Around Again

Rating:
Summary: insightful, compassionate view of a woman's hope for rebirth
Review: Accomplished New England author Suzanne Strempek Shea's most recent novel, "Around Again," presents convicing and evocative evidence that of life's most significant battles, the wars we wage inside ourselves are the most important. The novel features a conflicted protagonist, Robyn Panek, who must return to a family farm which, some twenty years earlier, produced a summer that sundered her attachment to an innocent and hopeful past. Priding herself on her ability to discern that which is real from that which is fake, Robyn must confront not only the unfulfilled status of her present life, but also the traumatizing memories of events which shattered not only friendship and romance, but the very idea of family continuity and personal grace.

"Around Again" is a significant departure for the author, whose three previous books possessed an aura of kindness and warmth for the female protagonists whose Polish identity provided nurturing support against life's disappointments. In this talented and provocative novel, Shea depicts a protagonist whose middle-aged existence is one of loneliness, silent anguish, and subdued frustration over past betrayal. Robyn Panek emerges as a fully-rendered character, whose hurt and isolation compel our compassion, whose blasted hopes foster our admiration for her earnest determination to make sense of her past. This is a more somber, sophisticated and adult novel, rich in characterization and deftly presented in a series of cross-cutting chapters which alternate between Robyn as a late adolescent and as a middle-aged woman.

Robyn Panek, responding to her uncle's request to close down his beloved family farm in western Massachusetts after he has suffered a near-fatal illness, learns that life does not work out "neat and clean and tidy." A central metaphor of the novel revolves around the future of a set of ponies, whose backs have carried decades of riders and whose being is central to Robyn's memory of the past and her self-definition today. She must confront the memory of Lucy Dragon, whose suicidal impulses some twenty years ago led to the explosion of all that Robyn held dear. The reflective Robyn comes to realize that "what happens to people between there and here you can never really know."

Suzanne Strempek Shea movingly depicts adolescent friendship through Lucy and Robyn. Reluctantly, slowly, unknowingly, Robyn comes to love Lucy. "The flight and exposition, the self-love and automatic hate...all this shone back at me...So there was no way I could miss or ignore the truth. That looking at this crazy girl, clearly I was also seeing myself." The relationship between Robyn and Frankie, her first love, brims with unabashed optimism; how Robyn deals with its abrupt transformation perhaps is the single strongest aspect of the novel.

This important work, symbolically rich and engrossing in both its narrative and characterizations, signals a new path for its author. Rightfully heralded as a vibrant voice for Polish Americans and a keen interpreter of the mind of young women bordering on self-discovery, Suzanne Strempek Shea now can be perceived as an author whose scope is much, much broader. "Around Again" helps all of us understand what it means to be human.

Rating:
Summary: clunky
Review: I came really close to liking this book. The characters in it are believable and, to a certain extent, sympathetic, the story moves at a decent pace, and there is a certain rural charm to it. The story takes place during many summers spent at a Massachusetts farm. Robyn Panek spends her childhood summers at her uncle's farm, running the pony ride there. It becomes a second home to her, so she is devastated when a new boarder at the farm does something that sends shockwaves through the little New England town. In many places, the hardworking yet laid back vibe of summer in the country shines through. The problem with the novel is not characters, and it's not locale, or plot. The only problem with the flow of the story comes from Shea's main flaw as a writer: clunky prose. I didn't read more than two pages at a time without halting at a sentence or passage, laden with just an extra word or two that threw the rhythm of the book off. Shea is not a bad writer: she knows what words to use. She just doesn't know what order to use them in, or when to pull back and trust her readers. This is a 310 page book that would be 250, 275 pages tops if every errant, overreaching word and passage was deleted.

Rating:
Summary: clunky
Review: I came really close to liking this book. The characters in it are believable and, to a certain extent, sympathetic, the story moves at a decent pace, and there is a certain rural charm to it. The story takes place during many summers spent at a Massachusetts farm. Robyn Panek spends her childhood summers at her uncle's farm, running the pony ride there. It becomes a second home to her, so she is devastated when a new boarder at the farm does something that sends shockwaves through the little New England town. In many places, the hardworking yet laid back vibe of summer in the country shines through. The problem with the novel is not characters, and it's not locale, or plot. The only problem with the flow of the story comes from Shea's main flaw as a writer: clunky prose. I didn't read more than two pages at a time without halting at a sentence or passage, laden with just an extra word or two that threw the rhythm of the book off. Shea is not a bad writer: she knows what words to use. She just doesn't know what order to use them in, or when to pull back and trust her readers. This is a 310 page book that would be 250, 275 pages tops if every errant, overreaching word and passage was deleted.

Rating:
Summary: Comfort Reading
Review: I read Suzanne Strempek Shea's 3 previous novels and really enjoyed them. I was really excited when I found out she had a new book out and immediately checked out from the local library. I'm about 40 pages into it and don't think I care to finish it. There doesn't seem to be much happening so far and barely any dialogue. The descriptions are long-winded and put me to sleep and seem to take precedence over any kind of plot. I don't really care one way or another about the characters so far as I did in her previous books. I'm wondering if the author is trying out a new style. If so, I miss her old style. I'm glad I didn't purchase this book but only borrowed it. It's going back this week.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting, bittersweet look at the ghosts of the past
Review: I'm a big fan of Suzanne Strempek Shea, and this novel is no exception. It's a bit different in tone from her last book, more melancholy and musing, but very powerful and moving. The basic plot is one many 30- or 40-somethings can relate to: after her uncle's grave illness, Robyn returns to his farm to help him sell the property and to honor one of his last wishes - that she run the farm and its pony-ride ring for one final summer. Shea skillfully depicts the mix of emotions and memories that inevitably face the one who must pack up after an ailing or deceased relative. "Around Again" gains additional complexity, though, in exploring Robyn's personal history at the farm: the unexpected ending to her last visit, the summer she was 17. It's a shame Ms. Shea is not more widely known or appreciated; she's an extremely talented writer and should not merely be pigeon-holed as the "Polish-American Amy Tan." "Around Again" does capture dead on the nuances of being a 2nd or 3rd generation Polish-American, but the cultural backdrop is really secondary to a universally-applicable story told with lyrical elegance and deep emotion.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Suzanne Strempek Shea has a gentle, humerous, insightful voice that allows you inside her characters. In Around Again, this well-paced story makes you feel a part of it and never want to leave, as all good stories do. It fills your heart and tugs on the strings. It's very worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This was the first book I read by this author. I loved it. It's been a long time since the end of a novel made me cry. I've since read Shea's other books and have enjoyed them very much, but Around Again remains my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This was the first book I read by this author. I loved it. It's been a long time since the end of a novel made me cry. I've since read Shea's other books and have enjoyed them very much, but Around Again remains my favorite.