Islands

Rating:
Summary: Surprise ending...
Review: ...if you can make it that far. It took me - ready? - over a month to read Islands. I'd read a chapter, get bored and put it down, pick it back up and read a little more, get bored again...and I skipped ahead a lot to see if the story was ever going to pick up. It didn't.

Basically this is the story of how a pack of over-indulged snobs from Charleston grow into crotchety over-indulged snobs at a beach house. That's it - that's all that happens. People die, houses burn down. The story picks up a bit once Gaynelle comes on the scene but that happened long after I lost interest.

I should just post the spoiler and save you all the cost of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Too much!
Review: Although I have enjoyed ARS earlier works like Colony and Outer Banks, I find myself getting more and more impatient with each successive offering. I found Islands to be nothing more than one overlong description after another of the too, too wonderful southern climate (even though it is laden with unbearable humidity and mosquitoes), landscape (can pluff mud be mentioned one more time?) cozy houses (all main characters own several, of course), furnishings (lots of rump sprung sofas, whatever that is), wonderful dogs and over privileged people who manage to look like teenagers well into their golden years. All of this puncuated with an occasional death, disappearance or discovery of infidelity thrown in to keep the reader's interest. I, like another reviewer, found myself skimming over some of the more unbearable blather in a desperate search for a plot!

Rating:
Summary: It's All In There
Review: Anne Rivers Siddons' very best double decker family saga. You won't be disappointed.

If you're looking for a different and exciting novel, read LUST OF THE FLESH by Beverly Rolyat. A story about district attorney, Nick Allapapalaus, who finds himself caught up in a web of lust, deceit, mystery, suspense, betrayal, murder and sex galore. Is he really the biological father of his ex-wife's promiscuous teenage daughter's infant son? Or has he been set up? A compelling, riveting, engaging, pageturning novel. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Another Anne Rivers Siddons classic
Review: Anny Butler has made her way through life,caring for her younger
brothers and sisters, then finding work with children in need. While taking yet another young client for medical care, she meets Dr. Lewis Aiken, orthopedic surgeon and son of one of Charleston's prominent families. Despite their wildly divergent upbringings, they fall in love. Their marriage is embraced by the group of friends from Lewis's childhood, the "Scrubs". Lives intertwined, they often retreat to the adventures. They vow that when the time comes, they will come to the island to care for one another. The heart of the group is Camilla Curry, one of the original Scrubs, she worries and mothers them all, gently chiding them for their behavior. No matter what life brings, death, fire, loss they can always return to the island for comfort and renewal. Things are not always as they seem. The island cannot soothe the undercurrent of loss and bewilderment that unsettle the remaining Scrubs, or protect them from unseen dangers.
Anne Rivers Siddons remains one of my favorite southern writers. "Islands" has an unerring ear for the rythyms of life in the south, blending a diverse group of people into a seamless story. Characters come to life. Never patronizing, or slipping too far into cliches(though Gaynelle is almost too far the other way ) she brings to life people who share a past and love and who see things in the gentle light of caring. Sometimes secrets are revealed too late and love is
not enough to save the ones you love.

Rating:
Summary: BORING
Review: Before I left for the holidays, I picked up a few books to read. I remembered one of my relatives highly suggested Siddons' "Colony". The store I was in did not have Colony so I picked up "Islands". While I love to read all kinds of books and relish the different writing styles, this book was an absolute torture. It's about a group of spoiled, completely self absorbed adults with no aim in life except to 'be'. The story is incredibly shallow, yet with an enormous amount of silly details that don't tie into anything within the story. All along while reading, I kept saying to mayself this has to get better, NOTHING can be this bad...folks, it NEVER does. Actually, I found it got progressively worse with each page turned. If, indeed, Siddon's other works were decent perhaps this one was simply written to ride on the coat tails of the previous successes for nothing else but quick release and quick $. Not worth folks. One of the worse reads I ever spent time on!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I first read Anne Rivers Siddons many years ago when I came upon Fox's Earth and The House Next Door, which I throughly enjoyed. While I continued to buy this authors books, it wasn't until I read Up Island that I revived my interest in reading her other books. Shortly after this I read and eually enjoyed Up Island, Low Country and Colony which continue to be one of my all time favorite books. Then word reached me that a new book, Islands, by this author was going to be published and I could hardly wait to buy it. I even saved the book for a while before opening it and finally read it this past week. Early inhto the book, though, I wondered what happened to one of my favorite authors. And now that I finished the book I'm afraid to say that at this point in time Islands is my least favorite book by this author. For all of the reasons why I usually love Siddons books, her wonderful characters and poignant scenes, this book was truly disappointing.

Islands is the story of a group of life long friends called The Scrubs.As the book begins Anny is a 35 year old woman who meets a doctor named Lewis. When they marry he brings her into his group of friends as its newest member. Always a nurturer, at first Anny feels rather out of place in the group but in time she becomes a solid member of the clan. She not only loves the other members but is loved by them in return. Through the years the four couples spend time together at a beach house they co own and form a family they all prefer to their own blood relatives. But then tragedies befall several of the Scrub members and the friends must weather these storms.Again they renew their vows to always there for each other. And they are as members of the group struggle with their grief, the passing of time and illnesses They seem to form a cocoon around each other which as long as they continue to be together will protecxt them from the outside world. But things aren't always as they appear and old events and resentments will cause another near tragedy and one in which the remaining members of the Scrubs will learn a very bitter lesson about their long standing friendships.

On the surface this should have been an endearing book about a group of people and places in and around the Charleston area. And desptie that Siddons descriptions of the area are worthwhile to read about, I had a hard time with the characters from this book. None of them ever really came alive to me and I couldn't feel too much for any of them eventhough they certainly had things happen to them which should have elicited some emotion on my part.I guess to some readers the ending was very surprising but to me it was as if Siddons changed her genre and offered her reader an ending worthy of a suspsense novel rather than a contemporary fiction novel. I almost feel as though the author wanted to finish the book and therefore came up with a shocking conclusion. But it made little sense to me cosnidering allthat came before and wasn't the resoltion I thought appropriate. On the plus side Siddons does a fine job of decribing the areas where these people spend their time and I did feel as though I was there when she described Anny sailing with the dog Gladys or dancing with Lewis at Booters, a friends clam bar.

Despite what I have written I did give this book an average rating. I also plan on reading Peachtree Road, one of Siddons older books, in the fall with my book group. I still consider Siddons one of my favoriter authors and chalk this book up to one title book I just didn't like. I know this happens from time to time to readers but hope this is the only book of Anne Rivers Siddons I didn't enjoy. I know that I will continue to read her older titles I haven't read and her new books in the future. And I will continue to recommend those books of hers which were mentioned in this review when asked about a favoties author's books.

Rating:
Summary: It took much disipline to finish reading!
Review: I have been a big fan of ARS for a long time. I've read most of her books, some of them were so good I could hardly put them down. I have lived in several of the locales she has written about and could relate to the people, climate,etc. Ms. Siddens, what happened to you this time? I was bored the entire book but kept reading thinking that it HAD to get better-----It never did. Ms. Siddens, I have to say you really missed the mark with this one, it is awful.

Rating:
Summary: Not One of Her Best
Review: I have been an avid reader of Anne Rivers Siddons books since "Homeplace", written in the late '80's. Her last three books, have been very disappointing to me including "Islands".
While Siddons still has a "feel" for the Carolina Lowcountry, where I live, she has lost her ability to make her characters seem plausible and alive. Her plot in this last book is disjointed and boring. I almost put it down without finishing it but then read about the strange ending so I perservered and sure enough, the ending was terrible. Upon closing the cover I had to pronounce it a waste of time and the ending disjointed from the plot. It made no sense to follow these close friends through years of ups and downs only to find out one is a murderer! I sincerely hope Ms. Siddons can and will return to her writing style that was present in "King's Oak", "Colony", and the "Outer Banks". These, to me, are her best efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as others
Review: I have read other ARS books; this one was not as good as others. THe middle and ending definately did not live up to the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: I love Anne River Siddons' books ~~ my favorite is Colony as that was my first introduction to her descriptive narrating style ~~ as if she's sitting in her rocking chair sharing with us an old story, taking us to that place. She did the same with this book ~~ however, it falls flat at the end, so be warned. I wish I was warned that ~~ all it did was leave more questions hanging instead of answers.

This book is delightful for me even though I am not middle-aged. It talks about a group of friends that have known each other for years and years ~~ ever since childhood. It's a middle-aged version of that popular TV show, "Friends" ~~ for awhile. Then the members started dying off ~~ first it was Camilla's husband, Charlie. Then it was Henry's wife, Fairlie. Then it was Anny (the main character of the novel) who lost her husband, Lewis in a boating accident. Lewis, Camilla and Henry all grew up together on the Island. They did everything together ~~ swam and fished, hunted for treasures and so on. They had the idyllic childhood that most people wish they had. Then Henry married Fairlie and Camilla married Charlie ~~ even though Charleston society long assumed that Henry and Camilla would marry one another.

That is the first part of the book ~~ and the second part of the book is about their middle-age adventures and of grief and loss. Anny then becomes mired in the midst of a storm that is coming ~~ and she doesn't seem to be aware of it though the reader can predict it coming. The second part of the book also talks about losing friends and spouses ~~ and welcoming new friends to the family.

This is not one of her better books ~~ but it's well-written and entertaining. I've waited for a long time for this one to come out ~~ as I have always enjoyed her writing. She's a classic story-teller.

1-3-05