The Dive From Clausen's Pier: A Novel
by Ann Packer
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.69 You Save: $12.26 (82%) 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 The Dive From Clausen's Pier: A Novel
Book Review: Ann Packer works at her craft and it shows.
Summary: 5 Stars
We had George Eliot, the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen to give us exquisitely memorable characters and now we have Ann Packer. She not only gives us characters such as the main character, Carrie, who is the first person narrator but Carrie's two lovers, Mike and Kilroy. Don't forget the rest of the cast. All of them are unforgettable. I am still imagining them a week after I finished the novel, something which is the test of a good book. Kilroy says at one point, when Carrie is worrying about the age old question of "loves me, loves me not" that he was just "blown away" by her (this from a cynical man who isn't blown away by anything until then). I thought to myself, "I'm blown away by her too. I'm in love!" In love with Carrie the character and Ann Packer, the writer. Ann has it all as a writer. Not only does she get her characters and her dialogue down pat but she also has smell, sight, taste and sound all just right. I have walked around Manhattan just like Carrie has and I have visited Madison, Wisconsin, Carrie's home town. Ann Packer's place descriptions are as real as the cities themselves.
Oh, the story. I almost forgot about the story in savoring the characters and the places sentence by sentence.
The story is so true to life, I ached from watching the events unfold. It is a page turner but different from a crime novel page turner. There is more at stake here. Old fashioned things like love, honor, duty, morality, goodness are all up for grabs in this story but all of them are put down there in the details of the story. Ann Packer resists the temptation to preach. She lets her characters speak for themselves and she does the same thing with her story. This story unfolds by itself with the same brutal honesty Carrie has about herself.
I liked the ending. I liked everything about this book. It's going to be on my Christmas list for all kinds of people.
Thank you, Ann, for working so very hard on this book. I hope you do the same for your next and your next and your next.
Book Review: Life held up to a mirror
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviews I have read are so literal about this story and this is understandable because Packer's writing is like Carrie's sewing--straightforward, easy to follow and not at it's best when adorned. If, however, anyone has ever been in a relationship that was headed for a breakup, then this is the book to read so that you begin to understand that you cannot sacrifice your life to a terminal cause---and you cannot necessarily find yourself by being attracted to the polar opposite--as invigorating as the experience may be. Carrie's dilemma is painful: stay with the man she had outgrown emotionally because he is now quadriplegic and because others expect her too or break hearts and expectations and pursue what she feels is finally in her best interest. Most of us have found ourselves in this situation and saturated with remorse after the fact when we try to understand our motives. The ending is therefore perfect--you cannot escape who you are by moving and hiding somewhere new. You must first accept the consequences of your decisions,and then confront those who are angry or hurt and help them understand that no one can--or has the right--to make us feel guilty for the hurt or dashed expectations of others and finally to accept your choices of the moment because they suit you--and cannot hurt others unless they choose to be hurt. Michael does not finally feel hurt by Carrie--his mother does, because now her son is her responsibility. Is that motherly love? Her friend is upset that Carrie left town and was not their for her familial meltdown. Would that have been made any easier if Carrie been physically present? Is that selfishness or hurt? Must we assure the happiness of others at all costs to our own happiness and dignity? That is impossible. That is not love. Please, lift this novel off the page and apply it to your life. It is personal, reflective and unadorned and I find myself thinking back to it often. This book is truly a reward for the time spent reading it.Book Review: Flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
As mentioned by several other reviewers, "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" starts off strong. The author researched spinal cord injuries and gives a very thorough description of the challenges boyfriend Mike faces in the early days of his recovery. The main character, Carrie, is a young woman who has led a somewhat sheltered life and is beginning to chafe at its constraints as the story begins.
After Carrie leaves her hometown to move to New York (presumably to escape from her sense of obligation to Mike) the story really deteriorates. A "Sex and the City" type of description of New York is used. Carrie and her friends go to SoHo, to art gallery openings, and stroll around most Major New York Landmarks, with minimal plot development. While I usually prefer character-driven rather than plot-driven books, it was difficult in this case to suspend reality enough to accept Carrie's life in NY and to see her as anything other than a) selfish and b) oblivious to ALL the relationships in her life, not just that with Mike, as she tries her best to cut all ties with Madison.
Kilroy is truly a one-dimensional, annoying character. Carrie's sexual ties to him may have been a plot device to show how she is a very sexual person and would not have been fulfilled in a relationship with Mike after his injury. If this was the author's intention it was illustrated in an embarrassing manner, as other reviewers pointed out. One particular "cupping" phrase was used in a sexual context at least six times and I began to mentally prepare for it as I read the book and saw a sex scene introduced.
The ending just sort of happened without any clear resolution of Carrie's feelings. I believe she drifted into her ultimate situation rather than made a rational decision; particularly galling since she took such decisive action to get out of her situation when she left Madison and went to New York. Ultimately dissatisfying after a very strong start.
Book Review: Packer brilliantly uses flashbacks
Summary: 4 Stars
Ann Packer, the author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier, is a brilliant woman who strategically uses flashbacks to illustrate the story of Carrie Bell's discovery of self. After her fiancé's tragic injury, she is overwhelmed with the pressure put on her by his family and friends so she runs to New York City to stay with a friend from high school, never thinking that her quick escape would turn into a year long abandonment of her family and friends back home in Wisconsin. During her time in New York, she constantly experiences flashbacks from her past. The reader sees that Carrie is still very attached to the life she is hiding from. Certain people and circumstances take her back to her previous life. She is trying to put the past behind her without ever dealing with it. It is too painful for her to think of all the people she hurt by leaving so abruptly, so she selfishly keeps busy in her own little world. The flashbacks reveal her intense struggle to decide who she is as a person and which life she wants to lead. She loves New York City, but something inside her knows that she will not stay there forever. When Jamie's family falls apart, Carrie is shaken out of her self-absorbed bubble and returns to Wisconsin to console her old best friend. She plans for this trip home to be a quick one, just like her escape to New York, but she continually delays her return to the city, realizing how many old friendships were in need of mending. While back in her home town, she never experiences flashbacks of New York. Instead, she thinks of all the great memories she has from Wisconsin, telling the reader the end to Carrie's inner search is near. Although it is painful to see Carrie run from her problems, it is necessary for her to get away in order to think back and see all the good that she left behind. Just when the reader is almost certain that Carrie has forgotten about her past and moved on, her mind takes her back to where her heart always resided.Book Review: A coming of age...
Summary: 4 Stars
While reading this novel, I found myself stopping just to ask myself what I would have done if I were in Carrie's position. Sometimes, I would be angry with her, for not sucking it up and doing the "right" thing. But unforunately, the "right" thing tended to be what was right for everyone else BUT Carrie. Yet other times I felt sorry for her and the choices she had made to land herself in such precarious positions. The author did a fabulous job of making the reader feel crowded and stifled, just as Carrie did. I too was upset with Carrie for her decision to go away without so much as a goodbye to the ones that loved her, but I can see why she did it. I got the impression that for quite some time, Carrie had been living the life that others expected of her and not one of her own. So, she left and I applauded it. But, I don't think her leaving is the point of contention rather just the manner in which she left. Anyway, by leaving, I believe that she eliminated many questions she would have faced later in her life - you know, the "what would my life be like now if I would have left Madison just one time?" question. She left, tried it for awhile (in a very fictionalized, stereotypical yet entertaining NYC) and went back home.
We must not forget that Carrie and Mike's relationship was on the verge of non existence when Mike had his terrible accident. For those upset with Carrie's lack of loyalty, I beg the question, what would you have her do? Which is more regretful, being in a relationship out of societal obligation or being a supportive friend. True, it took awhile for her to get there but isn't it likely she never would have become the friend Mike needed had she not left at all?
I feel this story can evoke emotions in many women of Carrie's age - the time in her life where everything she thought she once knew so well was completely unfamiliar - most important of all - herself.