The Dive From Clausen's Pier: A Novel
by Ann Packer
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Book Reviews of The Dive From Clausen's Pier: A Novel
Book Review: Misplaced Devotion
Summary: 4 Stars
This captivating novel begins with a young couple, ready to break up, who are instead forced to remain together by the tragedy of a freak accident, the named "Dive from Clausen's Pier." This occurs when the couple is out for a Memorial Day picnic, and the young man (Mike) in a mistaken gesture at bravado aimed at his increasingly estranged girlfriend (Carrie) dives in the shallow lake and becomes paralyzed. This is a story not only of remaining true to another, but also to one's own feelings and knowing when to let someone else get on with his or her life. It's also about the choices made out of guilt (a sense that something tragic would not have occurred if only we had acted differently).
Ann Packer's novel is also a tale of courage and making your way in the world when an unforeseen life-changing event turns plans on their head. This is a very good novel that will keep the reader engaged with the plotline throughout the book, although it is told primarily from Carrie's point of view. Yet, Packer imbues Mike's character with just as much courage and meaning as Carrie's, and that is what makes the novel stretch beyond merely interesting into something great.
As a side note, for anyone who sews, there are some lovely descriptions of sewing and fabric. Carrie eventually turns to fashion design, but not until she has used this hobby as a means of solace and support. Although the focus on fashion probably makes "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" more appealing to women, there are lessons here for all.
Book Review: Packer takes the reader on an emotional journey
Summary: 4 Stars
In her first novel The Dive From Clausen's Pier, Ann Packer shows us how complex human nature can be. As you read about 23-year-old Carrie Bell you can feel what she feels. Carrie is from a small town in Wisconsin. She longs to leave her hometown, but she doesn't really know what she wants to do. As a small town girl myself, I could relate to her yearning to leave her hometown for something bigger and more exciting. This is a theme that persists throughout the story. Also unhappy with Mike, the only boyfriend she's ever had, we find her personal journey of self-reflection just beginning when Mike becomes paralyzed after diving off a local pier. This brings to light the theme of putting others' needs before your own. Just how important is it to think of others before yourself? Is it worth your own unhappiness? The pressure is on from there.The idea of trying to escape yourself is one that keeps coming back up in the novel and one of the reasons why it is such a page-turner. When we see the reactions of people in her town when she decides to move to New York, it is a reminder to us of how people react in different situations. It brings up the question, "What would you do?". It also makes the reader think of how judgmental people can be. The story starts to drag a little in the middle when Carrie is in New York, and the reader sometimes wonders where Packer is going with the story. When everything finally did come to an end, I can't express how disappointed I was with the way the story ended.
Book Review: Who is this character? Why would I even like her?
Summary: 1 Stars
I am almost halfway through the book and I've relived more of my teenage sewing experiences than I've developed any sort of connection to the character. And frankly, it makes me glad I don't sew anymore. I find myself hating her for being too perfect. She so quiet and gentle...puts everything away after her sewing sessions, feels guilty for spending money on fabric (but not for running away apparently). GET REAL!!! Perhaps if the author had told the story from Mike's point of view or from his mother's point of view it could have been a likable story. But I just don't CARE what happens to Carrie Bell.
Furthermore, why is New York chosen to be the city that holds the answer for her? Cliche (again!) I guess I could have believed it more if she had stopped and had the same experiences in Chicago. I can just picture this girl in NY...the girl that puts her fabric scraps away and packs her silk robe in tissue paper is intrigued by the broken down digs of an acquaintance simply because it's not Wisconsin!...what about cockroaches? I'd like to see her reaction to cockroaches or an occasional rat that comes to visit her cubicle in this hell hole!
The other night my husband couldn't sleep, so I started reading this book aloud to him. I told him the premise, but he fell fast asleep while I read about Carrie's trip to the fabric store.
I think I'll take another reviewers advice and read the last 4 pages.
Look for a nice hardly-used copy for sale here or on eBay very soon!!!
Book Review: A Flawless Writer
Summary: 5 Stars
Packer's writing is so smoothly executed that I forgot I was reading a book. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I couldn't put the book down and found it entirely realistic throughout.
I LOVE the "thread" of the main character's sewing woven throughout the story. This felt like such a woman's book to me---who hasn't ever loved a cad irrationally, or lost herself in passion inexplicably? Who hasn't ever "made a new plan, Stan," and let her impulses take her to a new life? I think many college educated women from cosmopolitan locations, like Carrie, have.
Packer captures everything beautifully--NYC, the simplicity of a first-time h.s. love, the staggering ambivalence Carrie feels toward Mike and her high-maintenance friend, Jaime.
I don't know how Packer does it. Her writing is the literary equivalent of a photograph. Packer has a seamless connection between life, her mind and her pen. And looking at the author's photo on the back flap, I felt her to be the perfect prototype of Carrie! What a beautiful woman!
This is a wonderful book dealing with the heart wrenching realities of life that make me philosophic about my own life. The book has plenty of rich detail about the connections many women feel with men, textiles, nature, our friends, mothers and mother figures, dead beat dads and dad figures, career, ourselves.
This is a really, really good book, aptly heralded as a best seller.
Book Review: Thin Characters, Excessive Detail, Plodding Pace
Summary: 2 Stars
This was a tough one to get through. The book is overloaded with unimportant details that the narrator observes (this is supposedly part of her characterization) but it doesn't add much to the novel. Perfectly mundane actions (both in the description and what's described) like making tea, sewing, etc., are described in unremarkable, excruciating detail.
Also, we're given access to the narrator's thought processes in terms of sewing or fashion choices, but hardly ever on things that really matter. Thus, the reader gets a cheaply-wrought sense of surprise because despite all the narrator's internal chatter, the reader has no clue about who the narrator is. Perhaps this is intentional, a book about a character's lack of self-knowledge and the avoidance of painful topics, but the author's use of detail is too scattershot to make much of an impact.
Many of the plotlines and characters are underdeveloped. Her mother is a therapist, but I don't get any sense of that in any of their interactions. Simon is supposedly her closest (platonic) friend in New York and yet he fades out of the book. The narrator leaves town without a word, rarely contacts her crippled fiance over the months she is gone, and yet her fiance seems strangely accepting of her behavior.
This is supposed to be a realistic meditation on issues of self-determination versus community expectations, but it just doesn't add up.