Rating: 
Summary: Really bad.
Review: I can't believe I spent $13 on this book. It reads like the rough draft of a novel--not an actual novel. It's banal. The heroine is nursing her baby and her breasts are sore! Wow! What an insight! Phillips' brain must have been on auto-pilot when she wrote this. It got decent reviews in the media when it came out in hardcover. Why??
Rating: 
Summary: A MEDITATION ON DEATH AND BIRTH AND LIVING
Review: I didn't find this novel to be the easiest thing to read that I've picked up in the last few months -- but, that being said, I felt that the beauty of the language compelled me to finish it, once I had begun.Jayne Anne Phillips has taken on a monumental task in writing this book. She has reduced the events and emotions of life-changing events -- the birth of a child, the agony and ecstasy of breastfeeding, and the at-home hospice care of a dying mother -- into words, onto the printed page. Her observations and meditations of these events are illuminating and moving. The seemingly everyday events in the lives of her characters take on a luminosity usually only bestowed by painters on their subjects. Things we take for granted -- a walk down the street to the market, a confidence shared with a friend, the touch of a mother's hand -- all take on an importance that is magnified. This magnification is not a falsification -- it is an opportunity for us to realize the importance of small things, an importance too often overlooked in our busy lives. This novel, then, becomes a study in priorities. I had a hard time getting past the first 100 pages or so -- and I think, in retrospect, I can attribute this to the author's pursuit of the 'mundane' details in everyday living. When I finally accustomed myself to the style she employed, I was able to relax more, take my time, and relish her creation. As far as other works I've read by Phillips, I must say that I enjoyed her novel SHELTER a bit more -- but her talent is genuine and accomplished, and I look forward to reading other works. Lastly, I have to say that this is a book that should be read by more male readers -- its subject (mother-daughter relations and the birth/breastfeeding experience) might tend to cause it to be classified as 'women's fiction', but that would be doing it a disservice. It would also cause it to be passed over by men who could use the lessons it teaches in order to allow them to better relate to their female counterparts. Understanding and empathy can go a long way in strengthening a relationship -- and we could all use a little more understanding, especially between the sexes.
Rating:
Summary: No Story here at all
Review: I found this book very boring and it took me a real long time to finish it. The character are not strong enough to hold interest and there really wasn't any story at all. I cannot recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: A wrenching and insightful novel
Review: I found this novel to be extremely moving and luminous. Like all great art, the book takes great risks to achieve its emotionality: it draws on and transforms "real-life" and it even risks what would be in lesser hands sentimentality. The protagonist is a shrewd and funny, yet Phillips doesn't waste our time with a character who uses humor to push away feelings; instead, the novel embraces even the painful responses and arrives at insights that took my breath away.
Rating:
Summary: Nicely written.
Review: Phillips' writing just flows easily from one chapter to the next. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Phillips illustrates the bond between a mother and daughter from birth to death, and the various ways in which all women become nurturers. Kate discovers she's pregnant shortly after her own mother, Katherine, is diagnosed with a serious illness. Katherine leaves her home in Pennsylvania and moves in with Kate and her boyfriend in Boston. Kate's life is turned upside down as she becomes her mother's caretaker, a stepmother to two boys, then gives birth to her own child and needs some care of her own. Through flashbacks, we meet all of the female caretakers that come in and out of the women's lives--the young woman who comes in to prepare meals until the new mother gets back on her feet, the babysitter, the next-door neighbor who offers her own brand of nurturing, and the visiting nurses who help her mother through the last painful days of her life. My only complaint is that the male characters are minor characters with no substance. Obviously, Phillips had her reasons for writing them that way, but as someone who was nursed back to health by a husband after a serious illness, it bugged me that all of the nurturers in the book are women. Aside from that, it was a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: Some fine things, sometimes very poetical but on the whole rather boring.
Not much happen, no real development of character, no interesting insights.
Some parts was extraordinarily boring especially the description of the marriage, it was like straight out from a glossy magazine for the well-to-do middleclass.
Rating:
Summary: Not recommended
Review: Some fine things, sometimes very poetical but on the whole rather boring. Not much happen , no real development of character, no interesting insights. Some parts was extraordinarily boring especially the description of the marriage, it was like straight out from a glossy magazine for the well-to-do middleclass.
Rating:
Summary: did I actually read it all?
Review: This book seemed like a glimpse of someone's hectic everyday life. I am amazed I finished it. I enjoyed the author's writing style (some great imagery and thought connections) but the story never amounted to anything. The characters seemed like aquaintences-I knew some details of their lives but I never really cared about them or about getting to know them. The relationships of the main character (her name escapes me) were of interest at first, but again never amount to much. Her relationships with women were strong, her relationship with her husband, disconcerting. The book felt like it was building to something but it never peaked. Can I assume this is the author's comment on life? If I were to turn back time, I wouldn't read this book but would pick up another by this author. I will consider reading other work of hers in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is one of those books that I wanted to like more than I did. The characters are interesting and the sense of time and place are moving, but ultimately it didn't move me. I suggest people take it out of the library or buy a used copy (as I did) if they're going to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling tale of the agony of the sandwich generation
Review: This story about birth and death is lyrical and replete with sensory detail. I found the visit to the toy store to be a particularly effective use of graphic nuances that made the reader actually join her on the trips down the aisles. The reader feels the real constraint of time that is the plaque of any one who faces the problems of the sandwich generation today. The author makes the reader empathic about the compelling pulls of the protagonist by husband, mother, step-children and baby. Parts of the book seem disjointed as when the main character, Kate, trips down memory lane. I am not sure that these scenes added much meat to the story. They did provide more insight into the character yet I would rather have had more details about the emotional stresses she was undergoing as she sought to fulfill all her demanding roles. The only part that was particularly weak was the final death scene. I felt cheated that there was not a clear sense of the finality. This is the reason for my evaluation of four stars. Had the final scene been more dramatic, the book would surely be a five star. I'm now ready to read other books by this author who clearly has the gifted talent necessary to make characters come alive.
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