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The Wilderness (2008)

by Samantha Harvey(Favorite Author)

3.37 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0385527632 (ISBN13: 9780385527637)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Nan A. Talese

review 1: I picked this book out from the shelves because I loved the cover, then I noticed it was short-listed for The Orange Prize. As I've experienced the shattering loss of a family member through dementia, more than one family member, in fact, I was keen to read it. And in some ways I wasn't disappointed. There were many moments and incidents in the main character's past that were truly engaging, but as a whole I didn't find the book as absorbing as I'd hoped. It does make you think about memory and identity, and what that means to you, and you do get a sense of the fragility of our hold on life. I would recommend it, but it wasn't, for me, an absolutely must read novel. It was, however, beautiful written, and for that alone it deserved its short-list.
review 2: Wha... moret do you do with a book you think was written really well, but you didn't love? This one was a random (the term Jack and I use for those we pull from the library shelves at random and decide to give a shot). I knew it might be a difficult one to stomach as the main character is wading his way through Alzheimer's. Surprisingly, it actually wasn't. It was the flow of his thoughts I found hard to follow, although that is kind of the point. Certainly not an uplifting story, but beautifully written. less

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