sonia_reppe's reviews
1293 reviews

I know it took me over a year to finish this but I really did like it. I finally decided to finish it on my own because Lindsey lost interest in it halfway through (I had been reading aloud to her).

I just didn't get why this was called the "cigarette girl." The protagonist is a 28-yr-old Hollywood screenwriter. Chic lit, but more deep.

Click here to read my review at the Bookpleasures site:
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/1581/1/Urban-Falcon-Reviewed-By-Sonia-Reppe-Of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html

I love Steve Martin's writing, but this seems to have been written in a day; could it be any shorter? It just skims over his years as a stand-up.

I can't decide between four and five stars, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I really, really liked this, but is it going to go down as one of my favorites? Time will tell. This story spans over three generations, starting with a young German couple who fall in love and immigrate to America. They settle in Missouri and this is where the next few generations are born and raised. It is "told" by their grandson (It's fiction). I love American stories, and this moves from pre-WWI to prohibition to the depression to WWII, through the 50's and 60's and then with bigger jumps continues on to end in 2004. It has all the love, tragedy, and whims of real life. The only reason I am hesitant to give this 5 stars is that the grandson who is telling the story ends up having a boring adulthood and never has a family of his own. Also, near the end, there is tension about a kid in the family who marries a puerto-rican girl, but the year is 2004 and I didn't find this tension believable. I understand that this is a small town but...maybe if it was the 60's? One aspect I really loved is that the grandson telling the story and his three brothers sing barbershop together. P.S. The author's picture on the back flap is so handsome!

I thought this was a pretty boring "romance." Like the protagonist Peggy would say, I have a "catalogue" of complaints about this book. Number 1 being that people can't be married if they don't have sex. Peggy tells the reader that she and Gigantism James had a "true, real marriage" and then admonishes the reader, "Don't doubt that." I do doubt it, Peggy, because you didn't consummate it with sex of any kind, not even with a kiss that could be called passionate. You weren't married, not even according to the state.

I guess I didn't like Peggy, I thought she was wierd,and not in a funny sympathetic way, just in a boring way. I wish she had more of a life, so that her obsession with this boy with the pituitary gland problem could have had more meaning; like then it would affect other things/ relationships in her life. As it was, she had nothing going on exept working in the library, and so took an interest in him because he was the most interesting in her life. Then she was shocked when she found out he was going to die. (Duh, Peggy. I guess you're not as smart as you think you are).

The opening sentence was jarring: "I do not love mankind." I get that her point of view was supposed to be unique but can't put my finger on why I didn't like Peggy. The writing--her voice--although well-crafted, was dry and dispassionate, with a heavy wistfulness that almost seems contrived to me, since it was so lacking in passion. But that was supossed to be Peggy's character, a practical librarian. A scene that had potential: "I wanted to give him something that could make him forget he was a young man, dying; I wanted to give him a kiss so good he'd forget it was his first." Was immediately followed and ruined by "But I wasn't the woman for that kind of work." That kind of work?

2.5 stars. I liked the scenes when Peggy and James were in New York. Maybe my expectations were too high, since some of my Goodreads friends really liked this book, but I thought it was just OK.

The beginning was good--New Year's Eve, two girlfriends on the town; then it was downhill from there. It meandered...As much as I hate when people complain "nothing happened," that's how I felt for at least half the book. I'm not one of those readers who need a plot. If there's good writing and internal happenings I'm satisfied. For me, the writing ranged from good to tiresome. For instance, the love interest--Tinker--was introduced in the first chapter, left, and was out of sight for most of the book. Did Kate miss him? I couldn't tell, because Towles seemed more concerned with propping up scenes of 1938 Manhattan in front of the reader, and many of the scenes went nowhere.

Although not of "high birth," Kate is smart, gets a job at a glamorous magazine, can repartee with the witty, and finds herself befriending the society folk. I can't help but think this novel is chic lit disguised as literary historical drama. I didn't get much from Kate, and I didn't care about her. The character development was neglected for all the glitzy, jazzy details of the setting.

The book is sectioned in four parts. Part four started to get me engaged again, because Tinker and Kate get together; but for some reason that I didn't get, he leaves her with a corny note which says, "I'm not sure where I'm going, but I'll start everyday by saying your name." Ugh. There was some good writing in part four, and the end could've saved it for me, but instead it disappointed.

3.5 stars. My mom has every episode of the Dick Van Dyke show memorized.

I wish the chapters connected to eachother more fully. It was like a novel of short-stories, but I wasn't satisfied at the end. One of the more exciting chapters should have gone at the end, like the chapter called the bullet, to put a better arc to the novel.

2.5 stars. The plot is slooow but the writing was good enough that I wanted to keep reading. The last 1/4 of this is sad, and again slow, yet there was enough nostalgia for me to enjoy it. The writing is poetic and full of imagery, which fits this type of story: It shows, through a boy's eyes, what is was like in the hippie commune of Arcadia; besides Bit's parents, the many characters swirl together in the background; and since the story spans 40 years or more, the vignette-style works.