Rating  - Raw
I thought the book was a little raw. The story was a good one, but somewhat obvious and disturbing. If all children were raised this way with the total lack of morality we would all be in trouble.
Rating  - Was she really that GOOD of a mother?
I don't feel that Miller made much of an attempt to prove that Anna was in fact a "good" mother. Like another reviewer said, I don't think she was a BAD mother, but the book really didn't go into much detail about Anna's relationship with Molly (especially up until Anna' ex-husband filed for custody) and instead focused on Anna's life experiences and psyche. After Brian said he wouldn't send Molly back, Anna didn't even seem that concerned about Molly's mental and emotional well-being. She just focused on her notion that Leo's actions were simply taken out of context, and while she wanted to see Molly again, I got the impression that it was based on a selfish concern for her "rights" as a mother, not out of a concern for her daughter.
And what was so great about Leo anyway?? He wasn't exactly nice to Anna, often condescending to her, and from the beginning I felt that his affection for Molly was a farse, simply to stay on Anna's good side. He also seemed sexually possessive of Anna--like the scene when he kept having sex with her after Molly came into the bed because of a nightmare. I think Anna loved her daughter, but she made the error of confusing sexual attraction with true love, since she had never felt such an attraction before. As a result, her daughter became an afterthought to someone she had known for 2 months, with dire consequences. Although she did show some signs of remorse, she spent a large amount of time trying to justify her actions instead of showing a very deep concern for her daughter's welfare. If she had put her daughter first from the beginning, instead of being swept up into a sexual frenzy and creating illusions about the new "family" she and Leo were forming, then she probably never would have lost custody of her child.
Rating  - Perfect writing
This is one of those books that sorts out those readers who can understand what makes Tolstoy a great writer from those who simply see Tolstoy as a writer of soap operas. Miller's novel is raw and powerful, but her prose is precise and lucid.
The first impression a reader will receive is the lack of indulgence in the writing, and her ability to present highly emotional events with perfect clarity. Those who are more interested in the exciting story than the perfection in the telling of the story may - as shown in other reviews - become bored. But those people who love the well crafted story, the dry re-telling of an event, will probably claim this book as one of the best in the last 100 years. I certainly would.
Rating  - Sue Miller needs to give readers some credit
Who is her editor? The main character self-analyzes to the point of nausea. We got it. We do not need the author to explain to us what she is trying to say. I felt, as the reader, that the author did not trust me to "get" her own work. It would have been a much better novel had she given her readers more credit.
Not to mention, if she grew up in a cold family, with no experiences to open up her sexuality and sensuality, I did not buy that one boyfriend would all of a sudden be a panacea to a lifetime of suppression.
Go to the Product Information page
page 2 of 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Customer Reviews for Harper Perennial,0060505931,9780060505936,0060505931,813.54 |
