Personal Velocity

Rating:
Summary: Personal moments in seven women's lives
Review: After watching the excellent movie by the same name I just had to read this book.
I believe this is one of the few rare cases where a movie, based on a book, does not fall in standard and is a good addition to the written tale, sort of making it a fuller, richer experience. Only after reading the book do I understand what a good movie it was and how faithful to the book. The narration in the movie is actually a word by word reading of several parts of the story, usually these parts which reflect the character's thoughts or inner feelings ("she was embarrassed to be seen because she had recently grown breasts" - Delia).
The movie is amazing, but it can be such only due to the tale it draws upon.
These are seven stories of women in different ages, geographical regions and social status. These are stories of revelation - of a certain understanding that comes in a brief moment in time.
The beauty of this book is first of all the amazing writing. On the one hand the accounts are very readable, condensed, using everyday language ("and, as was her custom, got up to go to the john"...Bryna) and on the other hand, somehow the way this language is put together, can sometimes make it sound like poetry ("She kept the two narratives distinct in her mind; they coexisted as if in twin universes separated by a vast field of space. The only trouble was that Greta was exhausted ... the fittings...the dinners, the bachelorette party, and the cold that Max had given her" - Greta). It does not matter who you read about, you are drawn to the story and to the insides of the heroine's mind and feelings until you can accept all her actions and remain totally unjudgemental. This is also true of unpleasant accounts, where the characters (Nancy is a good example) could not have won the reader's heart in any other setting.
It was interesting to read how other reviewers interpreted or understood the stories and to see the diversity in the points this book is given. Since the views are not similar, I take it as a proof that this is a story that has you thinking about, analyzing, and reflecting. Not all is clear and your interpretation relies on your life understanding as well. The stories are indeed cut short as one reviewer commented, but I felt that what I read was enough to guess further and to make the point the author intended. The stories sort of give you a glimpse of our heroine's lives and how one event affects another. Bryna, which is able to avoid hate towards her mother in law (explaining to herself that the woman is mad), and actually reaches (at the end of a long hard day) a very intimate feeling and closeness to her husband and Nancy, whose future does not look promising, but the reader can understand that this is a lonely lost child.
I enjoyed each and every one of the characters and could relate to all of them, which is the accomplishment of this great author.

Rating:
Summary: Collection of short stories with female characters
Review: Althought the characters were extreme, I did not really identify with any of them. The character development was interesting so that at the end of each story I found myself wondering what happens next. I think each story is an extreme example of some trait that most women have as part of their personalities. I picked Personal Velocity for our bookclub and it was a good book for discussion. I'm glad I read this book, but don't think I would run out to read Miller's next one unless I heard good things about it.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing there
Review: I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while, it was well reviewed by many and I was so excited to get my hands on it, so you can only imagine my disapointment when I opened it up to find nothing really there.

The book consists of 7 short stories about women who have some sort of pyschological ailment or another. The stories are just not that good. In seems in her attempts to make these women interesting or enigmatic she forgets to give them a soul. Secondly, these women are not likable, they are weird, self indulgent, self pitying, and mopey. One previous reviewer said it best when she said that the stories don't end, they just stop. Thats so true. Just when you think you may be getting interested in one character the story stops.

This book was such a disapointment. If this is supposed to be a commentary on modern women, we should all be insulted and concerned.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing there
Review: I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while, it was well reviewed by many and I was so excited to get my hands on it, so you can only imagine my disapointment when I opened it up to find nothing really there.

The book consists of 7 short stories about women who have some sort of pyschological ailment or another. The stories are just not that good. In seems in her attempts to make these women interesting or enigmatic she forgets to give them a soul. Secondly, these women are not likable, they are weird, self indulgent, self pitying, and mopey. One previous reviewer said it best when she said that the stories don't end, they just stop. Thats so true. Just when you think you may be getting interested in one character the story stops.

This book was such a disapointment. If this is supposed to be a commentary on modern women, we should all be insulted and concerned.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful satires on contemporary women's lives.
Review: I sense this book would never have been published. It must be challenging and intimidating to follow Arthur Miller and
I am sure Rebecca Miller was sincere and well meaning in putting this book together, and I do credit any writer for doing it ( writing, publishing). I do not mean to put Ms Miller down in any way. I was horrifically surprised that this book was receiving so many raves and was so downright bad! Unreadable, frankly. I forced my way through the stories which were full of cliched and vague descriptions, bland dialogue, too many quirky characters in every story , more than one story had flashbacks ( one story had two! A 4 years ago flashback with in a 1 year ago flashback) and more than one story had a character recounting her dreams. Boring!!!!
I did not care about any of the characters. Ms Miller is probably a better writer than she showed here. Maybe her editor let things slide...who knows.
The only inspiring thing to me was that the book's existence proved anyone can get published.

Or can they?

Rating:
Summary: It's okay...
Review: Okay...seven short stories about seven different women. Some stories were related to each other, some weren't. I took the term "personal velocity" to mean the rate at which an individual evolves, or changes, or comes into her own. Maybe I'm way off here. Maybe I just didn't get it. Great--that?s a nice thought. Anyway, I was surprised by all the raving reviews. Maybe it's the style in which Rebecca Miller writes. It's very simple and raw, almost inspiring. You get a very clear sense of the characters she illustrates...the stories read like little movies in your mind. However, many of these stories just left me cold. They didn't end, they just stopped. That's always annoying to me. Plus, after I finished reading this book, I felt...nothing! How can that be?? It's as if no one, not even the writer, really cared about these women. I like simplistic writing but this made me feel like I was reading a technical manual or something! (well, it wasn't that bad!)

I enjoyed the story of Greta, the successful editor who's facing a hard decision about her marriage as her career takes a huge step up. I liked the story of Bryna because the conflict between her and her mother-in-law was so obvious but not a lot needed to be said about it. Plus her relationship with her husband was so sweet and simple compared to the relationships in the other stories. Nancy was an interesting kid. At first she struck me as a future serial killer, but then it was clear that she was totally neglected by selfish parents. Nancy was having some pretty interesting experiences as a result, but I don't really know what happened at the end of that story. I was confused by the parents' conversation. And I felt sad for Nancy. This is an example of where I clearly didn't "get it."

Delia just [made me mad]. She seemed so reckless with herself, which ultimately led her to this awful marriage, and then she was so pleased with herself for continuing to be as reckless as she was before. Fine, she doesn't give a [hoot] about the men she's with, which gives her the power, which keeps her safe. What am I supposed to do with that? I was frustrated with the Julianne story because I wanted to know what would happen to her. She was like this ghost floating through her life. The end. On to the next story. Louisa was another interesting basket-case. So was Paula...but those girls didn't really evolve yet, they were "on their way" to do so when their stories ended.

So essentially, this book is okay. It goes pretty quickly. But like I said before, it didn?t shake my world or anything. The most frustrating thing about it was that each story piqued my interest, but many of them ended too soon. Maybe that's why people loved it so much.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good collection... (3 1/2 stars)
Review: Personal Velocity is a collection of 7 stories by the author Rebecca Miller. (daughter of playwright, Arthur Miller) All of the stories have women at their center. Most of the stories are independent, but there are a couple that share characters. I have seen the movie, which only included three of the stories. This may have made me biased, since I got a visual of those three stories.

Greta was about a woman who was planning on leaving her husband and has always had a problem with infidelity. She is always trying to impress her father, who left her mother when she was young. She is a cookbook editor who gets to edit a very popular authors book, and gets involved with him as well.

Delia is a woman who leaves her husband, finally, after continued beatings. She goes from a woman's shelter to an old acquaintence's house. She grew up very promiscuous and hasn't changed that much.

Louisa, who is also promiscuous, (I'm starting to notice a theme here) goes from lover to lover, and leaves when she starts to feel comfortable.

Julianne and Bryna go hand and hand, as Bryna is Julianne's maid. Bryna imagines being interviewed and often talks to herself. She looks at Julianne as being this perfect woman who is married to a poet/writer 15 years her senior. Bryna always wanted to be glamourous, but instead, marries a farmer and lives with him and his strange mother.

Nancy is a child who always has a nanny looking after her, but this nanny is also observing her, to see if she has anything wrong with her, because she once locked another girl in a closet.

Paula is a woman who picked up a hitchhiker after being with a man who traded places with her on the street and got hit by a car. She thinks that this will change her karma.

I liked the way this author writes, because she shows rather than tells, and she writes very simply to tell a deep story.

I liked certain stories more than others, some just grabbed me more, which is why it didn't receive a higher rating.

Basically, it was a little better than ok, but I have read some collections that I like more.

Rating:
Summary: Great satirical stories!
Review: Personal Velocity is a dark, stark, insightful and satirical collection of short stories. All seven stories are terrific, but the ones with Greta, Louisa and Paula are, in my opinion, the most riveting and humorous ones in the book. Rebecca Miller has grasped the lives of today's single women down to a tee. She covers all the vital details of modern women -- career, relationships, sex -- with a unique brand of dark humor all her own. This isn't a lighthearted chick lit, but a literary piece of women's fiction. With sharp dialogue, unsentimental language and excellent prose, Miller has written quite a memorable satire. I couldn't recommend this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful satires on contemporary women's lives.
Review: The first sentence of the first story grabbed me, and I could not stop reading to find out what happened. To me, that's good story-telling. The second story, about a physically abused wife and mother, was disturbing enough that I thought I would read no further, but hours later I was compelled to read on . . . and on and on, until I had read the entire book. In fact, I am writing a review because I came on-line at Amazon.com to see whether the author had written any books since this. These stories are engrossing and impressively insightful about the lives of seven, very different, contemporary women, a few of whose lives are linked. The term "personal velocity" is a good metaphor for the moving forces in women's lives, both external and internal. As a woman, I found myself and my girlfriends in these women. Reading it, you will experience surprising moments of recognition, and the author renders these familiar truths in astonishingly fresh ways. I hope for more from Rebecca Miller.

Rating:
Summary: One good story out of seven
Review: The way this book began, I thought I'd really enjoy it. I was mistaken. The book contains 7 short stories about 7 different women. The first story was excellent but then it was all downhill from there. The other six stories had a 'snooty' feeling to them. I don't recommend this book to anyone.