Aria

Rating:
Summary: Recognizing sensuality and self-revelation within tragedy
Review: After reading a review on Amazon claiming Aria to be sad and slow, I expected Aria to lack movement and character advancement, but I was surely wrong. In fact, Eve (the main character who struggles to bear with the burden of life after a near death accident that resulted in the loss of her husband and children) is one of the most dynamic characters I've read in a long time. She is witty and sweet, innocent yet grown-up, intelligent but self-critical. Not only does this book and main character have movement, but they are also moving.
At first, I couldn't figure out why the world would carry such interest in Eve's story. Segal's writing didn't quite convince me that the story was plausible. But once I thought about the scandals and tragedies that surround us today (Lacey Peterson, Chandra Levy, that transient who abducted a families child, etc.), it was easy to see how this woman's life could turn into a public interest story; how so many people would feel they needed to relate to this woman; how the media had a disgusting desire to feed the public's interest, all the while making Eve's reality infinitely more difficult to stand.
At times, the writing is so sensual and intimate that I felt as though I ought to crawl inside Eve's brain and soothe it with petty words of consolance. And in every way, Eve is a rounded character and a perfect accidental victim, from the boat accident itself, to the paparazzi frenzy following her story, to falling for a false love,ultimately making her fallible and wonderfully human. There are so many nuances throughout the book, from the implications of her name to the title of the book alluding to her struggle, that it would be impossible to detail them here.
BUT, what I loved the most was the wit and au courant humor that invaded the diction to make it extremely poignant and inescapably raw. Every word in the long novel was perfectly suited for its purpose and that is an achievement for any writer.
These perfectly shaped words led to the book's most intesting attribute: Every section and chapter break (and there are a lot of them!) is marked with significance, power, and a heavy weight impossible to throw off, even after the book has been finished. If the book feels slow to a reader, it's most likely because these section breaks force the reader to stop and question, or at least attempt to comtemplate how these tragic peieces of one woman's life fits into our own lives. Aria asks us to contemplate who we are to our families, our society, and mostly, to ourselves only to find that all of our lives are unbelievably and friegteningly similar. But this makes survival a bit easier to bear.
Aria is sensual and revealing and is a great example of why we read at all.

Rating:
Summary: Recognizing sensuality and self-revelation within tragedy
Review: After reading a review on Amazon claiming Aria to be sad and slow, I expected Aria to lack movement and character advancement, but I was surely wrong. In fact, Eve (the main character who struggles to bear with the burden of life after a near death accident that resulted in the loss of her husband and children) is one of the most dynamic characters I've read in a long time. She is witty and sweet, innocent yet grown-up, intelligent but self-critical. Not only does this book and main character have movement, but they are also moving.
At first, I couldn't figure out why the world would carry such interest in Eve's story. Segal's writing didn't quite convince me that the story was plausible. But once I thought about the scandals and tragedies that surround us today (Lacey Peterson, Chandra Levy, that transient who abducted a families child, etc.), it was easy to see how this woman's life could turn into a public interest story; how so many people would feel they needed to relate to this woman; how the media had a disgusting desire to feed the public's interest, all the while making Eve's reality infinitely more difficult to stand.
At times, the writing is so sensual and intimate that I felt as though I ought to crawl inside Eve's brain and soothe it with petty words of consolance. And in every way, Eve is a rounded character and a perfect accidental victim, from the boat accident itself, to the paparazzi frenzy following her story, to falling for a false love,ultimately making her fallible and wonderfully human. There are so many nuances throughout the book, from the implications of her name to the title of the book alluding to her struggle, that it would be impossible to detail them here.
BUT, what I loved the most was the wit and au courant humor that invaded the diction to make it extremely poignant and inescapably raw. Every word in the long novel was perfectly suited for its purpose and that is an achievement for any writer.
These perfectly shaped words led to the book's most intesting attribute: Every section and chapter break (and there are a lot of them!) is marked with significance, power, and a heavy weight impossible to throw off, even after the book has been finished. If the book feels slow to a reader, it's most likely because these section breaks force the reader to stop and question, or at least attempt to comtemplate how these tragic peieces of one woman's life fits into our own lives. Aria asks us to contemplate who we are to our families, our society, and mostly, to ourselves only to find that all of our lives are unbelievably and friegteningly similar. But this makes survival a bit easier to bear.
Aria is sensual and revealing and is a great example of why we read at all.

Rating:
Summary: what a downer!!
Review: Although well written, this book is a totally depressing read. I slogged my way through to the end and then wondered why I did it. If you like extreme tragedy, grief, betrayal and sloooww movement, then this is the book for you. I kept hoping for some redeeming moment to arrive. It didn't.

Rating:
Summary: Exploring Our National Obsession with Victims of Tragedy
Review: Expertly crafted, Aria tells the story of one woman, who in surviving a horrific boating accident which kills her husband and children, becomes a celebrity. Woven throughout this tale of survival, opera and family is a broad social commentary on our national cult of victimhood. Especially timely in light the recent events in New York, this beautifully written book was a great read. I recommend it to anyone fascinated with how we treat individuals who suffer tragic loss and who enjoy a compelling story.

I'm looking forward to more stories from this author!

-Lyann

Rating:
Summary: Exploring Our National Obsession with Victims of Tragedy
Review: Expertly crafted, Aria tells the story of one woman, who in surviving a horrific boating accident which kills her husband and children, becomes a celebrity. Woven throughout this tale of survival, opera and family is a broad social commentary on our national cult of victimhood. Especially timely in light the recent events in New York, this beautifully written book was a great read. I recommend it to anyone fascinated with how we treat individuals who suffer tragic loss and who enjoy a compelling story.

I'm looking forward to more stories from this author!

-Lyann

Rating:
Summary: Straightforward writing tells excellent story
Review: Wow! I really enjoyed this book. It had a story to tell and told it well. No flowery writing to get in the way. Real characters. A narrator who let us readers in on her thoughts and didn't keep secrets just for the sake of confusing us. A book with ethical issues that weren't spelled out, but nevertheless were clear. It wasn't overly complicated and obfuscated, and at the same time it didn't hit the reader over the head with a message. The characters will stay with me for a long time.