Reviews

Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object by Laurie Colwin

missdaisy17's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

mtomchek's review against another edition

4.0

"...no matter with what stealth you approached passion, no matter how long the waiting time spins out before it erupts, it is the soul of impatience, and recklessness lives right in the heart of it."

"...there isn't any safe and painless way to love."

Realistic and true. Love can be so blinding and painful, and we can get lost amidst all of the glamor of love. This was intense, sad, and definitely took turns I did not expect. Love Laurie Colwin, her words relate to me, which is much needed at this time. Love should be easy and cozy, feel supported and real even in the slow moments. If you lose your hobbies, your passions, yourself...then it may not be love...

thebugreadsbooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

amlibera's review against another edition

5.0

Re-read. Love Laurie Colwin.
This read more melancholy than the first time I read it. But not a surprise. Still enjoyed it- her detail is thick and evocative.

mastrisofha's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jplassman's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this but it seemed dated. A lot has changed in the last 50 years and some of the mores and attitudes seem remote to me now. If I had read this when it was first published, I would have been a young teen. It makes me realize that even though relationships are still important, young women no longer have quite such man centered lives. I often wonder at the things I thought I needed to do for love. This book makes me remember why I thought that way. I can tell it was written by a young woman. I'm interested to see what her later work is like.

caroparr's review against another edition

4.0

A young woman's book about a young woman, filled with Colwin's familiar elements: elegant but comfortable surroundings, WASPy characters, a few Jews (usually the narrator), true love, and complicated relationships. If I had read this in my thirties (and maybe I did, who can remember?), I would have eaten it up with a spoon. Yes, the final episode seems like part of a different book, but it does allow Olly to explore her newfound love

Spoiler

for Sam

and to come to a fully understood decision about what she'll do next.

readings_musings2002's review against another edition

funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Laurie has made a sentimentalist out of me and I love her for it.

suannelaqueur's review against another edition

4.0

Tomorrow I'll be 48. I'm now as old as Laurie Colwin was when she died. She's a beautiful and sometimes infuriating writer. Her characters are complex, introspective to a fault, and often unlikable. Her prose is brilliant and sparse, and then it wanders off into a verbose swamp before coming back to clean, bracing brilliance. She must have driven her editor mad. I love her. Not everyone does. But I do. And I'm grateful to have discovered her. In her own words: "I felt something very close to gratitude, but it was only love and respect, mixed with something in me that she had freed and enlightened. If you can drink life in, I drank. I drank to love and death and friendship, to loss and complication, to deprivation and wisdom."

jenniferaimee's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

I feel a little like I just read three, or maybe two, different books. Colwin's writing drew me in, though, and the narrator kept me reading. I may prefer Colwin's food writing to her fiction, but that doesn't mean I won't read more of her fiction in the future.