About this title: Codi Noline returns home to Grace, Arizona to confront both her past and her ailing father. But the town is threatened by an environmental disaster, and Codi also comes face-to-face with some family secrets. This book won the "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize for fiction.
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Description: Very Good. 0060921145 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Very Good. 0060921145 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780060921149ISBN:0060921145
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Slight stain on book edge does not affect text; pages lightly tanned, appear to be unmarked. read more
"I love the way this woman writes! It's as if I know the main character and we've become friends. How does she do that?! I enjoy her descriptions of local and scene. I don't mind that her personal philosophies often come through in her characters. I reread passages that strike a chord, like "hope gives a great deal of yourself away" and "You find you're not the center of tne universe, suddenly it's all flipped over, you have it in you to be a parent. You're not all that concerned any mjore with being someone's child. It helps you forgive things." One way I measure a great book is if I find myself thinking about it after I've put it down. I finished this one a week ago and it still niggles my thoughts."
"Whenever my reading needs a boost, I turn to Barbara Kingsolver. She is the queen of description and simile. I love the poetic way in which she writes. It's always a treat to have a book you don't want to put down. I haven't read this in so long...or maybe it's one that I missed, but I loved it like the others she's written.
A few favorite quotes...
"Hallie and I were so attached, like keenly mismatched Siamese twins conjoined at the back of the mind."
"But children robbed of love will dwell on magic." (I've seen that, and this passage made me cry!)
"I was the woman downtown buttoning her child's jacket, her teeth like a third hand clamped on a folded grocery list, as preoccupied as God."
"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth but not its twin." (that's deep!)
Okay - moving on to Prodigal Summer. I need more Barbara right now!"
"Of all the Kingsolver books I've read, this is probably my least favorite, but even so it's a "good read." There are powerful images and fascinating descriptions, and I always find her science and environmental agenda fascinating. (I know this is not universal....) When she tells the story from the father's point of view, I am always touched. As Codi, though, I am sometimes less convinced. Maybe it's an attempt to show that one can't be both a detached observer and a participant in life. The sexy Indian boyfriend is some sort of "noble savage" stereotype I thought Kingsolver was above. All in all, while parts of the book work for me, and a few scenes are memorable, I'd say she has since developed greatly, both in her fiction and essays."
"(If I didn't know who the author was, I would have loved this book. Unfortunately, Barbara Kingsolver has blown me away too many times to be able to settle for 'just' a good book. I know -- I'm so unfair in my ratings, but so be it!) The book was very romantic. It show-cased the many varieties of love -- parental-child, romantic, sisterly bond -- and it was done so, so well. I really sympathized with Codi in all of her relationships, and could literally feel her frustration with life and life decisions. She allowed her past to dictate so much of her present, and she was terrified to make her own future, rather than living out what she thought had already been established. A really fascinating and relatable dilemma for sure. I also loved the character of Loyd, the dumb jock revealed to be a sensitive, thoughtful, bright gentleman. It sounds like a cliche, but it wasn't. Read his philosophy on his train directing in the last 1/4 of the book even if you skip the rest of the book."
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