George Maio

A Nice Character Driven Novel

Revisado: 11-09-24

Anne it's a character that you'll always remember. If I was teaching a creative writing course, I would use her as an example of creating a vivid character with the unique personality.

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There Had to Be More Interesting Stories than This

Revisado: 09-14-24

The author comes off as a nice enough guy, But this is a pretty boring book. There are only two interesting stories in it: the story about making the movie "Glory" with Matthew Broderick and the complications with his mother, and how Julie Roberts' unpredictable behavior held up the production of "Shakespeare in Love" for five years. other than that I kept thinking, "He has to have more interesting stories to tell than this. He's been working in the movie industry for 40 years." The most exciting thing he has to say about "The Last Sameri" was "Tom really committed to the role, and I'll always be thankful for that." With "Blood Diamond" it was "Leo donated money so the town where we shot would be better off when we left it." And that Leo made sure he worked with really good actors early in his career so he could learn from them. These tid-bits didn't exactly have me on the edge of my seat. You will get an impresion that movie studios are run my psychopaths. The lists at the end of each chapter

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A Modern David Copperfield

Revisado: 11-17-21

It's good. Read it. They'd be reading this in AP English, if not for the subject matter.

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Someone needs to explain what I was supposed to.

Revisado: 05-08-21

gain from reading this book. it had interesting parts, but what was the point? Hum. .

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Beautiful Written/Not Enough Happens

Revisado: 05-01-21

The ending is good--there is a big pay-off at the end. But the first 4 hours is just so much about being a butler. I didn't care about that. The actual writing is beautiful. Up there with Fitzgerald and David Foster Wallace.

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Not as interesting as I would have liked

Revisado: 04-08-20

This was okay, picked it up when it was on sale for $6. And it was short. But I was expecting more. Of course, it's nothing like the movie, and I expected that. his book The Psychopath Test is much better than this.

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Amended Review

Revisado: 03-13-20

At first I panned this book. Then I discovered that this was an abridged version. So I have to cut it some slack. Now I'm more upset at audible and myself--for audable for offering an abridged version and for myself for not noticing this earlier. Antway, what was offered here is still really boring. My old review is below.

..to try to do better. I heard that this book was huge in the mid-1990s and very influential in resurrecting the memoir. I can only imagine it made other writers think, "I can do better then that!" Although some of the wording is nice, and Ms. Carr does a good job showing off her vocabulary, there is not that much interesting here. Almost everyone I know has a more interesting story to tell. The two highlights are one cringe-worthy moment when Mary is 8 (or 10, I can't remembered) and the end--with the attic--which really isn't that much of a pay-off after slogging through a book that seems three times as long as 4 hours. I think I need to start writing. Read the Patti Smith book Just Kids instead.

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Nice Concepts; Terrible Storytelling

Revisado: 02-23-20

This novel is a must read if you want to profess to be well-educated, but you could gain just as much by someone telling you the plot and themes in 10 minutes. It is little wonder that every movie version has bastardized the plot. Shelly writes every scene you expect to be dramatic as undramtically as it could be relayed. Perhaps if I read this in a college course a professor could explain the purpose of her style. And book seems padded. There were many times I thought, "Why do I need to know this? Get on with the plot." In a competition of teenage authors, Shelly loses big-time to S E Hinton.

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It's Worth Reading but Not Very Deep

Revisado: 01-21-20

This novel is okay. The author is basically just writing the Native American version of The House on Mango Street. It is worth a read, but I wonder what all these teachers who use it for class say about the novel. It is all literal level. I can't see a deep discussion on what happens here or having to rely on any literary technique to determine the themes. This is all surface. Which is good, I guess, for reluctant readers.

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Donna Trate does an Excellent Narration

Revisado: 01-03-20

I probably spelled Donna Tarte's name wrong. But this is a good book and she does an excellent job narrating. This book should be read in schools.

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