≫ PDF Songs in Ordinary Time Oprah Book Club Mary McGarry Morris 9780140244823 Books

Songs in Ordinary Time Oprah Book Club Mary McGarry Morris 9780140244823 Books

Download As PDF : Songs in Ordinary Time Oprah Book Club Mary McGarry Morris 9780140244823 Books

Songs in Ordinary Time Oprah Book Club Mary McGarry Morris 9780140244823 Books

I must admit that I do not get the point of this thick fiction -- it took me 2 months to finish it and I do not know what the author wants to convey, even the title of the book `songs in ordinary times' is rather incomprehensible to me.

During the reading I almost gave up several times, at around pages 250, 350, 500, 600, and 650. So I can not believe my patience and self-displicine to finish this 700+ pages of nonsense.

Yes there are some nice paragraghs, the language is overall nice, sentences are beautiful, and the first 100 pages are not bad. But as the story unveiling, it is truely like a soap opera, and worse, it seems to be able to last forever if the author wish. Throughout the book characters are introduced and appear/disappear at will and scenes are jumping randomly. Conversations are shallow and sometimes actions and emotions of people are difficult to understand. There is not a deep character in this book, even the eight family members --- Marie, Omar, Benjy, Norm, Alice, Sam, Helen, and Renie --- seem pale, let alone tens of others. There are so many unnecessary characters in this book (even in the very final pages NEW character appears, say, Alice's roomate, who has a name and has a family story!!)

There are so many characters and so many subplots left untended when the book ends. The final scene is rediculously casual and makes me furious--- what? after 700 pages of rampant characters, wandering plots/subplots, and murmuring language, the book ends like THIS? I cannot believe my eyes.

This is the most time-wasting book I've read in recent years.


Tags : Songs in Ordinary Time (Oprah's Book Club) [Mary McGarry Morris] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. It's the summer of 1960 in Atkinson, Vermont. Maria Fermoyle is a strong but vulnerable divorced woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for dangerous con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice,Mary McGarry Morris,Songs in Ordinary Time (Oprah's Book Club),Penguin Books,0140244824,Sagas,Reading Group Guide,Domestic fiction,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction Sagas,General,Modern fiction,Vermont,Vermont - Fiction

Songs in Ordinary Time Oprah Book Club Mary McGarry Morris 9780140244823 Books Reviews

I realized as I moved through the first 25% of this book that the story and characters felt so familiar...yet I could not remember the story. I found myself unable to put this book down as I enjoyed it for the second time!
This story takes place circa 1960 in a small town in Vermont where everyone knows everyone; where exists a clear-cut system of status and the classes. Somewhere toward the bottom, is the fallen family of Fermoyle; badly damaged by the alcoholism of Sam, the heir unapparent to a small fortune that no longer exists due the debilitating illness of his mother and the expensive damage Sam has wrought over the years. Staggering amidst the fallout from Sam's dereliction is his ex-wife, the desperately unhappy Marie, and their children Alice, Norman, and Benjy. Marie, in her frantic efforts to keep her sanity and the shreds of her reputation, forces the children into situations they cannot handle without the guidance she hasn't the time or ability to give. As if things are not difficult enough, Omar Duvall enters Marie's home, her life, and her confidence taking what little she has and offering nothing in return but false hopes and more unneeded disappointment. Though I did not have a particularly good time hating Duvall and cursing the stupidity of the Fermoyles, I continued to read. (Ms. Morris' writing is compelling.) In the end, however, the story takes far too long to tell for a less than satisfying ending
Possibly the most depressing book ive ever read. Yes, it was insightful and the reader comes to know the charachters intimately, which makes it worse when nothing but horrible things happen. I kept waiting for some ray of hope, some small triumph that never really comes. In the end all you get is a tiny suggestion that perhaps things wont be quite so miserable going forward. I wish i could unread this book.
This was a very enjoyable novel, filled with many well developed characters. It was funny, it was sad, it was shocking but most of all it was a well developed story with memorable people who I really liked or who I really disliked. One of the best books that I have read in the past year.
This novel tells the story of the down-and-out Fermoyle family. Living in Vermont in the 1960s, Marie Fermoyle and her three children live in poverty and desperation, for more money, more security, and more affection. Marie Fermoyle, a hardened cynic, is so desperate for all of the above that she falls victim to the wiles of a con man. The Fermoyle children are blatantly aware that their mother is being fleeced, but the emotional distance of all the family members makes it difficult for any of them to communicate or to trust one another. As Marie falls deeper under her now-boyfriend's spell it is the Fermoyle children who feel this lack of communication most acutely. The most difficult character in this book is Marie Fermoyle cold, cynical, and emotionally abusive towards her children, Marie is clearly a woman who has been deeply wounded and is now striking back, albeit at the wrong people. In this book Morris has crafted a deeply complex narrative with fantastic character development. Truly, she has created a whole world in this Vermont town. The characters' lives are richly interwoven with one another, and actions by one reverberate to affect the whole. This is a deeply moving and engaging novel.
The multiple intertwined story lines come together throughout family who struggles just to get by. The pain and difficulty of getting by with very little as a family in America was evident in the narrative. The book kept my interest, but when a different story line was starting it was sometimes a bit difficult to follow at first, especially with the story of Howard. This specific story line seemed a bit undeveloped. Overall I really enjoyed the book.
I must admit that I do not get the point of this thick fiction -- it took me 2 months to finish it and I do not know what the author wants to convey, even the title of the book `songs in ordinary times' is rather incomprehensible to me.

During the reading I almost gave up several times, at around pages 250, 350, 500, 600, and 650. So I can not believe my patience and self-displicine to finish this 700+ pages of nonsense.

Yes there are some nice paragraghs, the language is overall nice, sentences are beautiful, and the first 100 pages are not bad. But as the story unveiling, it is truely like a soap opera, and worse, it seems to be able to last forever if the author wish. Throughout the book characters are introduced and appear/disappear at will and scenes are jumping randomly. Conversations are shallow and sometimes actions and emotions of people are difficult to understand. There is not a deep character in this book, even the eight family members --- Marie, Omar, Benjy, Norm, Alice, Sam, Helen, and Renie --- seem pale, let alone tens of others. There are so many unnecessary characters in this book (even in the very final pages NEW character appears, say, Alice's roomate, who has a name and has a family story!!)

There are so many characters and so many subplots left untended when the book ends. The final scene is rediculously casual and makes me furious--- what? after 700 pages of rampant characters, wandering plots/subplots, and murmuring language, the book ends like THIS? I cannot believe my eyes.

This is the most time-wasting book I've read in recent years.