The View from Mount Joy
2 journalers for this copy...
From Publishers Weekly
Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values.
Owed to boomda from the nongenre swap
Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values.
Owed to boomda from the nongenre swap
Landvik writes another gorgeous book! Her stories are so simple, yet feel so deep, so resonant. I enjoyed following the course of Joe's life. He is certainly the type of person that we all know, the type we want to know. I liked how Landvik subtly tied this book to another, Patty Jane's House of Curl, placing them both in the same small town, but without intermeshing the characters so much that it felt forced. She merely provided another story of the depth of real lives that exist in one place. I was sad when this book ended as I would have been happy to continue on with Joe until his last days. This novel solidified Landvik as one of my favorite authors.
This book arrived awhile back, sorry for the delay in journalling. Am looking forward to reading another Lorna Landvik! Thanks Ri!
Journal Entry 4 by boomda181 at N/A, for controlled release -- Controlled Releases on Monday, February 13, 2012
I really enjoyed Joe and his entire family. Lorna Landvik creates characters who I want to continue reading about long past the last page and Joe is no exception. Thanks Ri for sending this along to me. Now to find good way to pass this great book along...
