Stewart O'NanBesprekingen

It took me a few chapters to ease into the slow pace of this novel, but once I had I delighted in Henry's every day adventures as I walked with him the streets of Pittsburgh and the cottage in Chautauqua. The details and intimacy felt like an invitation to walk into Henry's shoes: his likes, dislikes, foibles and fears. I definitely felt like I knew him despite a certain distance. The world's dramas, including his family's, seem to circle him as he refuses to be drawn into them: perspective gained from old age or fear of emotion? Henry is definitely old school where the home and feelings are women's work.
The ending is beautifully done, gentle and restful with a tint of regret. This book is definitely a reminder to be present to every moment.

I have enjoyed Stewart O'Nan's work for many years so it was a disappointment that [Ocean State] was so -- lackluster -- to put it gently. Teenagers, teenage romance, jealousy, violence, family, single moms, sisters - and I often enjoy those themes, but here it was just flat. A couple sparks, but then nothing.

Everyone is entitled to a couple duds, so I am looking forward to O'Nan's next time around.½

Stewart O'Nan is one of my favorite contemporary American authors. His genius is in how he illuminates ordinary lives, revealing the humanity, along with the wonder, of everyday life. I also love how he uses small, telling details to bring his characters and their stories to life.

Emily Maxwell is an 80 year old widow, living alone in the house she had shared with her husband and their two children in Pittsburgh. Her days follow a regular routine, and her most faithful companion, besides Rufus her dog (a wonderful character in his own right), is her sister-in-law, Arlene. The reader follows Emily over the course of several months as she contemplates her own mortality, her relationship with her children, her loneliness, and her regrets. It's a very quiet novel - nothing much happens - but Emily is a brilliant, fully realized character who felt incredibly real to me. How O'Nan managed to turn this story into a compelling page-turner is a mystery to me, but he did it.

5 stars

"She would be judged by how she'd lived her life, not how she wished it had been. She accepted that completely. She was painfully aware of her failings. Every Sunday she confessed them, and while by no means clear, her conscience was no heavier than most, or so she hoped."

NB: O'Nan's earlier novel, Wish You Were Here, introduces Emily and her family, shortly after she is widowed. It's a very good book, but Emily, Alone can stand on its own. And there is a related noved, Henry, Himself about Emily's husband. I haven't read that one yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Wow! This book is worthy of the hype. An absolutely riveting story......I simply could not put it down. The fact that this book tells a very real story.......a scenario that played out many times in the days when diphtheria ravaged small towns....makes it all the more harrowing. This is a haunting tale, that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been read. This probably isn't one for the easily disturbed....otherwise, I recommend for anyone who likes hard hitting books.

Too reliant on current tools - text, iphone, lingo - that will become dated with the passage of time. Which is unfortunate, because the theme and narrative, when devoid of these crutches, could be timeless.

A lovely, quiet novel of manners.

-Audiobook narrated by Jonathan Davis-

Manny is the manager of a Red Lobster for the very last shift before the restaurant closes forever. He deals with the quirky personalities of his staff, minor restaurant-related problems, a blizzard, and thinks about what he’s going to get his girlfriend for Christmas and whether he still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, who is a waitress on shift with him.

This was nice to listen to, even though slice-of-life is not really my kind of book. It’s realistic, and character-driven. Very bittersweet. The narrator was good, and had distinct voices for each character, but I'm not sure this is a story suited to audiobook (for me, at least). Too many characters.½

I've often thought that novels conveniently focus on characters who don't seem to need to worry about ordinary things, like paying the bills, or who have regular jobs. Regular, everyday people, in other words. This novel does just that. It tells the story of very ordinary people experiencing a truly awful situation: the disappearance and possible murder of a young woman close to them. Although it begins with her experiences and POV prior to disappearance, this really isn't her story. It's the story of her parents, sister, boyfriend, and best friend as they experience her loss. It took several attempts before I could fall into this story, perhaps I just had to be in the mood for it. But once I did, I found it interesting enough to keep me going, but still oddly unsatisfying. I suspect that this is because the characters were just what I thought I had wanted. Very ordinary people. I couldn't feel any emotional connection with any of them, perhaps because it focuses mostly on what they do, and what they don't feel. We hear little of their interior dialogue. I still don't really understand their motivations and can only guess at them. In the end, the story just ends. No idea what happens in future, and I find myself not really caring, either. Overall, the time spent on this book was worthwhile, but I don't think I'd recommend it as a good read to others.

This is well nigh perfect. It tells of the last shift at the Red Lobster, a chain restaurant that is shutting down on the 20th December. Manny, as the manager, has to deal with a short & disgruntled staff, a snow storm and his own personal life, which is a bit of a mess. In love with a waitress, Jacquie, his girlfriends, Deena is pregnant and he has no idea what to get her for Christmas. If you want a plot driven book, then this is probably not for you, there isn't a lot of plot. What it is instead is a character study, what makes people tick, why the continue to care (or not) when they are on the verge of losing their job.
It put me in mind of the writing by Claire Keegan, that same lack of action, the same focus on the small details of a life. Slightly less sparse and pared down, this is by no means a bloated book in need of an editor. It makes for a very good read.

At first, it was honestly hard to get into the plot of the story. It was so detailed on the ordinary in and out details of the story that I would often re-read to make sure that there wasn't something hidden in the mundane plot that I was totally missing. However, in the last 1/5 of the book, it starts to blossom into what the idea of aging is all about, accepting what you can't change, forgiving yourself for shortcomings that you don't mean to have, and enjoying life. I was actually thrilled that even though the ending alludes to Henry's death, that is not how the book ends. It ends with Henry still being enthralled with nature and life. This book is best summarized by the summary on the back of the book: "A member of the greatest generation looks back on the loves and losses of his past and comes to treasure the present anew in this poignant and thoughtful novel from a modern master." It reminds me of Garth Brook's song, "The Dance". "And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd have to miss the dance." I imagine most of us do not want to know how long we have to live or even how we will die. Dwelling on the ending takes away from the beauty of the middle and the end. I had full intentions at the beginning of only giving this book three stars because of the slow plot, but the last part of the book made up for it. Through the rambling thoughts of a 75-year-old man, we realize that we all take the same path of being attractive and having a fun life, just to settle down and enjoy family and the real meaning of living. Such a beautiful expression of life through a book! I was so glad I was able to read this.

Stewart O'Nan is an author I usually enjoy, but I didn't find this to be one of his better books. There are several narrators and/or pov characters who tell the story of a murdered teenage girl. The primary narrator is Marie, the younger sister of Angel, the teenage girl who with her boyfriend Myles murdered Birdie, another teenage girl. Most of the story is told from the perspective of teenage girls, although Marie and Angel's mother Carol also plays a part. The motive for the murder was ostensibly jealousy: Angel was jealous of Birdie and possessive of Myles, who was fooling around with Birdie on the side. However, we never get much of a glimpse into the mind of Angel. She was a good student, held down a part time job, and while her mother Carol was overworked and sometimes neglectful, she was never abusive and was doing the best she could. So I had a hard time being convinced that Angel had the personality and motivation to turn murderous.

The book was interesting for its depiction of life among working class families of Portuguese descent in Rhodesia Island. There's a lot about the lives and habits of teenagers on the cusp of adulthood in this milieu, which I was less interested in, although this was enough to keep me reading. Nevertheless I don't consider it a particularly successful book due to my failure to be convinced that Angel would actually murder someone.

2 stars

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/Mp-DN6X_wVc

Enjoy!

I have to be honest I read this book because it was short and a seemingly easy read. It was a rather pointless story IMO. I didn't care about the characters. I didn't care about the setting. It was the longest short book I've ever read because it was so insanely mundane. It wasn't even a good slice of life story because there was no life to any of them.

Adult male narrator recalls the bitter separation of his parents and also the murder of his former baby-sitter. I love O'Nan's style which is beautifully straight-forward. You can definitely relate to the people and places he creates.

Flip books are annoying. Just saying.

On Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan's side, we have "A Face in the Crowd," wherein we find that not only is hell other people, but hell is watching baseball. An old man who should have more regrets about his shitty life gets a series of Dickensian visitations while viewing a few games one week. He and his equally shitty buddy get off way too easy for my tastes. Not satisfying at all.

Richard Chizmar's side has a pedestrian serial killer story, "The Longest December," that was expanded from an earlier story called, "A Long December." (That naming scheme sort of sets one up for a boring slog, don't you think?) December would have to be much shorter to give this thriller-wannabe any gas. Regardless that weak Se7en-ripoff ending would suck no matter the story's length.

The feel of a cautionary tale. Live a good life, be kind to others, and don't screw people over. It will come back and bite you. Possibly in a creepy King manner.

A really wonderful story. Short, but quite perfect.

From the opening sentence of Ocean State by Stewart O’Nan we know that we are going to be reading about a murder, but this book is not a thriller or a mystery. Instead it is an exploration of relationships, those between mothers and daughters, those between sisters and those between teenagers who believe they are in love.

Angel and Marie Oliviera live with their mother, a nurse in a seniors care home who earns enough to keep them modestly. Angel has been dating Miles Parish for three years. Miles comes from a wealthy family and Angel is well aware that next year, when Miles goes to college she will probably lose him to a rich girl. But they are together for their senior year and Angel is hoping for something to happen that will keep them together. Unfortunately what Angel doesn’t know is that Miles is cheating on her another senior, Birdy Alves. Birdy has fallen hard for Miles. What is never revealed to my satisfaction is what makes Miles so irresistible as to me he seemed rather boring. When Birdy and Miles are exposed, Angel sees red and vows to get revenge upon Birdy. What follows is the story of how the Oliviera and Alves families fall apart when they have to deal with what happens.

I am a big fan of this author but would have to say that Ocean State isn’t one of his best. Don’t get me wrong it is still an excellent read as this author excels at capturing the lives of working class people. The narrative is told from a number of viewpoints all of which rang true, the voices of Marie, Angel, Birdy and Angel’s mother, Carol felt spot-on and drew me into really caring about these people. What remains unclear to me is exactly what O’Nan was trying to show us with this story of obsessive love, adultery and murder.

This is a painful story on all levels. I so appreciated all of the different points of view in these women’s/young girl’s lives and Stewart O’Nan’s brilliant writing made me feel all of the emotion with them. The town in Rhode Island is almost a character in itself - depressed, hope starved and struggling. The obsessiveness, possessiveness and desperation that exists for these girls is palpable and scary sad - and the worst part is that it’s all very true to real life.

Right away it starts that there's been a murder and you're hearing from the perspective of Marie, who is the killer's younger sister. From the beginning, the story unfolds of what happened and what exactly lead up to Angel killing Birdy. It's told from the perspectives of Carol (Angel & Marie's Mother), Angel (the killer), Birdy (the victim), and Marie (Angel's little sister).
What happens is that Angel and Birdy both love the same guy. They both have intense and strong feelings for him. Angel and Myles are together in a relationship when Myles starts cheating on her with Birdy and Birdy is also cheating on a guy she's kind of boyfriend/girlfriend with too. So there's cheating by more than one party happening in the story and Marie is having issues with her self-confidence, self-image, and wanting to be cooler like her big sister and feeling neglected too. Angel and Marie's mother, Carol, has issues, which cause her to not be the best or most present with her daughters and their father is absent as their parents have been divorced for a while.
Angel has a temper and anger issues and she gets very upset when she finds out about Myles and Birdy and that he's been cheating on her. She threatens Birdy and Birdy is confused because she thought Myles was going to be with her. There's a lot of emotional upheaval, drama, and stress for all of them though Myles is the one who doesn't seem to be very assertive or active but more someone who's sitting and letting things happen as they will to him or around him and letting Angel boss him around quite a bit too.
At any rate, there's a point in the story where Angel threatens Birdy and beats her up - that's where I thought the murder was going to happen when I was listening, but it didn't. Then as I continued listening, the story and the situations just get worse, and then there's a bit of a surprise twist when it finally comes to when, where, and how the murder happens. That's what really got to me is when the murder happens and then how they just keep going on about their lives like nothing happened until the police show up with a search warrant to check Angel's things and arrest her.
In the end, the punishments were not what I would've felt was enough for the taking of a life, and oh this story really got to me and got me going. The narrator made this story that much more interesting, drew me in, and kept me on the edge of my seat listening intently. She did an amazing job performing each of the characters' voices so that it was easy to tell them apart and get a good feel for each character, their role, and personality. It was an awesome and immersive experience listening to this audiobook that was so well done. It sucked me in and had me feeling like I was in this other world where the story was happening.
I highly recommend getting and checking this audiobook out if you're looking for a great listening experience with a fantastic narrator and an intense story. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for letting me listen and review this ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Right away it starts that there's been a murder and you're hearing from the perspective of Marie, who is the killer's younger sister. From the beginning, the story unfolds of what happened and what exactly lead up to Angel killing Birdy. It's told from the perspectives of Carol (Angel & Marie's Mother), Angel (the killer), Birdy (the victim), and Marie (Angel's little sister).
What happens is that Angel and Birdy both love the same guy. They both have intense and strong feelings for him. Angel and Myles are together in a relationship when Myles starts cheating on her with Birdy and Birdy is also cheating on a guy she's kind of boyfriend/girlfriend with too. So there's cheating by more than one party happening in the story and Marie is having issues with her self-confidence, self-image, and wanting to be cooler like her big sister and feeling neglected too. Angel and Marie's mother, Carol, has issues, which cause her to not be the best or most present with her daughters and their father is absent as their parents have been divorced for a while.
Angel has a temper and anger issues and she gets very upset when she finds out about Myles and Birdy and that he's been cheating on her. She threatens Birdy and Birdy is confused because she thought Myles was going to be with her. There's a lot of emotional upheaval, drama, and stress for all of them though Myles is the one who doesn't seem to be very assertive or active but more someone who's sitting and letting things happen as they will to him or around him and letting Angel boss him around quite a bit too.
At any rate, there's a point in the story where Angel threatens Birdy and beats her up - that's where I thought the murder was going to happen when I was listening, but it didn't. Then as I continued listening, the story and the situations just get worse, and then there's a bit of a surprise twist when it finally comes to when, where, and how the murder happens. That's what really got to me is when the murder happens and then how they just keep going on about their lives like nothing happened until the police show up with a search warrant to check Angel's things and arrest her.
In the end, the punishments were not what I would've felt was enough for the taking of a life, and oh this story really got to me and got me going. The narrator made this story that much more interesting, drew me in, and kept me on the edge of my seat listening intently. She did an amazing job performing each of the characters' voices so that it was easy to tell them apart and get a good feel for each character, their role, and personality. It was an awesome and immersive experience listening to this audiobook that was so well done. It sucked me in and had me feeling like I was in this other world where the story was happening.
I highly recommend getting and checking this audiobook out if you're looking for a great listening experience with a fantastic narrator and an intense story. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for letting me listen and review this ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This slender novel is about the permanent closing of a Red Lobster and how the manager and his staff handle their last night with their patrons and each other. I liked the comraderie between some of the co-workers- and also recognized the sniping and resentments. I remember how stressed I felt managing the Waldenbooks, but how sad it was to have it close forever (and now the Fairgrounds Mall doesn't even exist). You can have deep affection for a place as well as people.½

Stephen King has a true talent when it comes to writing that he can make an ordinary story about a man seeing dead people on the telly (I see dead people! lol) and making it really entertaining. This isn't a great story, but it's good, really good. An easy read for an evening when you feel like reading something short and good.

Excellent story that perfectly captures the suburban mall landscape and so many of the people trying to exist in it. O'Nan hits the chain food establishment, the corporate-ness, Manny trying so hard to do a good job, the employees who surprise him and let him down. The customers, the relationships. Excellent narration.

Covering the years 1937-1940, this book takes readers back in time to a lesser known period in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life – his time in Hollywood as a screen writer. At this point in his life, Fitzgerald’s heyday is behind him. His wife, Zelda, suffering from schizophrenia, is confined to a North Carolina sanitarium. Their teenage daughter, Scottie, resides in an east coast boarding school. We follow his life as he develops a relationship with columnist Sheilah Graham, interacts with various famous people (stars and fellow writers), travels to visit Zelda and Scottie, and struggles with alcoholism.

This book is definitely not cheery but seems realistic. The novel conveys Fitzgerald’s increasing frustration with the never-ending changes of Hollywood scripts without the scriptwriter’s knowledge. It seems an author of his talent is not appreciated due to the need to meet popular tastes and the censor’s rules.

O’Nan has created a nuanced and believable story of a man whose life is in decline but has not given up. He is still writing, pursuing projects, and working hard when he is not self-sabotaging with alcohol. I particularly liked the interactions between Scott and Zelda, portraying their deep connection while also showing how the relationship has eroded due, in part, to her mental illness and his alcoholism.

The strength of the novel lies in the author’s ability to get into Fitzgerald’s head. O’Nan succeeds in illuminating his thoughts, motives, and attitudes in a convincing manner. Though the tone is melancholy, I enjoyed this glimpse into Fitzgerald’s work, family, and relationships near the end of his life.