Late in the morning on Monday, August 1, 1966, former Marine Charles Whitman carried an arsenal of weapons to the top of the clock tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin, took aim from the observation deck, and began shooting. By the time he was done, fifteen people lay dead and many more wounded. Elizabeth Crook’s novel, Monday, Monday, opens on that fateful day, with student Shelly Maddox leaving her math class, going outside and setting off across the plaza, where her life is forever altered when she is hit by one of Whitman’s bullets. Two other students, Wyatt Calvert and Jack Stone, who are cousins, see what is happening and do what they can to help the wounded, Shelly among them, even as bullets continue to rain down. Crook’s novel expands outward from these interactions: Wyatt cradling Shelly in his arms sheltering her from further injury, Jack being wounded as he tries to help someone else. Afterward, survivors of the shooting struggle to recover and resume lives brutally interrupted. But Shelly, single, and Wyatt, married, discover their shared experience has bound them inextricably together. It is an exclusive bond: in each other, they discover something that no one else will ever understand. The attraction is magnetic and physical, and Shelly soon finds that she is pregnant. The story that follows encompasses many lives and unspools over several decades. Shelly, Wyatt and Jack move in different directions and build separate lives, but their decisions ensure they will always remain linked. Crook’s characters don’t always behave admirably: their actions can be selfish and wilful and sometimes result in others getting hurt. Inevitably, there comes a time when secrets harboured for decades must, for the good of everyone and despite the consequences, be dragged into the light of day. The novel tells a multi-generational story filled with flawed, haunted characters who have suffered and triumphed but who ultimately come face to face with a distressing dilemma. Readers will find that Crook is a supremely empathetic writer, able to inhabit multiple points of view and do so convincingly. She is also a writer who unashamedly skirts the edges of melodrama but, for the most part, avoids tugging unduly at heartstrings. In Monday, Monday Elizabeth Crook has conjured a suspenseful and emotionally fraught story with an engaging historical backdrop that depicts in vividly dramatic terms the profound impact that random acts can have on peoples’ lives, and how the echoes of trauma reverberate through the years. ( )

This will absolutely be in my top 5 books read in 2014.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. There's no rhyme or reason. Crook weaves the lives on Shelly, Jack, Wyatt, Delia, Carlotta, Dan, and Madeline beautifully. ( )

A gripping, horrifying beginning, but it turned into a soap opera. I was disappointed. There was way too much description of irrelevant events in the story that could easily be skipped or skimmed over. I wanted to get to the important currents and characters within the storyline. I liked it enough to want to finish it...but was disappointed in the end.
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In August 1966 Charles Whitman shot and killed or wounded dozens of students, faculty and first responders from the clock tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin. This novel explores the effects of that event on the lives of three fictitious characters: Shelly, a young student who is seriously wounded, and two cousins, Wyatt and Jack, who come to the aid of Shelly and other victims.

What a wonderfully complex character-driven story. Growing up in Texas in the 60s I vividly remember the event that opens this novel. It was a reference to that event in the book publicity that caught my attention and put this on my TBR list. But the mass killing is only the plot device Crook uses to introduce these characters to one another. The novel really focuses on the relationships they build – to one another, and to other people not involved in the killings on the August day. As the story follows them through the decades we come to know their strengths, weaknesses, dreams, and fears.

I’m so glad I finally read it! ( )

Monday...started out as a normal, everyday school day. All of a sudden, the college kids hear shots coming out of nowhere. Some hide, some lay down on the grass, and, unfortunately, die.
A boy slithers over the campus lawn to help another college student who is unconscious and looks like she's been shot. Ambulances come to the college and whisks the injured, the ones they know who will survive, away to the various hospitals in Austin, Texas.
The girl feels indebted to the person who saved her and they begin a relationship that extends over several years. But, is that basis enough to start and extend a relationship?

This is a true story of the killings of several students at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas several years ago. Whether the romantic aspect is true remains to be seen.

I enjoy reading Historical Fiction and since my son went to UT, this novel caught my eye. The read was a winner to me!! ( )