popelc6's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kittykornerlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
I am reading another Big Chunk of a Book right now and this is not fitting into my reading life. I enjoy the voice of the widow telling the story, but this isn't right for me right now.
mary412's review against another edition
3.0
This may have been one of the first spoken word books I encountered. Can't remember if I got it from Books On Tape or from the public library. I didn't have time to get it read for book group, so I resorted to listening. What a joy!
jsdaly's review against another edition
3.0
Great story and characters, but this book could have easily been chopped by 150 pages without losing anything of substance.
sewfrench's review against another edition
3.0
This book was highly recommended, while on a Civil War battlefields tour, over Memorial Day weekend. I picked it up shortly thereafter and quickly read the first half and 5 months later I can say I have finally finished it! I did enjoy it and should have stuck it out in a more timely manner, lots to think about. If you are looking for books about the Civil War, this isn't the first one I would recommend, but it does help to round out what happened to life, for some, after the war.
piercedkl's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
I loved ‘Plays well with others’ by this same author. This is the novel Gurganus first became known for and while it is interesting, it did not keep me interested. Dealing with the confederacy and slavery, it was challenging at times. Knowing it was written by a white male author also made me question some choices made - when it first came out I am sure it read differently. Now, with the social and knowledge growth that the US has had, I found it difficult to read a slaves experience told by a white man. I am glad I read it, but I doubt I would recommend it to anyone.
chrisiant's review against another edition
3.0
Effectively this is a number of novellas told by the same narrator, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read one novella at a time, spaced out a little more. I vacillated wildly between enjoying sections and having to drag myself through others. Overall my experience was positive, but parts were seriously a slog.
jeanmachine's review against another edition
4.0
This wasn't the easiest book I've ever read but the stories in it were fascinating. None that I would have ever expected from the title. The author had an amazing way of taking the voice of each character in each separate story and owning it. The book is sort of random, told just like an old woman might ramble around telling different stories from her life. A few ended quite shockingly, especially the one at the end. The only thing that got on my nerves throughout was the incorrect use of "a" when coming before a word staring with a vowel. I don't think the word "an" was used anywhere in all 875 pages!
melissarochelle's review against another edition
I loved what I read of this book...but I took too long of a pause to get back into it. Oh well! One more for the unfinished shelf.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
5.0
Whenever I'm reading this book I remember how much I love it, and yet after I've finished it and moved on to other things I forget it. I don't forget what happens or what it's about - I forgot how much I like it. It's strange.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.