COMMONWEALTH by ANN PATCHETT.BACK COVER BLURB: It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later. In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story...
FIRST SENTENCE {1}: The Christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Oh dear! I seem to have returned the book along with the post-it-note denoting my Memorable Moment before actually making a note of that very Memorable Moment. TT
SOURCE: A library book.
READ FOR: Not applicable.
MY THOUGHTS: Summed up, reading Commonwealth felt like having one of those one-way 'conversations' with an acquaintance that, despite your having tried your best to avoid them, now that they have you cornered, are boring you silly relating stories of family members and events that, reverberating back and forth over the generations, you have trouble keeping track of.
Alas, this wasn't a book for me. My stubbornness to give up on a novel/my fear that, like some readers I'll pick a pre-determined number of pages beyond which, if I'm not enjoying a book, I'll give up on it, only to find that I have in fact missed out on what turns out to be an amazing read the only thing that kept me going until the end.
10 comments:
Well we totally agree on this one and I love your analogy about being cornered. As you will see from my upcoming review, it was the first bookclub selection we've read that I honestly didn't like at all.
Hoping our next selection will be more to our liking!
Thank you for your honest review! I hope the next book you pick up is more to your liking.
I tend to like books that cover long stretches of time and long stretches of people's lives. Too bad that you found this to be disappointing.
I have also stuck with books for way too many pages.
Tracy,
I am sorry that you did not
like this book, but as always
I appreciate your honesty about
it. As well as that I an looking
forward to Kelly's review.
And I still think that books,
by talking and sharing about them
connect people to each other.
Raven
Although it remains on my TBR list I loved your take on this one :)
Sorry you didn't enjoy this one more- but your thoughts had me laughing. I can totally picture that kind of conversation and it gave me a clear view of your thoughts on the book. :) Thanks for sharing!
Hi Tracy,
I love and admire the candid and honest reviews you always post.
I wish I had the ability to truly "tell it like it is" sometimes, but I don't have your natural humour with which to soften the blow!
I maintain that reviewing is always a very subjective pastime, as what one person reads and enjoys, another may hate - and vice versa of course.
I'm not ruling this one out, but I definitely won't be paying to read it any time soon :)
Yvonne
Yep, totally get your reluctance in DNF'ing a book. Sorry this one wasn't for you and I hope the next one totally captivates you.
sorry to hear it wasn't for you
Thank goodness I’ve managed to kick the habit of finishing a book even if I hate it. Life really is too short and my must-read list too long to do that anymore. Having read your review, I won’t be adding this one to that list. Lovely to see you back to regular blogging Tracy, I missed you while you were away.
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