Songs Without Words (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Ann Packer
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Book Reviews of Songs Without Words (Vintage Contemporaries)
Book Review: A Major Disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I devoured Ann Packer's earlier novel, "The Dive From Clausen's Pier," in a matter of days. "Songs Without Words," however, proved to be a major letdown. Packer's eye for detail makes her writing compelling, to be sure, but "Songs" is mired deeply in exhaustive detail that quickly grows tedious. The first hundred pages describe nothing but characters going about their everyday lives, with bits of backstory thrown in for good measure. The book has very little plot, and what plot it does have moves at a sluggish pace, dragged down by excessive and unnecessary details. I grew frustrated with reading it and eventually gave up. (I skipped to the end, though, to make sure nothing exciting happened -- and sure enough, nothing did.)Book Review: Songs Without Joy...
Summary: 3 Stars
I really did enjoy this book - although I think I liked her first book better. It was pretty depressing (being mainly about depression...ha, ha). I thought that main friendship was a little lacking - it's not like other friend-books where I am dying to have my friends read them after me. But, I did enjoy it and I'm sure I will continue to watch for this author. Strangely, I did not buy this book - I got it from the club library, and until it eventually winds down to the dollar shelves at Half Price, I don't think I will be buying it. Even then, maybe no, as I don't see this book as one that I will ever be dying to re-read.Book Review: Female friends story
Summary: 3 Stars
This isn't chick-lit. it just happens to have female main characters. Delicate inner terrain is eloquently and caringly explored. This was something I voraciously read and I agree that the ending was not risky enough. I Know This Much Is True - which I reviewed and was 800 pages of details of action - now *that* was depressing.
Spoiler if you want to know why people found this objectionable:
A character attempts suicide and another character's mother did commit suicide.
Book Review: Couldn't Put it Down
Summary: 5 Stars
I read The Dive from Clausen's Pier and didn't love it. This book was amazing... the characters richly detailed and entirely believable, the subject matter dealt with gently but realistically. It really resonated with me, and I didn't want it to end, which I can say only about one other book I read this year (The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay).Book Review: Disjointed
Summary: 3 Stars
There were parts of this book that were engrossing but then it was if the author forgot what she was writing about and would jump to another character and story line. A serious subject, suicide, that was difficult to read, not only because of the subject but because the author wasn't very adept.