Rating: 
Summary: Got the sense of unreality - insanity juxtaposed with wisdom
Review: This hit me like "Life is Beautiful". Normal, regular people giving all they have to live yet living in the midst of brutality and madness. One minute there is joy and comfort in small things, the next minute an old lady is being taken away for refusing to denounce Jews. The protagonist is wise to the point of having supernatural/psychic abilities about people and future events. Physically, she is a dwarf and describes her struggles powerfully with quiet, substantial skill. She is placed in a time of insanity (not the type her mother had), better yet, brutal idiocy. A great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Looses your interest after a while.
Review: I was at first reluctant to read this book since it was an Oprah book club selection, but I read it anyway since it was so highly recommended from friends. The story is a very touching one about a "vertically challenged" woman who struggles to live with her difference in a "tall" society. The story is interesting but then halfway through the book it turns into a war novel depicting stories of what it was like to live in Germany as a Jew in World War II. I think that Hegi should've stuck to one story line. The novel seemed to be divided into two different strories that went on for too long. It was hard to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible!!!
Review: This book was definitely something to behold...I just couldn't put it down!! Hegi did a great job reenacting something that happened so long ago, and I would definitely recommend that EVERYONE read this.
Rating: 
Summary: An appalling message wrapped in a highly engaging story.
Review: This stealth apology for Nazis Germany neatly captures the successful Rodney King defense strategy of examining each tree, but ignoring the forest. By minutely examining every video taped frame of King's beating with an accompanying commentary of "reasonalbe police force," the defense convinced the jury that the police acted reasonably despite a video tape that showed the opposite. Likewise the author in Stones From the River offers a rich examination of average German individuals, but neglects the forest of horror created by those individuals. She offers a sympathetic portrait of a people held hostage by a few bad apples. But we know otherwise, those individuals knew what was happening to their neighbors, yet they failed to rise up in protest and end the horror. Inexcusable and unforgivable, period. When Americans realized the Vietnam war was wrong (a far, far more ambiguous situation than Germany in the 1930's), they rose up in angry, bloody, loud, and persistent protest to stop the war. The author fails to adequately answer the question that spurred her novel: Why did Germans permit the atrocities committed in their name?
Rating: 
Summary: A very ambitious writing project but a disappointing ending!
Review: It's hard to criticise a book that was so thorough and detailed. Ursula Hegi must love to write! I loved her characters, her meticulous details. It's easy to love the main character Trudi. The story read like a biography. It just seemed like Hegi had a hard time figuring out how she was going to end the book. It seemed as if there were a lot of "loose ends". There were issues that didn't seem to have a conclusion. I know real life is like that but for a fiction book I wish she would have ended it with a bit more pizazz. If she re-wrote the ending it would be a perfect book!
Rating:
Summary: If you enjoy literature, READ THIS BOOK!
Review: Ursula Hegi has become one of my favorite authors...this book alone inspired me to buy more of her work. Now that I have everything she's published, I eagerly await more. Hegi paints a very believable character in Trudi Montag. This story reminds all of us who grew up without being "popular" of how cruel children can be, but that we survived, and we had company all over the globe, and across time. She shows that everyone has something that makes them different, and helps make these differences something we can live with, if not learn to embrace. The history in this book is amazing, and is a must read for anyone remotely interested in WWII and/or the Holocaust. "Stones" gives a perspective we aren't used to seeing, and one that I believe is invaluable.This book is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book!!!!!!!
Review: This book was a great read. It was slow at times but overall was very rewarding. Hegi paints such accurate and detailed portraits that by the end you feel you know every person in the village of Burgdorf. I highly reccomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A book I'll never forget!
Review: WWII through the eyes of a dwarf... sounds odd, but the tale is as much fact as it is fiction. This wonderful novel sheds new light on the desperation, the sorrows, the misinformation, the love, and the HOPE of the people of that period in history - all seen through the eyes of Trudi, a tiny but strong woman who searches for acceptance. I couldn't put this book down!
Rating:
Summary: plodding life story
Review: Initially Stones from the River was promising, however, as the book proceeded it became a tedious series of events in the life of Trudi. After a while it became difficult to even empathize with her as she seemed more and more unmoved by the events around her. Also, the prose style seemed forced and even cliche.
Rating:
Summary: Life as told in One (well-written)Volume = Masterpiece
Review: I read 'Floating in my Mother's Palm' a few years ago, and loved it, so I was ready for Stones from the River. I was willing to grant the beginning, and Trudi's unusual wisdom in infancy, a little bit of 'literary immunity' in order to soak up Ursula Hegi's close observations of Life. I found that for me, Trudi's experiences articulated a lot about myself, and I appreciate the effort that went into that process. The author's vision of life was highly resonant with my own, and I appreciate the complexity she was able to express in forms, that for me, imitate life quite closely. I wish I could quote from many of the readers who loved this book, because I certainly did. Yet I can see where this book would be a tough read for me even a few years ago, before I was able to embrace my own pain as comprehensibly as I now seem able to do. I think this book is an education in itself, and it's very very well written. Thank you, Ursula Hegi
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