Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: Like other reviewers, I was hooked from the very first page. As I read on, I began to love Justine, the narrator, and her funny and also vulnerable sister Rona. I wanted to take the character of Mom and slap some sense into her--or at least, take Justine and Rona away from her. Because I wanted to do those things, and because the story was so compelling, I stayed up late reading and was sad when I finished and realized their story was over. I think Stephanie Rosenfeld did an excellent job writing from the point of view of a 12-year-old, while still keeping an adult and mature perspective. I think what was so compelling, also, about the book was how frustrating it was to read. I was left to wonder if Rona and Justine would be okay (I'm hoping they were). I definitely recommend this book--and I think it deserve more than five stars!
Rating:
Summary: Completely Satisfying
Review: Readers fortunate enough to have stumbled upon Rosenfeld's previous collection of shorts (What about the Love Part?), will find even more good fortune in just one run-through of Massachusetts California, Timbuktu, a completely satisfying debut novel which spotlights the life and times (and travails) of the talented author's 12-year-old main character, Justine Hanley.Rosenfeld's cross-country year with Justine includes an unforgettable conjoin with six-year-old sister Rona and a middle-of-the-vortex experience with the girls' mother Colleen, who drags her offspring from one city to the next in search of adventure and the next new love. Thrust into an earlier-than-necessary role as caretaker, Justine attempts to work through her insubordinate angst by journeling everything she sees and feels. Rosenfeld's tale glimmers with an appreciative passion for life's subtle and ordinary moments, a funny, poignant nod to the inherent treachery of adolescence and the amazing resilience of the human will to victor over every single hurdle along the path to the race's reward at destination's end.
Rating: 
Summary: Been There, Done That
Review: Stephanie Rosenfeld, in her first two books, has shown talent, but not a lot of originality. Her collection of short stories, "What About the Love Part?" could have been titled, "Me Obsessing About Men - and Me." Pam Houston has written along the same vein, only better. Her characters are sympathetic and interesting. Rosenfeld's characters are simply whiny. Rosenfeld's first novel, "California, Massachusetts, Timbuktu," follows the same pattern. She has talent, and is able to plot out a book. What she does not have is any originality. The mother/daughter relationship has been covered many times before, by Mona Simpson, to name one. The teenage angst of has been covered many times as well. The plot has no arc, just a series of depressingly similar stories all designed to show what a miserable life Justine has. As well as she is portrayed, when it becomes apparent by the middle of the book that things aren't going to change, it is hard to get the wherewithal to keep going. I got this book out of my local public library, so I do not feel that I wasted any money on it. I would encourage my fellow readers to pass this one up, and stick to real novelists. Stephanie Rosenfeld is a lot like a rock 'n roll tribute band. There certainly is talent, just not a lot of substance.
Rating:
Summary: Been There, Done That
Review: Stephanie Rosenfeld, in her first two books, has shown talent, but not a lot of originality. Her collection of short stories, "What About the Love Part?" could have been titled, "Me Obsessing About Men - and Me." Pam Houston has written along the same vein, only better. Her characters are sympathetic and interesting. Rosenfeld's characters are simply whiny. Rosenfeld's first novel, "California, Massachusetts, Timbuktu," follows the same pattern. She has talent, and is able to plot out a book. What she does not have is any originality. The mother/daughter relationship has been covered many times before, by Mona Simpson, to name one. The teenage angst of has been covered many times as well. The plot has no arc, just a series of depressingly similar stories all designed to show what a miserable life Justine has. As well as she is portrayed, when it becomes apparent by the middle of the book that things aren't going to change, it is hard to get the wherewithal to keep going. I got this book out of my local public library, so I do not feel that I wasted any money on it. I would encourage my fellow readers to pass this one up, and stick to real novelists. Stephanie Rosenfeld is a lot like a rock 'n roll tribute band. There certainly is talent, just not a lot of substance.
Rating:
Summary: Could Not Put This Down
Review: The author allows us to feel for and with the characters. I could not put this book down.
Rating:
Summary: Just whose story is being told?
Review: This story is deeper than some people seem to think in some of these reviews. On the surface, you have an interesting story of a woman unable to cope & her preteen daughter struggling to keep it together. But underneath that, you have the story of a small child (the little sister) and the traumatizing effect her mother has on her; you have the coming of age story of Justine; you have the complex story of a woman unable to cope, grow up, and get out of a cycle of depression and selfish gratification; you also have the story of how other adults try to handle the self-destructive behavior of their sister/daughter/or friend.
It is a beautifully written novel, the language original & poetic. The journal Justine has to write for her teacher turns out to be quite beautiful.
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