Rating: 
Summary: Quality of friendship
Review: "Dear Exile" sells itself as a book of letters between two friends separated by more than distance. The reader follows two completely different life paths. I found Kate's story to be fascinating, to see how one copes in a third world country and how the views of its citizens are so alien to our own (in America.) Hilary's story was less absorbing. Frankly, it was like listening to a women who is full of herself. She makes it seem that she is the only one who has had to suffer through the ordeal of dating. Please, give me a break. Hilary's "trials and tribulations" of living in NYC certainly aren't anything that millions of other people haven't gone through. Nothing special in her story, but without her letters, as page filler, there wouldn't have been enough to publish a book. I wish Kate would have written more about her experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: A great book. I loved reading the letters between the two friends and their different styles of writing. I hope their friendship will always endure. I look foward to reading more by both. I've already read Candy and Me by Hilary. I hope to hear more from K8.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: A great book. I loved reading the letters between the two friends and their different styles of writing. I hope their friendship will always endure. I look foward to reading more by both. I've already read Candy and Me by Hilary. I hope to hear more from K8.
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: As someone who is intrigued by the Peace Corps, this book was a compelling read for me. Having also spent half a year overseas in third world countries, I could relate to many of the conditions described by Kate in her letters. And her letters truly enabled the reader to look in on a world that is so different from their own. It was also fun to see the dichotomy between Hilary's life and that of Kate's and her husband's. The two "friends" could not have chosen more differing paths. A lot came through the letters the two women wrote, including the supportive and wonderful relationship Kate and her husband seem to have. I was not impressed by the friendship between Kate and Hilary, however. It was great that Kate was able to write about her experiences to Hilary, as a form of a diary and an outlet to vent her tribulations in Africa. And it was probably fun for ehr to get letters from Hilary as well -- these two had a nice relationship on paper. However, their relationship in person was a joke. These two women could not have lived more different lives, one caught up in the superficial life of NYC and the other, as genuine as could be. Neither life is wrong, its just, both girls are so incredibly different, and have chosen such different paths that it is hard to imagine the two of them having a friendship that goes beyond letters exchanged when the two were thousands of miles apart. It was interesting how close they seemed when living far apart, and how far apart they seemed while being near each other. I think each could learn a lot from the other, and that perhaps their friendship moved beyond what it seemed at the end of this book, but I was disappointed by the ending. It sparked interesting questions, and is a quick and interesting read. The letters these two women wrote were interesting in their own right, especially Kate's. Her experiences and the choices she and her husband had to make were amazing. If nothing else, I am glad she had Hilary to write to during a most trying time in her life.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: I could relate to this book in every way! It is a collection of letters sent between two friends, Kate and Hillary. College roommates, Kate joins the Peace Corps in Africa and Hillary remains in New York starting life. They both tell each other adventures in daily life as well as struggles. Even though Kate is in a third world country, Hillary has her share of problems. Neither seems to be jealous of the other but rather supportive. I lived overseas for 6 years in a third world country and corresponded similarly with a friend. We laugh when going over the old letters. This book is a true collection of friendship.
Rating: 
Summary: Dear Exile
Review: I enjoyed reading the letters in this book and the opportunity it allowed me to peek into the lives of these women for one year. The daily problems of everyday life in NYC may not seem as important or difficult as the challenges of everyday life in Kenya, but they are to the person who is living them and to their best friend. I tell my own best friend everything including when I have to change a light bulb. I couldn't stop reading the book because I found it suspenseful. What was going to happen at the school in Kenya and would Kate survive her time there? What would happen with Hilary's love life or with her disturbed downstairs neighbor? I hung on to every word and looked forward to every letter as if they were written to me personally. The end of the book left me kind of sad. There did not seem to be much hope for a better future in the village in Kenya or the school system there. Kate's optimistic anticipation for her time in the Peace Corps flattened by the reality of conditions beyond her control. Hilary surrounded by friends, the center of attention, yet so alone. I worry that now that they are no longer half a world apart and don't have to write each other letters, that time and new responsibilities will get in their way and cause them to drift apart even though they live in the same city. They profess undying friendship in their letters and I believe them, but I hope they take the time to have a leisurely chat over tea and cake every once in a while too.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book!
Review: I read Dear Exile in one continous session--I couldn't put it down. It is funny, interesting, sad (the sections about teaching in poor Kenyan schools are heartbreaking) and just all around great. This book is going to appeal to a lot of people, I think. With people communicating so much by e-mail, one of the wonderful aspects of the book is fact that the authors actually wrote each other real letters-- long, thoughtful ones. Pretty amazing. Anyone who has ever stuggled to find the right job and the right mate and the right life will relate to Hilary's story, while anyone who has ever dreamed of running off and joining the Peace Corps will appreciate Kate's story. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not as absorbing as I had expected
Review: I was a bit disappointed in this book. I love corresponding with others, and I looked forward to learning about Hilary and Kate by reading their letters. I felt that something was missing and I cannot quite put my finger on it. The book was short and I think what I had been looking for was a longer narrative. Kate and Hilary's friendship certainly is one of a kind, and it was nice to have a look at their confidences and challenges. Overall, I vote this book 3.5 stars of 5, as the glimpses of Kenya were poignant and interesting, and I did find Kate and Hilary's relationship intriguing. The story was of real life, so perhaps the only thing wrong was that I have read too much fiction in the past, and this story was reflective of how the world really works.
Rating:
Summary: Special Delivery
Review: In an age of cell phones and e-mail and instant access, a pair of people who write long, detailed letters and mail them (with stamps!) seems unusual. And what letters! These are no slapdash, catty-chatty constructions, but rather articulate, vivid, thoughtful epistles between two people living very different lives in the 1990s. The letters are real; they are the products of former Yale roommates Kate Montgomery and Hilary Liftin. Kate, recently married, moves to Kenya with her husband to teach English for the Peace Corps. Her narrative of life in Africa begins with stunned delight (giraffes walk by!). Increasingly, though, her letters begin to detail the awful conditions and debasement of the people there. We learn of rampant disease (Kate seems to catch every one of them), polluted water, and unsanitary schools where students are beaten mercilessly. Hilary, from the other side of the ocean, relates her experience as a single woman looking for love, satisfying work, and a decent apartment in New York City. Her stories are funny, poignant, sometimes heartbreaking, and just as interesting as Kate's. The best story of all, though, is that of the friendship that sustains and enriches these two passionate women across the miles.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, insightful, and funny.
Review: This is about as perfect as a book can be. I won't recap the concept; plenty of other reviewers have summed it up. But I want to express my unbounded admiration for this book. I would never have imagined that a set of letters between friends could make for fascinating, hard-to-put-down reading, but this set of letters does. In spades. These women's lives are just plain interesting--Kate's, in part, because she's in a situation most of us know little or nothing about and Hilary's, in part, because she's in a situation most of us know all too well. There's more going on here, though, than just the fact of being interesting. The friendship between these two comes alive on the page; the insights about the world and about each other that the women reveal are meaningful; the wit each writer possesses is sharp and on target. I loved the book. I'm giving it to everyone I know for Christmas because they're all going to love it, too.
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