Carol L. Kast

Generosity is passed down

Revisado: 07-20-24

Gripping story, characters one loves and others one hates, plus some of the magic that comes from good people working together. Just what I needed to hear right now.

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Poignant

Revisado: 04-04-24

First two thirds incredible! Then a bit of soap opera, though I think it was a reasonable exegesis of what happened to many. It was just disappointing. Maybe that was the point, that life was never that exciting after Vietnam, despite all of its horrors. The ending was a bit of a pink bow - Frankie runs a recovery ranch; her parents finally acknowledge her contribution, and as we all know, the memorial finally paid the respect long overdue. But it was gripping and I learned a lot.

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Wanted to like it

Revisado: 11-19-23

Goodness knows, I can’t write a book, so I admire anyone who can. That said, there wasn’t enough development of the characters or the story to make this any more than a quick, somewhat entertaining read. And the reader’s voice and cadence were good, but some work on pronunciation is in order. Coups, pronounced coos, are the overthrow of a government. Coupes, with the p pronounced, are ice cream desserts.

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Yawn

Revisado: 09-05-23

I think David Grann is a great writer, but this is not his best. Perhaps it’s just that the entire venture seems an incredible waste to me, thus, other than wanting one’s favorite characters to survive, there’s little to care about. The reader reads with awe and excitement in his voice, never a good idea. Either the book captures the reader’s attention, and so doesn’t need to be jazzed up, or it doesn’t, and no display of enthusiasm can fix that. It’s like a stale piece of cake with a whole bowl of whipped cream on top. The cake is still stale; now it’s soggy, too.

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I love Alice Hoffman

Revisado: 01-23-22

But that doesn’t mean I love everything she’s written. Not every character has to be lovable, but Rachel is hard to take. Did she not learn anything from being treated unkindly and excluded from her family and community? Hat’s off to Camille for being determined to make such beautiful art, and being kind to his mother after how she treated him. The part about loving him the most doesn’t work for me- it doesn’t make up for treating someone badly, or even frankly explain it. But the descriptions of the physical surroundings were wonderful.

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Engaging Story with Lessons for Us Now

Revisado: 09-22-19

I love the characters, the description of New York around 1900. But even more, I love the possibilities suggested of how a Jewish Golem and Arab Jinni could defy convention through caring for and protecting one another. This is a sweet story, very well read by Mr. Guidall.

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Wanted to Like This Book

Revisado: 06-07-19

What a cool idea to write the true story of a woman who was an incredible organizer and leader of a spy organization that provided important information to the Allies.

Sadly, the writing is a bit clunky - it needed some editing, and a focus on fewer of the stories, with more details about each. I understand the impulse to give each and every person who risked and/or gave their lives credit, but it dilutes the story for those of us who didn't know them personally.

And finally the reader. If a book has any drama to it, it is absolutely unnecessary to express your feelings about the scene in your reading. We should forget the reader altogether. Instead I was constantly struggling to manage my irritation with the reader's constant insertion into the story, and to get my mind back on the plot.

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Wow!

Revisado: 05-10-17

Superb. Interlocking lives, more subtley rendered enen than Olive Kittridge, another favorite. Strout is at the top of her game. And, yes i am a man.

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Pulitzer Prize for community service

Revisado: 06-24-15

Well told moving story full of information most of us don't know about rape. Should not matter that he's man, but it does, because sadly, people still listen more to men. And hurrah if more people take acquaintance rape seriously as a result of reading this.

I'm making it sound like a social treatise, but actually, this is a page turner, as well.

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Purple Prose

Revisado: 03-09-15

This should be a good book, but the author manages to overwhelm the story in which you want to be interested by phrase after phrase praising how wonderful whatever is being described is. Or how perfidious. Yawn.

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