Vinegar Hill (Oprah's Book Club)
by A. Manette Ansay | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0380730138 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0380730138 Global Overview for this book
Registered by doriayve of Jersey City, New Jersey USA on 10/12/2006
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
OK, OK, I'm ashamed to admit it but when Oprah first started her book club I went out and got the first few books she recommended. There, it's out in the open - "Hi, I'm Doria and I was a member of Oprah's book club." Now you say "Hi, Doria!" or laugh, whichever. Anyway, I maybe read the first few pages of this and right away it wasn't for me. But maybe someone else will enjoy it - after all, Oprah did.
By the way, I didn't learn my lesson right away and am listing another Oprah pick with the same intro since it was aquired under the same dubious circumstances.
From Publisher's Weekly—"Set in 1972, Ansay's debut novel revolves around Ellen Grier's struggle for liberation-liberation from her marriage to James, from her virtual enslavement to her sanctimonious, cruel in-laws and from what she see as the stultifying demands of her religion, Roman Catholicism. Financial difficulties have forced James and Ellen, along with their two children, to move back to the small Wisconsin town where they grew up and where they now share an acrimonious and joyless life with James's parents. Virtually every character is victimized by a private misery that causes pain and alienation and that in turn victimizes others. Ansay, who teaches creative writing at Vanderbilt, is adept at delineating these worlds of suffering, and her language can be both apt and beautiful. But she offers too many descriptions of the nightmares and waking bad dreams that seem to afflict all of her characters, and the reader begins to share the sense of being caught in a bad dream. As the story concentrates more on Ellen's search for identity-a familiar tale presented here in a familiar way-this sense of nightmare is intensified by an impression of deja vu. Though uneven, the novel offers glimpses of Ansay's potential to deliver a more coherent book next time."
By the way, I didn't learn my lesson right away and am listing another Oprah pick with the same intro since it was aquired under the same dubious circumstances.
From Publisher's Weekly—"Set in 1972, Ansay's debut novel revolves around Ellen Grier's struggle for liberation-liberation from her marriage to James, from her virtual enslavement to her sanctimonious, cruel in-laws and from what she see as the stultifying demands of her religion, Roman Catholicism. Financial difficulties have forced James and Ellen, along with their two children, to move back to the small Wisconsin town where they grew up and where they now share an acrimonious and joyless life with James's parents. Virtually every character is victimized by a private misery that causes pain and alienation and that in turn victimizes others. Ansay, who teaches creative writing at Vanderbilt, is adept at delineating these worlds of suffering, and her language can be both apt and beautiful. But she offers too many descriptions of the nightmares and waking bad dreams that seem to afflict all of her characters, and the reader begins to share the sense of being caught in a bad dream. As the story concentrates more on Ellen's search for identity-a familiar tale presented here in a familiar way-this sense of nightmare is intensified by an impression of deja vu. Though uneven, the novel offers glimpses of Ansay's potential to deliver a more coherent book next time."
Journal Entry 2 by doriayve at Starbucks in Target Greatland in Jersey City, New Jersey USA on Friday, October 20, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (10/21/2006 UTC) at Starbucks in Target Greatland in Jersey City, New Jersey USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
It's in the Starbucks in Target. Go into the seating area and walk to the front window. I put it on the ledge between the window and the seating counter. It can be seen from outside the Target (thorough the window into Starbucks).
It's in the Starbucks in Target. Go into the seating area and walk to the front window. I put it on the ledge between the window and the seating counter. It can be seen from outside the Target (thorough the window into Starbucks).
