Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing and Simple Story
Review: An amazing and simple story of what shapes the people we become. The characters were like people you know.

Rating:
Summary: simplistic story line with poorly developed characters
Review: Give this boring and predictable novel a miss. Poorly developed characters posess no depth to make me care for them. Self-absorbed boomers ruminating in their past still finding no meaning. Are we surprised?

Rating:
Summary: A Man's Take
Review: I read this book a LONG time ago, and I have been searching for and reading Ann Hood ever since! Maybe it was my age and maturity - whatever - when I read it, but I LOVED it! I'd highly recommend this or any Ann Hood to everyone. For me, it was an eye-opening look into the woman's side of things. It made me think, and changed my point of view in a big way.

Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Writer
Review: I read this novel and Hood's "Three-Legged Horse" and "Something Blue" a few years ago. They are simple, slight novels that take only a short time to read, but they have lived with me since, becoming almost iconic.

I am not particularly good at remembering plots or names, but fragments - the lobsters that a child thinks have been brought home to be pets which are then boiled alive... the child struck dumb by the fear inspired by the bizarre death of his father, and the death itself - remain with me always.

At the time I was reading these, I was also reading Alice Hoffman and Anne Tyler, with whom Hood has similarities. I prefer Ann Hood, of the three.

Rating:
Summary: Wise and Keen Prose Lend to this poignant novel
Review: Spare style and quick, witty dialog all make Somewhere Off The Coast Of Maine a refreshing read. Three womens' lives have become intertwined through family and fate. Long gone are the sixties of their rebellious youth, but they still keep their memories close to their hearts as a loved one keeps a snippet of hair in a locket. We learn the values of these memorable characters through their children; family plays an important role in this novel. Sad at times, funny at other times, the novel is one to breeze through quickly and effortlessly, yet the reader is still left with a sense that they have read a classic novel of the human condition. I highly recommend this novel as a change of pace for anyone bogged down by heavy books, or not able to get "INTO" a new book. An excellent choice of reading material.

Rating:
Summary: Wise and Keen Prose Lend to this poignant novel
Review: Spare style and quick, witty dialog all make Somewhere Off The Coast Of Maine a refreshing read. Three womens' lives have become intertwined through family and fate. Long gone are the sixties of their rebellious youth, but they still keep their memories close to their hearts as a loved one keeps a snippet of hair in a locket. We learn the values of these memorable characters through their children; family plays an important role in this novel. Sad at times, funny at other times, the novel is one to breeze through quickly and effortlessly, yet the reader is still left with a sense that they have read a classic novel of the human condition. I highly recommend this novel as a change of pace for anyone bogged down by heavy books, or not able to get "INTO" a new book. An excellent choice of reading material.

Rating:
Summary: Underdeveloped characters and unexciting storylines
Review: This book could have been great had the characters been better developed and their motivations better explained. Up to the last line, I kept waiting for something to happen, and felt "taken" at the end. The storyline was barely held together, and I did not like the women at all, even the ones I was supposed to sympathize with - Skip it!

Rating:
Summary: This book clearly represents a work of fine literature.
Review: This was a really great book and whoever gave it a poor review obviously does not appreciate modern writing. I loved it! Yeah for Ann Hood. Thank you for reading this review.

Rating:
Summary: A simple read
Review: Though it's not my favorite book of this year, but it was a pleasant, quick read. I wish that Ms. Hood had written in depth about her characters ~~ instead, I got a fuzzy image of each one of them, which is disappointing because she could write more about Claudia, Elizabeth, Suzanne, Sparrow and Rebekah. They are the kind of women that I'd be interested in knowing a little better than the sketch that I was given in this book.

Claudia, Elizabeth and Suzanne were friends in college during the 1960s. Then one summer, each of them fell in love and got pregnant for the first time. Claudia and Elizabeth remained friends, while Suzanne moved to Boston to raise her daughter Sparrow alone. Claudia and Elizabeth married their respective lovers and raised families on a gorgeous farm ~~ with crabapple trees and daisies on that farm. Suzanne left her lover Abel because she refused to have an abortion ~~ and in turn became a hard, brittle woman whose daughter could never understand. Elizabeth also had a daughter Rebekah ~~ that she tried to understand but it wasn't till she was diagnosed with cancer that she was able to finally reach out to her daughter.

There is a thin story line here ~~ and that alone is disappointing. Ms. Hood could have written more about Elizabeth and Rebekah, Suzanne and Sparrow, and Claudia's inability to let go of her son who drowned. The ending leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

If you're looking for a quick read and something light, then I would recommend this book. It is well-written, but there isn't enough substance there to hold your imagination like a good author tries to do. It quite doesn't match up to my expectations of what a good book should do. It is sufficient enough if you need something light to read.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: Though not deep literture by any stretch of the imagination, this book made me fall in love with Ann Hood. The themes explored here (the sixties, lost idealism, familial relations, the complexity of romantic relations) are frequent themes in her novels. so much so, that they become fairly redundant after awhile. this, however, is her best outing. Rather than probing deeply into the pysches of her characters, Hood instead takes the reader on an entertaining skim of thier surafaces, which are interesting enough to make the read a pleasant one. this book is kind of like a well made tv movie: insubstantial but entertaining, impossible to turn away from once you're hooked. an earlier reviewer compared the style to those of Ann Tyler or Alice Hoffman. I think thats an accurate comparison, although Hood may even be a little more accesible due to the fact that the novel is zippier and less bogged down in ulitmately irrevelent detail.