going when you're ready to read a GOOD book.
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