Seasons of Sun & Rain (THORNDIKE PRESS LARGE PRINT SENIOR LIFESTYLES SERIES)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story about good friends
Review: I was fascinated by the characters in this book and by the way in which it was written. While I was puzzled at first as to why so much of the discussion revolves around past events, I soon realized the beautiful interwoven commentaries this allowed Dorner to make about the connections between memory and self-definition as well as about what the loss of memory truly does mean. I finished the book in a 24-hour period, unwilling to put it down and wishing that I could follow these six women for just a bit longer through their lives.

Rating:
Summary: Memory
Review: I was fascinated by the characters in this book and by the way in which it was written. While I was puzzled at first as to why so much of the discussion revolves around past events, I soon realized the beautiful interwoven commentaries this allowed Dorner to make about the connections between memory and self-definition as well as about what the loss of memory truly does mean. I finished the book in a 24-hour period, unwilling to put it down and wishing that I could follow these six women for just a bit longer through their lives.

Rating:
Summary: I wish....
Review: I wish that I could afford to send a copy of this book to all my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story about good friends
Review: I won this book in a drawing and had no idea the jewel I now had in my hand. Once I began this story I could not put it down because I became so entwined into the lives of these friends who became acquainted in college. This book mirrors the relationships so many of us have in our own lives---creating friendships, losing contact for a while, and rebonding later. These relationships are part of who we are and continue to be important to us. The beautiful friendships, acceptance of others, and how each of us perceive the "role" others have in our friendship are examined. I had never thought much about this until I read this book.

Rating:
Summary: good read
Review: I wrote Summers with the bears and was the publisher of Cook County News Herald in Grand Marais, stumbled onto this book in our library and saw GM in book so brought it home where my wife read it in one and half days. She loved it, touching story on friendships with women about women, and with insights into the beautiful country we lived in, Grand Marais, only the locals called Ben Franklin, Joynes, not Ben, other than that it was a good read. Thank you Marjorie for a great book

Rating:
Summary: A good story does not happen backwards.
Review: No matter how "important" a subject is (and Altzheimer's is an important subject), it is not sufficient in itself to carry a reader through a story, much less through the entire plot of "Seasons of Sun and Rain." As a former student of Dorner's, I am disappointed to see her falling back on the literary habits of rural college professors, who almost invariably write about characters who sit around and think; and the women in "Sun and Rain" think A LOT. When you read this book, you keep waiting for the story to begin. The action is minimal--"How's your daughter?" "Fine." etc.--while too much uninteresting background information is dumped onto the reader, who is called upon to keep these interchangeable women straight. And that's all backwards. A story is something that happens forward, but most of this novel consists of internal reveries by the characters. Literature can have subtext, but a book should not be ALL subtext, and the real challenge for any writer is to develop a story dramatically, with interesting ACTION and DIALOGUE, and even FEELINGS, not "realistic" (humdrum)acts and words by characters who don't do much. (By the way, having a superior intellectual "insight" is not the same as having an honest feeling.) There's too much reminiscing in this book, and there's way too much intellectualizing! That's not literature; that's a sermon.

Rating:
Summary: A touching story - beautifully told
Review: This is a marvelous book! In her story of six women, now in their early fifties, who met at college in the sixties, Dorner has given us an honest reading of how we were, how we are and how the changes took place. The women, who have made various life choices, are on a week's vacation and, although they have kept in touch over the years, have now to deal with something horrific: one of them has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. How they cope during this week, with the glorious mountains and waterfalls as a backdrop, brings to the fore all their love, admiration and knowledge of each other. It's a beautiful story, laced with much humor and, by devoting each chapter to an individual character's voice, the author has presented us with real, three-dimensional people with whom we can certainly identify.

Rating:
Summary: A touching story - beautifully told
Review: This is a marvelous book! In her story of six women, now in their early fifties, who met at college in the sixties, Dorner has given us an honest reading of how we were, how we are and how the changes took place. The women, who have made various life choices, are on a week's vacation and, although they have kept in touch over the years, have now to deal with something horrific: one of them has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. How they cope during this week, with the glorious mountains and waterfalls as a backdrop, brings to the fore all their love, admiration and knowledge of each other. It's a beautiful story, laced with much humor and, by devoting each chapter to an individual character's voice, the author has presented us with real, three-dimensional people with whom we can certainly identify.