Rating: 
Summary: Very good!
Review: I really liked this book. And I liked the way it all came together. It was very well written and keep me interested until the end. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Surviving Our Choices
Review: What we say or do not say can have the same results if the truth is not revealed.Appropriately titled"Drowning Ruth",Christina Schwarz's tale of what is unsaid truly lays bare the story of drowning a soul and spirit by witholding the truth.Amanda the main character is both disturbing and compelling.The truth at the end of the story only reinforces her complexity.This book is a page turner into our own soul,right and wrong choices and the ultimate choice of survival.
Rating: 
Summary: Relaxed Morals
Review: Our "relaxed morals"? Get a life. You mean that we lack the spine and minds of the people of the past who while no more perfect than we are didn't pretend that if they couldn't do it -- or it taxed their guts or minds -- than IT not they must be wrong... correct? Truth is truth and the morals of the past built a great Western Civilization and a great American Republic... so what are WE with our "relaxed" morals leaving our children but a global moral garbage pit? Bill Clinton would not have been a distant hope for President if we had been even a decent people -- to bad we weren't. Let's hope that trash like this doesn't get too many suckers. No wonder the CLASSICS are still the CLASSICS. Right? RIGHT.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: I would highly recommend others to read this book, even though the main characters, Amanda and her niece Ruth, turn out to be imperfect people. Maybe that's what the author was going for, nothing and no-one in life is perfect and we don't all get happy endings. We just go on, doing what we think is best, and live with whatever mistakes and poor decisions that we make. This is a quick suspenseful read, well worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: so confused
Review: Where to begin, but to say that this book at the beginning captured my full attention. I enjoyed this book, but at the same time was disappointed that the author introduces us to many characters with no real endings. I feel that a lot was wasted in this book and that to much was given away to early in this story. Although I found myself finishing the book only to see if what I figured out during this first parts of the book were true. I admit to tears flowing at times only to be ruined with the annoying re-telling of certain parts. Amanda the most complex of characters is what kept me going, but not only her but all those involved in her life who at the end really didn't go anywhere so you are confused at why they were brought up in the first place, a waste of pages. Though this is her first novel I hope that the author learns from what has been revealed by many readers. The work was good, but it could have been much better, with less disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner!
Review: After reading the first 4 chapters in the bookstore, I had to buy it...how could I go home not knowing the "secret"? I found the author's narrative a pure pleasure to read. The characters were well crafted, I liked the way the story was woven as tight as a braid, leaving the truth about the secret until the end of the book. Nothing is more pleasant to find than a book that grabs you from the very opening words to the very end. Bravo! A great first novel...can't wait for more from this talented storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: PLEASE! DROWN THEM ALL
Review: Yes, I read it because Oprah picked it -- always fearful that she'll pick out a great book and I'll miss it if I don't read it. I needn't have worried -- it's not great and I wouldn't have missed it at all. At the beginning, I felt that the book had great promise. Schwarz' descriptions alone were worth the price of the book. "Outside the train station, I drew the city's breath, yeasty from the breweries and bittersweet from the chocolate factory, into my lungs and felt better already." With this one sentence, I too could smell the city and felt I was in for a great reading experience. Unfortunately, the book jumped around too much from before--to after--to present--to actual happenings--to dream sequences. At one point, I didn't know if I was coming or going because sometimes these sequences all happened on the same page. Like pieces of a puzzle, the author gives you a little piece here and there but by the time you get to the end of the book, it's so anti-climatic that it was quite a letdown. You reach a crescendo and then plummet.When we first meet Amanda Starkey, she is a nurse taking care of soldiers wounded in the Great War. She has decided to return to her family farm, on Nagawaukee Lake, to spend time with her younger sister Mattie and her niece Ruth. As the story unfolds, we learn the first of many secrets in the book -- why is Amanda leaving her job in Milwaukee? Once there, she convinces her sister to move to their other house on a small island on the lake. Why? That's the next secret. This book is so full of secrets, lies, deceit, hiding and grief that at one point I wanted to smack the main character. But someone is the catalyst for all this angst and you'd have to read the book to find the answer. The one thing that is not a secret throughout the entire book is the fact that Amanda's sister Mattie has drowned in the lake. Someone said that this book is layered like an onion and you have to keep peeling away to get to the core. That may be true but I got tired by the fifth layer. I really wanted to like this book. It wasn't as dysfunctional as most of Oprah's picks and it didn't have the "woman rises above all odds" theme that is so prevalent in all her books. But it also wasn't a very likable book. I didn't walk away from this reading experience with the desire to know anything more about these characters or with the usual daily thoughts that creep into your head everyday after reading a good book. It was just, "I'm done; next book". That's the best way I can describe it. I know many reviewers liked it but it just wasn't my kind of book -- the kind of book that you say to someone "you have to read this". In my opinion, you don't have to read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Let¿s see. Kathy Bates as Amanda....
Review: With its vivid depiction of its post-World War I setting in Wisconsin, its nightmarish complexities as a family saga, its carefully developed suspense, and its simplicity of theme, Drowning Ruth has "blockbuster movie" written all over it. Its selection by Oprah will guarantee an interested audience. The above statements should not be regarded as negatives, however. Drowning Ruth is a terrific read! The author is precise and careful about building her suspense with excruciating slowness. She has created intriguing characters--at heart, not all that different from you and me--characters who are confronted with difficult problems to solve, some of which are not of their own making and some of which are the unexpected results of desperate decisions made in the long ago past. Her alternations of point of view help to give breadth and depth to the conflicts within the main characters, while the fragmentary memories which Ruth contributes add to both the mystery and the sense of dread. Although Schwarz ably illustrates the restricted roles into which women had to adapt themselves during the period, the mores which applied to "good girls," and the limited choices open to them, the lack of liberation is so natural a part of her story that her novel and its complications are by no means part of a liberation manifesto. Drowning Ruth is a simple story presented clearly and suspensefully by an author who, like Amanda, is careful to keep her grasp completely within her reach.
Rating:
Summary: not the best
Review: Drowning Ruth is a book about the relationship of a young woman raised by her aunt on a farm in Wisconsin after her mother Mathilda accidently drowns in a lake. This book is about keeping family secrets and mental illness. Amanda is mentally ill and suffers from hallucinations, and is mentally ill at the beginning of this book. Her illness causes her to be fired from her job as a nurse. Amanda unknowingly has an affair with a married man. Their affair produces a child Imogene that Amanda keeps as a secret from the father. Amanda gives Imogene to a childless couple after intending to give her baby to her sister. Amanda younger sister Mathilda is a newlywed at the time of her death. Mathilda is a person with no self esteem or self worth. This is due in large part to her parents who never showed any of their daughters any love. Amanda gets married to Carl after knowing him for 6 months only to see him go off to fight World War I shortly afterward. She believes that she will never be a good mother or wife. Carl comes back from the war to help Amanda raise Ruth. This book has interesting characters, but the ending is very weak.
Rating:
Summary: My Third Oprah Book
Review: I have read 2 Oprah books before this one (Here On Earth & The Bluest Eye) and I wasn't exactly impressed with her selections. I don't know what compelled me to buy this new one, but I read the synopsis on Amazon.com and decided I'd give Oprah another chance to redeem herself. Well, I must say she is getting a little better with her choice of books. Drowning Ruth definitely kept my attention, always wanting to read on to find out what secret was hiding around the corner, so I could piece together the truth of what happened that fateful night. So for all of those readers who weren't too keen on Oprah's books before, I would give this one a shot. At first glance, it seems like a long book, but I got through it within 3 days of reading on and off. I guarantee the characters, and the style in which the book was written, will keep your interest.
|
