I read this book last year and have read it nearly twenty times since. The story floats past like a bright, warm summer's day, and the characters are quite loveable - particularly the narrator, Cassadra. To some, she might seem precocious and silly, but to me she is flawlessly human.
This is a book about relatioships, but relationships far beyond those portrayed in modern teen fiction. More than a book about love, I think that this is a book about family and growing up. It is a true classic, in the sense that it is timeless. The emotions and often the situtations are universal.
The beauty of this book is in the ending. I have read reviews, and the ending is either what makes the book what it is for some people, and ruins it for others. With a different ending, it would be a well-written, pretty story. The ending is what makes it so bittersweet, so hopeful, and so enchanting. The last line of this novel is a profoundly emotional statement - "He said he would come back..." (although it can only be understood in the context of the book.
I would reccomend this book to anyone who has ever had a moment of feeling nostalgic for something simpler, anyone who has a crazy family (which, in essence, is most people), anyone who has ever loved to no avail, and anyone who believes that one kiss can change everything.

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A tablespoon of Mrs Beaton, a generous helping of Catherine Cookson and a bucket ful of homespun philosophy. Over egged by about two hundred pages is my impression in a nutshell.
Nevertheless it is very readable. Not too many characters which are all well drawn. Text that is easy to read and a tone of the period. But thae author does milk every detail. I am drawn to a food comparison perhaps because Grac spends several pages describing her daily preparation of milking the cow, making the butter and presenting the meals. Mixed messages from other book club member. From 'It lost me halfway through the poem'-- to 'I loved every word'-----. What we could not agree on was did she or didn't she? I am adamant she did others were adamant that she didn't . I think that shows that the novel succeeded in baffling the group.

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I almost dreaded turning up to my reading group today as I had chosen this novel for us to read and had found it boring beyond belief. Every 353 pages had been a struggle. Normally, I like character driven books and Carol Shields (another author who writes books about ordinary peoples' lives) is a personal favourite of mine, but this book took the genre to its limit. The characters are unlikeable, way too self analytical and quite frankly I didn't care what happened to them. Brenda was insensitive to her husand Daniel's problems, Jake was rude and I couldn't even like the mother Ellen. Probably the only character I had any sympathy for was the father. Having said that, I do think this author has great potential and if she had got a better sense of her characters and made us feel more for them, it could have been a great read.
So as I say, I thought my reading group were going to hate it. What a surprise - about half agreed with me but the other half had really got into it. We had a fantastic discussion about the characters and why they were how they are and in fact, the discussion left me thinking there was more to the novel than I'd originally read into it. Most of us agreed it needed more editing but it wasn't disliked in the way I thought it would be. It will be interesting to see what Pitlor produces next...

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thanks for you, it's really a nice novel

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When we discussed this it dawned on us that when we started to read it we didn’t realise this was a collection of short stories. We approached the book as a novel and this explained much of our confusion when wending our way through (those of us who actually managed to finish it).

The view from Castle Rock is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories based on Munro’s explorations of her family tree. The book starts in the 18th Century with a Scottish ancestor, and each story moves forward a generation chronicling the family’s emigration to Canada and the building of their lives in a new land. But don’t expect stories of epic proportions; each story is a vignette, a homage to a minor observation or episode that may have happened. This is where fact and fiction blur.

The second half of the book is told from the perspective of a young woman we assume to be loosely based on Alice Munro herself. Her ‘coming of age’ stories detail first love, friendship and the discovery of a lump in a breast.

Whilst wonderfully written, not all the stories were successful; by far the most engaging was the second one ‘The view from Castle Rock’. This tells the story of the sometimes hellish sea voyage to Canada when the Laidlaw family decided to emigrate. The visceral smells, sights and behaviours of these poor people crammed onto a ship in order to better their lives are powerfully moving and often humorous as well.

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The group were much more critical of this novel than I was expecting. I myself struggled to get into the book, and then found it a real page turner and thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns, waiting to see if Louis would awaken from his coma and who was responsible for his fall. Most of the group however, except one, found it flawed. They liked the way Louis talks and found his voice in the narrative the most credible and said it really sounded like a 9 year old boy. They found the other characters however, annoying, improbable and poorly written. Dr Dannachet didn't get much sympathy from the group who found his sudden infatuation with Natalie unbelievable. One member said she'd loved the opening section of the novel, then found the rest of it a disappointment and in fact got bored of it as she'd guessed Natalie was responsible. Some said they almost didn't care how it ended.
However, having said that we did have a really vigorous discussion about this novel and why it had been a disappointment to so many. We did all agree that the ending was satisfactory and we could appreciate why Louis preffered to remain in his coma.

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The little stranger is set in post-war England. The protagonist, Dr Faraday, is a GP and confirmed bachelor. The centre of his life used to be a grand stately home, Hundreds Hall, where his mother worked as a servant. This estate has now fallen on hard times and the once wealthy family now lives in near poverty, grubbing a living through their farm. The sharp contrast between the family's straitened circumstances and their semi-opulent surroundings (albeit now very much in disrepair) is played out through much of the novel and the reader even manages to feel sorry for them.

Faraday enters their lives again unexpectedly when he's called to attend to a medical call-out there. What he finds is upsetting for him when he bears in mind his rather more glamorous memories of the place. Mrs Ayres, the widowed lady of the house, is well groomed yet deluded, Roddy (the heir to the crumbling estate) suffers from 'nerves' and his sister Caroline is frumpy, sensible and plain with no chance of marrying a catch.

As he inveigles his way into their lives, becoming increasingly indispensable, a ghost story soon emerges. A phantom 'something' is plaguing Roddy, literally driving him mad. Hundreds house is haunted and the family are keen to find an explanation. The ultra-rational Faraday soon becomes an annoyance to the reader as his refusal to accept what's staring him in the face has you screaming in frustration at the pages. The atmosphere is spooky, yet understated. You soon come to understand you can't trust Faraday's narration of events, his assumptions (that you initially accept) are cleverly turned on their head later into the novel when you realise just what a twit he really is.

For fans of Sarah Waters, this book is a treat. It's also an insightful look into a period of social upheaval in Britain.

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try studying it for school

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Well done on getting your degree Joyce. Hopefully we can look forward to some more reviews!

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This book was very 'Brothers Grimmish' so I liked it a lot. I have always enjoyed the bizarre Grimm's tales and this modern version of the stories was no exception - presumably the two animals at the end are supposed to be Portimo and Huttunon or at least, to represent them, fancy free and wreaking their revenge vicariously on the villagers?

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