Dear Exile

Rating:
Summary: Quality of friendship
Review: "Dear Exile" sells itself as a book of letters between two friends separated by more than distance. The reader follows two completely different life paths. I found Kate's story to be fascinating, to see how one copes in a third world country and how the views of its citizens are so alien to our own (in America.) Hilary's story was less absorbing. Frankly, it was like listening to a women who is full of herself. She makes it seem that she is the only one who has had to suffer through the ordeal of dating. Please, give me a break. Hilary's "trials and tribulations" of living in NYC certainly aren't anything that millions of other people haven't gone through. Nothing special in her story, but without her letters, as page filler, there wouldn't have been enough to publish a book. I wish Kate would have written more about her experiences.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: A great book. I loved reading the letters between the two friends and their different styles of writing. I hope their friendship will always endure. I look foward to reading more by both. I've already read Candy and Me by Hilary. I hope to hear more from K8.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: A great book. I loved reading the letters between the two friends and their different styles of writing. I hope their friendship will always endure. I look foward to reading more by both. I've already read Candy and Me by Hilary. I hope to hear more from K8.

Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: As someone who is intrigued by the Peace Corps, this book was a compelling read for me. Having also spent half a year overseas in third world countries, I could relate to many of the conditions described by Kate in her letters. And her letters truly enabled the reader to look in on a world that is so different from their own.

It was also fun to see the dichotomy between Hilary's life and that of Kate's and her husband's. The two "friends" could not have chosen more differing paths. A lot came through the letters the two women wrote, including the supportive and wonderful relationship Kate and her husband seem to have.

I was not impressed by the friendship between Kate and Hilary, however. It was great that Kate was able to write about her experiences to Hilary, as a form of a diary and an outlet to vent her tribulations in Africa. And it was probably fun for ehr to get letters from Hilary as well -- these two had a nice relationship on paper. However, their relationship in person was a joke. These two women could not have lived more different lives, one caught up in the superficial life of NYC and the other, as genuine as could be.

Neither life is wrong, its just, both girls are so incredibly different, and have chosen such different paths that it is hard to imagine the two of them having a friendship that goes beyond letters exchanged when the two were thousands of miles apart. It was interesting how close they seemed when living far apart, and how far apart they seemed while being near each other. I think each could learn a lot from the other, and that perhaps their friendship moved beyond what it seemed at the end of this book, but I was disappointed by the ending.

It sparked interesting questions, and is a quick and interesting read. The letters these two women wrote were interesting in their own right, especially Kate's. Her experiences and the choices she and her husband had to make were amazing. If nothing else, I am glad she had Hilary to write to during a most trying time in her life.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: I could relate to this book in every way! It is a collection of letters sent between two friends, Kate and Hillary. College roommates, Kate joins the Peace Corps in Africa and Hillary remains in New York starting life. They both tell each other adventures in daily life as well as struggles. Even though Kate is in a third world country, Hillary has her share of problems. Neither seems to be jealous of the other but rather supportive. I lived overseas for 6 years in a third world country and corresponded similarly with a friend. We laugh when going over the old letters. This book is a true collection of friendship.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: I read a positive review of this in People Magazine, of all places, while waiting in the doctor's office and was attracted to its epistolary form. If you are a letter writer you will appreciate Kate's tightly written and amusing letters filled with humorous and sad anecdotes of her Peace Corps experience in Africa. Hillary's letters on the other hand, though less exotic, accurately reflect the post-college, single-girl-in-the city, more mundane world that many can relate to. This works because it's about two friends sustaining a relationship through the written word despite the different paths they branch out on after their college union. They are both likable in their different personalities and style of writing and one begins to care about them in this quick read. In reading some of the reviews here some have made criticisms of Kate's Peace Corps reflections but if the letters are true to their originality they are just observations and perceptions of a year in the life of two women keeping in touch with eachother. Too precious at times? Maybe it could have been meatier, but it's a good start.

I sent a copy to my 23 year old sister in NYC and she loved it. Since we are 11 years apart and have radically different personalities I think this book would appeal to many. I only wish there there had been more letters!

Rating:
Summary: Not as absorbing as I had expected
Review: I was a bit disappointed in this book. I love corresponding with others, and I looked forward to learning about Hilary and Kate by reading their letters. I felt that something was missing and I cannot quite put my finger on it.

The book was short and I think what I had been looking for was a longer narrative. Kate and Hilary's friendship certainly is one of a kind, and it was nice to have a look at their confidences and challenges.

Overall, I vote this book 3.5 stars of 5, as the glimpses of Kenya were poignant and interesting, and I did find Kate and Hilary's relationship intriguing. The story was of real life, so perhaps the only thing wrong was that I have read too much fiction in the past, and this story was reflective of how the world really works.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling, insightful, and funny.
Review: This is about as perfect as a book can be. I won't recap the concept; plenty of other reviewers have summed it up. But I want to express my unbounded admiration for this book. I would never have imagined that a set of letters between friends could make for fascinating, hard-to-put-down reading, but this set of letters does. In spades. These women's lives are just plain interesting--Kate's, in part, because she's in a situation most of us know little or nothing about and Hilary's, in part, because she's in a situation most of us know all too well. There's more going on here, though, than just the fact of being interesting. The friendship between these two comes alive on the page; the insights about the world and about each other that the women reveal are meaningful; the wit each writer possesses is sharp and on target. I loved the book. I'm giving it to everyone I know for Christmas because they're all going to love it, too.

Rating:
Summary: How two friends kept up there friendship.
Review: When I first heard of this book, I thought it would be another type of ho-hum book. But I was wrong. This was a great book and I love to hear how each woman was growing and how there lives were changing.

Hilary and Kate were best friends. When Kate and her new husband go off to Kenya to teach to student in there area Hilary is crushed. She will miss her friend Kate being there all the time, but the two promise to write each other and keep in touch.

While Kate is Kenya she learns what it means to do without there are many things that Kate has to learn that the people of Kenya don't have. As she and Dave start to teach she starts to realize that the people in Kenya have a different view on things in school and that she might not be enjoying it as much as she expected.

Hilary on the other hand is dealing with her life in New York. She is trying to get that all too perfect apartment where she can finally live on her own and keeping jobs that will make her happy. As she reads Kate's letter she realizes that there is more to life then she expected.

This book covers a one year span of there friendship and how each of them must learn to grow up and face the challanges in there lives.

This was a great book to read..