mindyhoffer's review against another edition
3.0
This was good, but not great. It all takes place in one day. I liked the "layered" story....an old story woven in with the new one.
deweydecimator's review against another edition
2.0
Do you ever have really high expectations and feel frustrated that a book doesn't meet them? Do you ever feel like an author with high expectations put on them feels like they have to make their work complicated in order to catch people's attention. [return][return]That's how I felt about this book. I really wanted to like it and struggled through the whole book. But I found the characters hard to like and the storyline difficult to follow. I like mystery in the storyline and even a little headscratching is ok - but this was not done well enough for me to follow or understand.
eliz_s's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book, but there seem to be too many characters, some of whose names are so similar as to make things quite confusing. Still, it's not a bad read - I just don't know that I'd recommend it. It's not very memorable.
hikereadbeer's review against another edition
2.0
Not a very good book. Too much going on. Stories within stories within stories. I have absolutely nothing good to say about this except that I'm done.
yangyvonne's review against another edition
2.0
The book jumps between 1963 and 1993 interweaving two stories with common characters. Back in 1963, a plot for revenge took down a golf career, two men's friendship and created a scandal. 30 years later, Jon and Ginny (brought together by another tragedy) are at a crossroads in their marriage. Jone is having an affair with Winifred - who has her won stalker. Meanwhile, Ginny takes a consulting job with the old enemy of Jon's father. In the end, another tragedy occurs between Jon and the stalker (Ethan), leaving the mystery of whether Ginny will now learn of his adultery our whether Jon is in time to change his ways.
There were way too many people crammed into this book to ever be able to keep the two time periods and stories straight. It took me until about the 2/3 mark to only have to read a chapter once to be able to keep names straight. I understand the draw of wanting to intertwine the past and present, but perhaps the "middle" story involving Jon was too much for 244 pages? The end also leaves too much open - both in the 1963 and 1993 stories.
Would make a better TV show to help keep track of characters.
There were way too many people crammed into this book to ever be able to keep the two time periods and stories straight. It took me until about the 2/3 mark to only have to read a chapter once to be able to keep names straight. I understand the draw of wanting to intertwine the past and present, but perhaps the "middle" story involving Jon was too much for 244 pages? The end also leaves too much open - both in the 1963 and 1993 stories.
Would make a better TV show to help keep track of characters.
anissagk's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like this book. It followed two story lines from 2 generations. The flashbacks were difficult to follow and the book ended without resolution to all of the conflicts. I was disappointed.
anniewill's review against another edition
2.0
I was puzzled by the story-within-the-story from 1963. I never really figured out what happened. I found that aspect of the novel to be too vague.
bitterindigo's review
4.0
Her characterization is so deft and complex that I was halfway through the book before suddenly realizing that not a whole lot of action was taking place but I was thoroughly engrossed. Brilliant at exploring guilt and desire, how people fool themselves and manipulate others, some unconsciously and some not.
bookwormbecks's review against another edition
3.0
I loved this book up until the ending. I was really disappointed not having any closure to the story! I'm dying to know now what happened to the characters.
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