Heart-Side Up

Rating:
Summary: Gus is the greatest!
Review: Loved the book, all the characters, and especially great in the "setting" department. Hated the ending for reasons that would spoil it for others. Would be good for book clubs.

Rating:
Summary: Mayhem and Majesty
Review: This author's second novel is strong, direct, and flows with seeming effortlessness. I often found myself reading sentences over and over because they are so beautiful. The maelstrom where Zoe and Gus are lost is simultaneously frightening and captivating. One can feel the majesty and the crystalline silence of it. The sexuality, to me, is handled just right - deftly, plainly, delicately, originally - very much better than so many other writers.

In short, I highly recommend this book for the quality of the writing, the intelligence of the story, and the sheer pleasure of watching the evolution of a fine writer.

Rating:
Summary: Every man should read to understand the power of First Love
Review: This book would seem to be about a woman rebuilding herself after a trauma. It reads like a mystery, compelling the reader to turn page after page, disregarding the hour or their fatigue, to solve the problem. Yet it is understanding the problem that is the mystery.

This is a book about the power of first love, the love that becomes hardwired into the psyche, and is the standard, knowingly or unknowingly, for all loves to follow. Every testosterone ravaged teenaged male should read this to understand the powerful images that they cast on their first loves. If not, then we middle aged men should read it to understand the hole in our heart that we cannot explain. Every woman should read this to realize the grand oneness they seek is there for her. Both will come to understand the need for acceptance and redemption that comes from a powerful, and everlasting, love.

This is a story that will have reverberations that continue long after the book has been read. Expect great things from this writer of admirable sensitivity and wit.