Sunday, February 10, 2013

Breaking Her Fall-Review by Pam H.

Breaking Her Fall

Hi Ladies,
 
It was a good discussion today and we missed those of you who couldn't make it.  For a book that we didn't end up liking that much... it did stimulate some good conversation!

There were 7 of us present (with one person not having read the book but came anyway... go Johnnie!!)  The range of ratings went from 0 to 2.5 ( with an average of 1.75).   

Some of us thought the book was a compelling story at the beginning and then went down hill and others didn't care for it right from the start.  We all agreed that we wouldn't recommend the book.  Much of the problem revolved around not liking the characters, especially Tucker, the father.  We all agreed that the author did not really develop some of the characters nor some of the parts of the book and we found that frustrating.  He also digressed, at times, for too long which interfered with the flow of the book and made it boring.

The writing left a lot to be desired and we were amazed that the author is a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va in the creative writing department!   Goodwin has written four other books "Kin" in 1975 and "The Blood of Paradise in 2000 and then 2 (little know books) about golf.

Here is a link to an interview with Goodwin regarding Breaking Her Fall :  http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_Goodwin.asp

Much of our conversation was about sexual behavior of teenagers (today and in the past)  and whether the daughter was raped in this particular story. We were ambivalent about a decision on that.   I personally liked the book for its references to the DC metro area which brought up many memories of my 25 years there. That did not help my rating, however!  Probably the case for Pam B, as well.  There was much more but you kinda  "had to be there"  as the saying goes!  

THE NEWS

We did make some decisions today, so mark your calendars!  Our next meeting is going to be on March 15 instead of March 8th at it will be a Jonnie's house at 9:30 am.  She will provide her address closer to the date.  We also decided to push the May book (Shantaram ..which is a long book) to June and go to see the movie "Great Gatsby" in May and therefore not discuss a book in May.  A review of book list is below.

The other BIG decision that we made was at our annual July "party" meeting everyone is to bring 2 book titles (each from a different genre) that you have NOT read.  At that meeting, we will plan out the following year of books and work toward a good variety and mix of genres.
 
Wow... hope you enjoyed your wine and have a great weekend!
 
Pam H

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