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Summary: A bridge to the past, the present and a good man's soul
Review: This poignant first person story is told thru the pages of an old man's diary as he approaches death in a nursing home and relives a life filled with love, tragedy and ultimately happiness. The book will make you smile, and cry. It will be with you long after you put it down. Don't put this book down! Send it to a special friend that loves to read. Someone who will appreciate being transported to Paris in the spring with love and to Verdun in the trenches during the first World War. Someone who embraces life!
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Summary: Just loved it!
Review: Losing Julia is an incredibly well-written novel which weaves four different perspectives into a thoughtful, yet romantic account of a man's life and his search for meaning. First is the convincing story of Patrick,age 81. Hull sensitively peers into the unrest of old age while never losing his sense of humor. Second, is the story about the horrors of WWI, specificially the experiences of an embattled unit prior to and during the Battle of Verdun. Third, it is a story about a love triangle which involves Patrick, his war-buddy Daniel and the woman they both loved, Julia. And fourth, it explores the very human need to make sense of our lives and experiences. It could be said that Losing Julia is about the redemptive power of love, the elusiveness of happiness, and how the idea of love can save a man's sanity (and maybe his soul). Can't recommend this one highhly enough.
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Summary: A pleasant surprise!
Review: When on vacation at Glacier National Park, I ran out of reading materials and picked up a copy of this book, expecting it to provide some pleasant times sitting by the fireplace at the lodge. From the very beginning, I found it captivating. The first chapter hooks you and the rest of the book reels you in. It uses a clever series of flashbacks, moving from the reflections of an elderly man living in a nursing home to the experiences of trench warfare in WWI to a remembrance ceremony ten years after the war. As I read the book, I found it causing me to do serious reflection about my own life and our purpose on the planet. I am an avid reader and would count this among the half-dozen or so best books I've read in 53 years.
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Summary: A love story crossing generations...
Review: Jonathan Hull's Losing Julia may be the tearjerker of the decade. World War I vet Patrick Delaney's 'journal' describes the three most important times in his life: fighting the war in France, falling in love and adventures as an 81 year old in a nursing home. On the German front, Patrick's best, Daniel, is killed, leaving behind a beautiful girlfriend, Julia, and daughter, Robin. Ten years following the war, Patrick and family visit the battlefield, and he finally meets Julia. They fall in love despite Patrick's marriage to Charlotte and both must make decisions about the future. Hull brilliantly captures the three different time periods and even three different genres. The war scenes were vivid and realistic, the love scenes romantic and thrilling and the nursing home days humorous and sentimental. I am so excited to have found a new author to enjoy!
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Summary: GREAT BOOK!! It is not a romance but a life story.
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. As a military nurse, I see many patients that have been in wars and Mr Hull pegged the character on the first try. This book has the potential to become a best seller. The story is about the life of an ordinary man who lives an extraordinary life. I had a hard time putting it down because I wanted to see what Patrick would say next about life. So many times I wondered where Mr Hull got the insight into life of an old man. If his next book is this good he will really have a great career.
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Summary: Perhaps the best novel I've ever read
Review: This book involved me in a way no other book has done. I laughed, I cried, and I wondered at how so young an author could have such insight into the human condition. I have never read a better description of the problems brought on by aging. Nor have I ever read a more poignant love story or such realistic depictions of the horrors of war, both mental and physical. Hull is going places. I anxiously await his next work. Jon C. Gilbert
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Summary: Tell a friend- wonderful book!
Review: I read constantly and various, but it has been a long time since I read a book I cherished. You know there are those books that you cherish every word up till the end. The books you absorb and hold tight, with eyes searching, rushing to see what happens, yet slowly savoring, not wanting it to end. This is that kind of book. One of those books you tell all your friends about. The kind of book that becomes part of your day. The book you think about during the day until you can get back to reading it. Don't be fooled by the title or cover. It is not just a "romance" per se, it is a book of life, and love, and all things great; albeit them good or bad. This is a book for men and women. There are many writers who spin entertaining, fun, even insightful books but few get the official badge of "good writer". Jonathan Hull achieves that honor and I can't wait to read more. Read this one. You will learn from and love Patrick Delaney.
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Summary: Losing Julia
Review: I knew when I started to read this book that I'd never want it to end. Each part, WW1, ten years later, and the aging Patrick, made me think so much about what the author was saying, that I'd drift off with thoughts of my own about what Jonathan Hull had written. The way the author describes stages in old age, the funny, the sad, all made me enjoy this book so much. I also cried - something I haven't done in years while reading a book. I would have to say this is the BEST book I've read in a long, long time. I hope Mr. Hull is busy writing his next book, as I will be so looking forward to reading it.
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Summary: Destiny, Sadness, Choices
Review: I've read some of the other reviews for this book and I agree wholeheartedly with them. I read the paperback version. This is a book I intend recommending to my friends. This is a story that is set in three time periods. The novels "present" is set in 1981 when the main protagonist of the story, Patrick Delaney, is 81, retired and tired and living in an old folks home. He's fighting to give a damn about life, like he'd done when he was a younger man in the trenches of France in World War One, which is where a second part of the novel is set. Most of his day is spent in the retirement home remembering better times -- the best, of course, being the time he spent with the fiance of the best friend he'd ever had, Daniel, whom he'd met in France and who dies in no-man's-land one day. Daniel's fiance and mother of his soon-to-be-born child, Julia, is a breathtaking creature who is much the same as Daniel and Patrick both... and that is how she falls in love with them. This is a novel of pain, of physical death and spiritual death, of searching for God -- and sometimes finding him but mostly not finding him. God is in the silences as well as the battlefields... but sometimes we find him in someone's eyes and arms and other limbs. We get entangled looking for God in the most unlikeliest of places and romantic love with another person is what we often times settle for. And that's enough for Patrick.
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Summary: Patrick and Daniel
Review: This book is great!! I don't usually care for stories that keep switching time periods, but while reading I kept thinking what a great movie it would make. I enjoyed Patrick's keen and witty insights into senior's lives especially. I acutally laughed out loud at some of his descriptions. It wasn't entirely devoted to WWI scenes or romance. If it had been strictly romance I wouldn't have read it. I hope Mr. Hull is working on another book. I wouldn't hesitate to read another by him. Excellent read.
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