Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Read
Review: This book was an amazing read I could not put down. Lent is as poetically discriptive as Pat Conroy, and his insight into human nature was offered in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion I enjoyed. I learned from this book -- my personal test of a good book. It created value in my life.
Rating:
Summary: impressive novel
Review: Jeffrey Lent's book, In the Fall, is a captivating novel with hauntingly indepth characters. You find yourself completely surrounded by the places and drawn into the fears, expectations, loves, losses and sometimes brutal reality of life for three generations of a family as it struggles to fit into the quickly changing world of New England after the Civil War and the legacy of racism that is their history. This novel is powerful and will reach deep into your heart. Lent brings the pain of our country's slave history to characters that are real and powerful in their ability to survive. This is an impressive novel which includes masterful historic details both of time and place flowing through a story that is rich and rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Rich and elegant
Review: "In the Fall" is a first novel written by someone who was born to write. The story has such depth and the characters so fully drawn that reading the book is a pleasure that rewards.Set in Vermont between the Civil War and the Depression, "In the Fall" begins with Norman Pelham returning from the Civil War with his new wife, Leah, a former slave, whom he met when he was wounded and Leah was on the run from the plantation. It would seem that Leah has escaped the South and the legacy of slavery in her New England home, but that is far from the truth. The past ricochets through the following generations, leaving a young grandson to look for the truth. The Pelhams, with their strong, unconventional relationships, stubborness, and fits of violence, are an interesting bunch. "In the Fall" is an unusual and compelling debut.
Rating:
Summary: In the Fall
Review: In the Fall is a tragic story of how society forces its values on us and how we continue to "fall" beneath its weight rather than rise above it. The Pelham family foundation was cracked from the beginning, not because of Norman, who ends up marrying an ex-slave, but because love and intimacy were not openly displayed in the Pelham home although it was experienced in small, everyday ways. Norman finds his own way of expressing his love, not by his words but by his actions. He passes this on to his children, without even realizing that he has left them a legacy to express themselves physically but very seldom, verbally. This thread of expression is woven through all three of the generations represented in this novel. I hope this novel does well; I hope it climbs onto the Best Seller's List because in many ways, this book is about America-its sins, its fears, its history and its family structure. Until we learn to confront and face our past, our future will always be in question and for some, in jeopardy. Jeffrey Lent takes on a subject during a period of time that is still not talked about openly enough among those of us who call ourselves "well educated and well read". The language is descriptive, vivid and engaging. It sucks the reader in and makes her feel a part of the experience, not as an observer but as a participant. Read this novel and by all means, pass it on.
Rating:
Summary: grand book
Review: I, too, was put off initially by Lent's style, but passed through that and was completely absorbed in this wonderful story about characters whom I feel I know. As I approached the end of the book, I could feel myself resisting having to say good-bye to these wonderful people. Even minor characters seemed to inhabit these pages. I thought the author was psychologically astute as he examined the relationships among generations and races, as well as the impact of slavery on all of our lives. I just finished the book and can't quite decide how I feel about the ending, when Foster learns the truth about his grandmother's visit to North Carolina. Although it feels somewhat contrived, it also really does explain its horror and effect on Leah.
This was a wonderful book and one I will suggest to many friends.
Rating: 
Summary: The only book I've wanted to throw away
Review: It's not that the actual story is nonsense but they guy has included so much 'fluff' that you get board waiting on a paragraph with real content. This book was so frustrating, I really wish I had saved myself the bother of reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Breaking up is hard to do
Review: The author is apparently one of those humans who are very aware of emotions and thoughts about them, moment to moment. The good news is that personality - and the ability to get it on paper - allows him to explore characters' thinking in depth. The bad is that it often isn't clear who is thinking, the author or his characters. This is especially a problem during the first half, where thoughts go on so long that they often get separated from accompanying actions in a way that is tedious.
Another problem from this perspective is that to the manically aware personality, a lot of what goes on in everyday human affairs is writ so large as to seem cruel. This I suspect lends to the author's recurring theme of the cruelty of humans. That's too bad, because there is a lot of thoughtful insight in this book about life and racism and, much of it comes from of all places, one of the cruelest characters.
For a book that spans over 60 years, there is little of the world around these characters. That's how the author can seem very profound isolating on family relationships, yet miss the pull of the world and history (weren't there, e.g., a world war and several economic depressions during this period?). That leaves the story a bit about life in a bubble, a little thin.
Finally, however, Lent has met the universal "how to end" problem and faltered. In the last long section of the book, he gives the reader a rural-raised 16-year old who, even recognizing that kids used to grow up faster, is mature far beyond his years or believability. At the same time, he turns this 16-year old, one who can see through and outwit a wily, cruel old man over the course of a few days, into a naif unable to recognize the transparent desperation of a local girl looking to escape rural Southern life. It makes for a happier ending than a satisfying story.
Rating:
Summary: Seasons in our lives, unspoken emotions of generations
Review: Jeffery Lent is a stroke of genius in his detailed depth of his characters emotions. The story is developed around several autumns (falls) over multiple generations. Issues of love, hate, good and evil are dramatised over the echos of the civil war. Interestingly the unspoken thoughts of the stories average family members - especially when in the parental role is unique and easily identified by parents in today's world. One wonders if the title In the Fall is reference to the time of autumn or the "fall" we experience when we emotionally expect for one thing in life to happen and we "fall" - something else is the outcome? When northern raised Norman returns from the south after the civil war with a young negro "wife", Leah, in tow- is his abolishonist mother's sudden departure from the homestead a "fall" of her own expectations? Was the telling of a long held fantasy as a personal reality by the "fallen from perfect health", bitter at the south's falling, Mr Lex 25 years later to Leah a "falling of her own mother" she could not endure, so she also "falls"?
This book requires somber reading. The story is beautiful in it's telling of man's relationships - unspoken thoughts that lead us down the road of life from summer into fall. Baby boomers will love this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Language Tedious
Review: This book is incredibly descriptive and verbose, but I like that style most of the time. I felt deeply compelled to keep reading this interesting family saga but was very disappointed by the last section where Foster goes to learn the truth behind the mystery of his grandmother's life. It falls flat and is just disturbing but not truthful sounding. What I liked best was the story of the love between Leah and Norman and the parts where Foster grows to know his 2 Aunts, who are the best characters inthe book. Much of the praise for this book is about the language and the depth of the story but I have to agree with some who criticize and say it often feels contrived. Still, I feel Mr. Lent did a fine job and has great promise.
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