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Goldengrove CD: Goldengrove CD (2008)

by Francine Prose(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0061664588 (ISBN13: 9780061664588)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

HarperAudio

review 1: It is interesting the effect of books such as 'Gone girl', 'Lovely Bones' etc have had in that when a book features a death in the early pages, you begin to immediately look for the angle, the secret killer, the mysterious element that will gradually be revealed. In 'Goldengrove' Francine Prose has simply written a book about a death, its effects on a family and on those closest to the one who died. Towards the end of the novel a more sinister element does creep in but this is no whodunnit, there is no dramatic revelation. The gradual realization of this early on in the book made me wonder if the author could maintain such an apparently simple narrative without losing the reader, however this soon comes to be moot. Prose manages to keep us involved in the experience of thi... mores grief-stricken family, in each members reaction and coping mechanisms. The thirteen year old narrative voice of Nico comes across as authentic and empathetic as she deals with other's reactions and behavior and I was pleased that the family didn't automatically self-implode as so often in such novels. When cracks began to show there was some disappointment particularly in Nico's mother's actions yet the drama is contained and the emphasis is on the fact that this is a loving family who are broken by what has happened.It is Nico's experience, however that makes this such a good read both in her desire for messages from her sister, for a continued connection or explanation and her gradual metamorphosis into a Margaret clone which evolves her relationship with Aaron. How this plays out provides the suspense in the novel but it is not suspense that the pacing of the novel requires, it is simply caused by our interest in how this one death affects this one girl.
review 2: Someone named Francine PROSE needs to grow up and become on author! Good thing she did.Goldengrove takes place in a small town on a lake. Francine Prose is very insightful; she knows how people think.'"Smoke this.' She smiled and gave me a funny salute she'd copied from Ginger Rogers. Then she dove into the water." And with that, Nico loses her only sister, her only sibling. Margaret,the talented, beautiful, svelte one leaves Nico, the nerdy, plain, plump one behind.This is a story of what appears to be a perfectly well adjusted and happy family who is suddenly faced with the death of their daughter and sister. It isn't until Margaret is gone that we and they realize they are a dysfunctional family trying desperately to keep the pieces together until finally, "grief seemed to have outlasted us, and, besieged, we surrendered."Margaret had had a boyfriend who is as undone by her death as her parents and sister are. He, Aaron, befriends Nico and "Nico fall(s) in love with her sister's boyfriend, who tried to bring Margaret back from the dead by turning Nico into Margaret"...Comment Comment | Permalink less

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