Outer Banks
by Anne Rivers Siddons
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.28 You Save: $4.71 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Outer Banks
Book Review: Not what it seems
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all, what's a man doing reviewing a book for women? Well,
why not? I picked up the book in the laundry room and blatant curiosity
impelled me to dig into it. I'm not sorry ... I don't think.
Certainly, Siddons has a smooth narrative style, as other reviewers
have noted. And she has a certain talent for fleshing out characters. But
something went wrong here in this particular book. What? The characters'
behavior just doesn't seem consistent with ... well, their character.
I couldn't make much sense of this book. Then I had a grand *inspiration*.
What if ... the narrator, Kate, is lying through her teeth and has
fabricated the whole story? What if her friend/enemy Fig Newton is
actually the victim ... and heroine? What if Kate is the one really
behind all the plots and machinations and has set up Fig to take the
fall? Aha! Now all the pieces come together.
Possibly the deception is deliberate on the part of author Rivers Siddons.
That would mean that she's cleverer than all her readers and reviewers
(except yours truly, of course). And so Anne Rivers Siddons comes across
as a most enigmatic and cryptic writer who deserves the company of James
Joyce and Robert Musil. By golly, that's why I'm bumping the rating up
from one star to three. Maybe this book even deserves five. Nobel Prize
for Literature, anyone?
Book Review: Can You Go Back?
Summary: 4 Stars
Anne Rivers Siddons, the author of Outer Banks is comfortable explaining the southern soul, but she also understands the depth of friendships that develop during a young woman's formative years. Many of us can remember the deep friendships we formed when away at college for the first time. We often look at these friendships with idealism and nostalgia. Kate who is fighting a battle with cancer is asked to attend a reunion with her three closest college friends, Cecie, Ginger and Fig. Kate is unsure that she wants to return or see these friends again. There was a time when she loved them dearly, but that time is long past and betrayals bridge that gap.
Siddons presents a book in which things are not what they seem . There are numerous deceptions and undercurrents beneath the surface of the happy reunion. Each participate has developed their own agenda and their perception of their happy college life differs vastly.
The setting of the outer banks is intriguing and the reader feels the attraction of the sun and ocean. Soon the reader also begins to feel the compelling and seductive force of the waves and is effect on the lives of those of the shore dwellers.
I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy stories about complex relationships
Book Review: A larger-than-life story with crisp, emotional characters.
Summary: 4 Stars
This author never disappoints me with her garrulous prose and characters that stay with you well beyond the telling of the tale. The cool, aristocratic Kate, tells us the story of four friends that come together as members of a women's sorority house in college. The tiny, elflike Cecie is closest to Kate's heart, and their friendship becomes the staple of her college existence. Ginger and Fig share the room next door in this campus domicile that fills the hours of all their lives till graduation. Things are not always as they seem and life throws some curve balls that are unexpected by our Kate. These are times of great loves, and friendships, as well as great sorrows. Though devastating as it can be, life must go on and people do survive the disappointment that wreaks havoc with the plans of a lifetime.
It is many years later and the women have decided to come together at Ginger's beach house on the Outer Banks. Who is the perpetrator that has manipulated this situation and what lies ahead for the group? It is an engrossing tale from start to finish. Kelsana 6/4/02
Book Review: Great..until the end
Summary: 4 Stars
I truly enjoyed the book, until Kate decided to go back to the Outer Banks for the reunion. It was amazing to me that she was able to forgive Ginger and Paul for getting married. AND then to cheat on Alan, who had stood by her after everything she had been through - YUCK! And have Alan not even care that she cheated? And we never find out what happens to Cece in those twenty something years, except for a few paragraphs of info. So to sum it up, the first 3/4 of the book was excellent, the last was like watching a soap opera. Sleeping with sleazy Paul-who could STILL control Kate after all those years-was truly poor on Kate's part. She should have given Paul and Ginger a piece of her mind, said farewell and walked away with peace and closure. End of story.
Book Review: Very disappointed in the ending.
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a big fan of Anne Rivers Siddons. "Fault Lines" is one of my all time favorite books, the one that got me hooked on her. I loved the way "Outer Banks" started and carried out the plot. I thought the characters were well developed..until the end. The entire book came to it's unrealistic conclusion in about 10 pages with many unanswered questions. If CeCe could only leave Vinnie's mother for 3 more days, how could she stay at Kate's for weeks? Who shot Fig, Kate or CeCe? And Alan seemed pretty happy even though his wife cheated on him. This was the worst Siddons book I have read. I am still a fan, and will read more, because I know she is capable of much better!