About this title: Jonathan is gay, and Bobby is straight, but they have been close friends from childhood. They move together from their home town of Cleveland to New York, where they live with a roommate, the appealingly offbeat Clare. When she becomes pregnant with Bobby's child, the three leave the city for the Vermont countryside, where they struggle to keep their unorthodox domestic situation intact. The story is told from several alternating points of view, including that of Jonathan's mother, Alice. As always, Cunningham probes deep into their psyches to bring each character sharply to life. In the ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780374525781ISBN:0374525781
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 344 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Date Published: 2004-07-01
ISBN-13:9781559279901ISBN:1559279907
Description: New. Box is a lttle crushed. Brand New-Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts. May have slight edge wear from being on the shelf. May have remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2004-07-01
ISBN-13:9780312424084ISBN:0312424086
Description: New. New-Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts. May have slight edge wear from being on the shelf. May have remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780312202316ISBN:0312202318
Description: Fine. Minor book cover wear, new inside GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"A friend billed it to me as a book that, "changed the way I think about love," and that's the context I was thinking about as I read. As an examination of love it was thought-provoking, not so much for the love-triad, but more so for the sad, incomplete form the characters' love takes. None of them are completely happy with just one other person (a realistic problem), so their solution is to love a couple as opposed to an individual. It would have been a more engaging story for me if these characters were stronger as individuals, or had a better sense of what they wanted. I didn't believe them to be mature adults wrestling with a problem as I might, so I never fully entered the story. I enjoyed it as a meditation on love. As a book, not so much. The writing was a bit meandering, and the story never felt important enough. The beginning chapters are lovely, but by the middle it seems to have settled into something less momentous and poetic."
"so, i read the hours cuz my aunt said that i could take any one book from her massive collection, and i wanted to take the reader, but my mom said that i should pick something else cuz the reader didn't seem appropriate for me (whatever, she read the words coiled eroticism on the back and dissmissed it) so i hurriedly picked it becouse it was right next to the reader, and i love Mrs. streep and she was in the movie. i quickly became addicted to cunningham's beautiful use of the language, and had to read everything else he had ever written, much to my mothers dismay. so far i've managed to slip this one by her, and im glad i did. the language was again beautiful and the characters were again rediculously unhappy. parts seemed uneven, and he took to little time, i felt, on some very important parts of the book. but all in all a nice job."
"I really enjoyed this book, and devoured it in several days. The subject matter (figuring out who you are and what your place in this world should be) was universal, but it was told through the perspective of three main characters involved in an unconventional relationship. For me, this was what made this story unique.
I will say that it was hard for me to identify with the characters. Perhaps it was the way the story was narrated, but I found that the vast majority of the protagonists were very selfish, self-serving, and at times, completely thoughtless. For me, this contributed to the decidedly negative tone of the entire novel. Don't expect a happy ending, complete with rainbows and sunshine, at the conclusion of the story."
"For me, this book was a case of what-ifs and wasted potential. I really liked the beginning part about Bobby and Jonathan in their youth. By the time they both moved to New York City, it took a turn for the worse. A lot of that can be contributed to the character of Clare, who was incredibly unlikable - a shallow, cynical, hipster type. Suddenly, after not even appearing until over 100 pages in, she took on a key role in the narrative. The story moved on well enough with her, but I couldn't stop thinking about how it could have been better without her or at least with her role minimized. I would have liked the space given to her to have been used better fleshing out Bobby, Jonathan and Alice.
The alternating viewpoints were interesting, but again I wonder if it would not have been better from a constant third person narrative or even telling the entire story through just one of the characters (Bobby or Jonathan).
So, overall I liked the book, it just didn't live up to its strong start."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
