Helpful Score: 3
This one didn't pass the 50 page test and I abandoned it gladly. Intensely disliked the main character and that did it for me. Others may fare better, especially if they have read her earlier work and appreciate the author's writing.
Helpful Score: 3
I have mixed feelings towards this book. The main character was interesting - and the snippets of her journey to that point in her life were also interesting. However, I found the book very difficult to get through, and the look at the character was bogged down by plot ideas that were not believable.
Helpful Score: 3
I read the two books previously published by Lori Lansens and eagerly awaited the chance to try her newest book. I didn't expect a plot as unique as "The Girl's", but I guess I did expect more than what I found. The life of Mary Gooch, small town girl with a serious weight problem who married the class jock and has pretty much spent the twenty five years since then eating her way through her days. On her 25th wedding anniversary her husband leaves her after depositing $25,000 in her bank account.
The rest of the story is about Mary's search for her husband and in doing so, she begins to find herself. I felt the story was not only unrealistic, but not very believable. In fact, I had a hard time believing that this mundane novel had been written by Lori Lansens. I went back and read over other reviews and was surprised it was so well liked. I will await more wonderful stories by Lansens,
but I wouldn't recommend this one.
The rest of the story is about Mary's search for her husband and in doing so, she begins to find herself. I felt the story was not only unrealistic, but not very believable. In fact, I had a hard time believing that this mundane novel had been written by Lori Lansens. I went back and read over other reviews and was surprised it was so well liked. I will await more wonderful stories by Lansens,
but I wouldn't recommend this one.
Helpful Score: 1
Mary Gooch is quite a memorable character one that we can learn a great deal from. On the eve of her 25th wedding anniversary and weighing in at 302 pounds, Mary is left waiting for her husband Jimmy to come home from work, but as the evening wears on she knows, can just feel it in the pit of her stomach, right next to that aching hunger, that Jimmy won't be home, he won't come back to their life or their anniversary party.
Ever since she was young, Mary has been battling the "obeast", that driving hunger for food, that something that will satisfy her. During her few thin years she met the handsome athletic Jimmy Gooch and their romance was more then she could ever imagine. Then the disappointments and worries came, the weight was back. Jimmy swore that he still loved her, but the well worn path from her bedroom to the refrigerator was something that could no longer be avoided.
To find her husband, Mary knew that she had to break away from her very small world in Canada and board an airplane to California to confront a mother in law that detested her, but she would do that, to bring her Jimmy home. In the process of finding her wayward husband, Mary found the good in people, the good in herself and a way to keep the "obeast" quiet.
Though I've never been a fan of the woman trying to find herself type of book, I loved Mary's story. It wasn't all tied up with a neat bow because a man loved her and they lived happily ever after. Mary came across as a real woman, with real fears and real hopes. And in her journey to put her life back together she found good people, people who appreciated her for who she was, not what she looked like or how much money she had. She was willing to put herself out there, to show the world all her warts and maybe, just maybe, she could find the peace that would finally satisfy her.
Ever since she was young, Mary has been battling the "obeast", that driving hunger for food, that something that will satisfy her. During her few thin years she met the handsome athletic Jimmy Gooch and their romance was more then she could ever imagine. Then the disappointments and worries came, the weight was back. Jimmy swore that he still loved her, but the well worn path from her bedroom to the refrigerator was something that could no longer be avoided.
To find her husband, Mary knew that she had to break away from her very small world in Canada and board an airplane to California to confront a mother in law that detested her, but she would do that, to bring her Jimmy home. In the process of finding her wayward husband, Mary found the good in people, the good in herself and a way to keep the "obeast" quiet.
Though I've never been a fan of the woman trying to find herself type of book, I loved Mary's story. It wasn't all tied up with a neat bow because a man loved her and they lived happily ever after. Mary came across as a real woman, with real fears and real hopes. And in her journey to put her life back together she found good people, people who appreciated her for who she was, not what she looked like or how much money she had. She was willing to put herself out there, to show the world all her warts and maybe, just maybe, she could find the peace that would finally satisfy her.
Helpful Score: 1
Wow... I am not really sure where to start! I have really mixed feelings about this book, completely due to the ending. I was just not satisfied with the way things were "resolved." I like endings to be a bit more concrete. But as far as character studies go, this was superb (it would also make a good diet book, as some of the descriptions were frankly nauseating - believable, but sickening... it will be a long time before I can even think of eating chocolates from a box!). I enjoyed reading this, and the writing was surprisingly beautiful. I appreciated the "shout-out" to the main characters from _The Girls_, and the shift to California was very reminiscent of _The Tortilla Curtain_ to me.
It was really just the loose nature of the end that bothered me, especially since I kept expecting things to happen that never did. All in all, this was a great character study, but a novel with a rather incomplete plot resolution.
It was really just the loose nature of the end that bothered me, especially since I kept expecting things to happen that never did. All in all, this was a great character study, but a novel with a rather incomplete plot resolution.
