The Lace Reader: A Novel
by Brunonia Barry
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Book Reviews of The Lace Reader: A Novel
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
Things I liked: Barry has a powerful ability to evoke "place." Her descriptions of the locations were masterful. I especially enjoyed the subtle way that she drew us into the more fantastic or fantasy aspects of the story. I found the premises and settings and characters all quite believable. Towner and her Aunt Evie were especially well done.
I also enjoyed the way the story flowed along. Its pace was quite well done; I felt neither rushed nor mired down as the story progressed and the elements began to weave themselves together.
What didn't I like? (and how to review them without spoilers?) By the time the stories began to draw to a conclusion, I was confused, but Barry had drawn her characters so well that I cared what happened to them. Then, unfortunately, the plot twists overwhelmed both the pace of the novel - more or less just ended with a "revelation." I closed the book thinking - truth! - "OK, what was the point of that?"
The book is worth reading if you enjoy immersion in place and character. If plot is important, the book will even satisfy to a degree... so long as you don't demand that it end - um - logically.
I suspect this review may not be very helpful, but it may give you a sense of how befuddled you might be when the book ends.
Book Review: Tough at the start, but worth it in the end
Summary: 3 Stars
I'd really like to give this 3 1/2 *'s. Four is too much though, so I'm sticking with 3. After reading some of the reviews here, I felt that I needed to add my own two cents...
I was born and raised in Salem, MA, so I was looking forward to reading this book. At first, I had a very difficult time getting into it. It gets a lot better once you get a chance to read some of Towner's journal. By that time, the narrative is moving along at a good clip and I found myself pretty absorbed in it all.
Sometimes I felt that the author included some unnecessary details because they are unique to Salem, such as the passing references she makes to both Gallows Hill and the Witchcraft Heights school, both of which are real places in Salem. Still, she does a pretty good job describing certain areas of Salem, particularly the Willows.
As for the ending, I've read some reviews that stated that there weren't enough clues to make the ending seem real. I had a hunch about the ending by the middle of the book, so to my mind there has to have been something in there that tipped me off. This is not the best-written novel that I've ever read, but it holds its own and is particularly interesting if you like fiction that deals with psychological issues and family dynamics.
Book Review: The Lace Reader
Summary: 5 Stars
The Lace Reader is an incredible, intelligent, exquisitely written book. Brunonia Barry has created a compelling story that, from the first page, immerses the reader in the world of Towner Whitney.
The Lace Reader is as intricate as lace and the reader experiences the book through the interwoven patterns of the stories of Towner, Lyndley, Eva, May, Susan, Angela, the dogs of Yellow Dog Island, Rafferty, Cal, Jack and Beezer. Mystery, intrigue, abuse, love, romance, and history - all abound.
As Towner explains, "Sometimes when you look back, you can point to a time when your world shifts and heads in another direction. In lace reading this is called the "still point." Eva says it's the point around which everything pivots and real patterns start to emerge." The many threads of the story are masterfully woven together to illustrate the emerging patterns in the lives of the characters with an intensity that is unforgettable.
Who cannot be intrigued by the concept of reading lace to see the future?
And as Eva says to Towner, "It wasn't the lace that was wrong, " she always insisted. It was the reader's interpretation that failed." How powerful!
Now, after reading this beautiful book, I see lace everywhere!
Book Review: Over hyped but just an average read....
Summary: 2 Stars
I just finished reading The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. The book kept me hooked enough to finish but about half way through I started to get bored. I liked the author using Salem as a local (I am from Mass myself) and I learned a bit about lace reading and Ipswich enough to make me do a bit of research on early lace making in NE. Other than that, I found the story's plot weak and really not that exciting. Do I care whether or not the main character is nuts or not? No. That was the story. I also do not like books where all of the male characters are painted in a negative and/weak light. The three male characters were an alchoholic/rapist,a woman beater and christian wing nut and a divorced dad. All the woman characters are honorable, powerful and have redeeming qualities with many girrrl power moments (and yes, I am a woman). God help me. And the ending of novel had as much excitment as getting one's hair cut. What is with these dogs that live in caves in Salem? And why incorpoate them into the book only to have them attack Cal who is then, for some unknown reason which is never explained to the reader, shot and killed by May?
I do not know why a publisher would pay over $2 million dollars to Ms. Barry. A much hyped but only an average read.
Book Review: Good story of modern Salem, Massachusetts
Summary: 4 Stars
The Lace Reader: A Novel
Salem, Massachusetts, has an old and a modern history associated with witchcraft. Because I visited there mostly before Salem became a tourist attraction and magnet for practitioners of the paranormal, I enjoyed reading this book as a novel of place. Barry makes you feel you are one with the fogs and the seas, the old historic houses and the new age shops. Her characters happen to have the gift of lace-reading - seeing the future in the handwoven lace made in Salem, so the story weaves in and out of possibility, in and out of fantasy, with an ending that lands squarely in the now. Many women (and some men) will read this story with a haunting recognition that they themselves could possibly have been burned as witches if they had lived during the purging. That so many now embrace the characteristics that once made us witches - living alone, having ideas, exploring our extrasensory abilities - gives the reader an uneasy sense of deja vu. Barry eerily captures the knots that tie past and present, the real and the psychological. I leave you to discover the inter-lacing of time and place and events. Good novel.