Specify Regarding Books Elegies for the Brokenhearted
| Title | : | Elegies for the Brokenhearted |
| Author | : | Christie Hodgen |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 288 pages |
| Published | : | July 19th 2010 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published 2010) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literary Fiction. Short Stories |
Christie Hodgen
Hardcover | Pages: 288 pages Rating: 3.98 | 802 Users | 153 Reviews
Relation In Favor Of Books Elegies for the Brokenhearted
A savvy, spirited, moving, and surprisingly humorous novel in elegies.Who are the people you’ll never forget? For Mary Murphy, there are five: A skirt-chasing, car-racing uncle with whiskey breath and a three-day beard. A “walking joke, a sitting duck, a fish in a barrel” named Elwood LePoer. A dirt-poor college roommate who conceals an unbearable secret. A failed piano prodigy lost in middle age. A beautiful mother haunted by her once-great aspirations.
In five quirky elegies to lost friends and relatives, Mary tells us the story of her life. We begin with a restless childhood spent following her mother between multiple homes and husbands. Then comes the disappearance of Mary’s rebellious and beloved sister, Malinda. By the time Mary leaves for college, she has no one to write home to, and we follow along on her difficult search for purpose. From a series of miserable jobs to her “reborn” mother’s deathbed, Mary finds hope in the most surprising places. With a rhythmically unique voice and pitch-perfect wry humor, Christie Hodgen spins an unconventional and moving story about identity, belonging, and family.
Be Specific About Books In Pursuance Of Elegies for the Brokenhearted
| Original Title: | Elegies for the Brokenhearted |
| ISBN: | 039306140X (ISBN13: 9780393061406) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=15540 |
Rating Regarding Books Elegies for the Brokenhearted
Ratings: 3.98 From 802 Users | 153 ReviewsEvaluation Regarding Books Elegies for the Brokenhearted
Pretty close to top 10 all time for me, a stunning portrait of the losses a young girl enduresI ordered this novel after hearing it reviewed on NPR, and it was a pleasure from start to finish. I enjoyed the unique structure, elegies for five people that the protagonist knew over the course of her short life, all of whom died. She manages to sustain a narrative arc that's actually rather traditional and linear in spite of this unusual set-up, but also to achieve that short story quality of zeroing in on particular moments. I really liked the five eulogized characters, especially her
The narrator's isolation and somewhat distanced perspective reminded me of The Bell Jar--although it feels more optimistic overall. There are really perceptive and at times crushing passages on how people relate (or fail to relate) to each other. 2nd person is common throughout, which I found a refreshing change of pace. The sentence structure is often distended, but the text remains energized and engaging.I loved reading this book. Would recommend it to literary fiction fans.
A deadly beautiful work about people whose balloons rise and then pop, just out of reach. How much love there is in the world, coated over by sadness and falseness, but it's there, as one character says, in the everyday kindnesses we bestow upon each other--making lunch, finding socks, getting you to school on time. The organically connected elegies are like a prism into the protagonist, Mary Murphy. The sentences are tight and expansive simultaneously, and as craft, the feat of a work with so
"A week later I went off to college and for a long time I didn't think about you. ... By then I had seen wealth and had realized at last that we were poor. You, me, that whole miserable city, that godawful place, bleak and ugly as hell, we were all poor. We could hardly be otherwise. Our city was a landlocked settlement that had failed long ago, that had built up its factories - dozens of them, red brick, leaning smokestacks rising up from their rooftops - without taking into account its lack of
Spectacular writing. I've been waiting for this book without knowing of it.
4.5 stars. A very random find. I loved it, and was thus more frustrated by a few troublesome areas....an overly long middle chapter that felt in need of a stern red pen (which made me realize, at this late stage in my life, that cuckoo clocks are creepy).The dynamic between two sisters -- one wild, one meek, one bad, one good, etc...etc...keeps coming up in books I'm reading this year. And the now cliched unstable, beautiful, narcissistic, unstable (yes) serial monogamist mother, dragging the
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