Comments on: what makes a good book

By: white space: zooming out in the first person | catching days

white space: zooming out in the first person | catching days — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:27:21 +0000

[…] on May We Be Forgiven, which I […]

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:51:32 +0000

I’m crawling back to my virtual life with the holidays over and the last wedding a week ago today. June, Darrelyn, and Sarah, thanks for leaving a comment.

I also want to share the thoughts of Sarah Weinman, a  Publishers Lunch News Editor, on the novel:

MAY WE BE FORGIVEN, A.M. Homes (Viking) — I’m puzzled as to why this merited less attention than other fall fiction heavyweights. Are people scared by risk-taking writers, especially women writers, who traverse down uncomfortable but wholly familiar roads and then go further and further? How strange. Homes wrote the most utterly of-the-now novel I read all year, and one of the funniest. But it’s the sense of optimism that peeks out of the darkness that elevated the book into something of real magnificence.

By: Sarah Laurence

Sarah Laurence — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:52:20 +0000

I love your observation that a good book doesn’t need to be perfect. A good review, like this one, is critical as well as positive. Well done.

Congratulations on all the upcoming weddings!

By: Darrelyn Saloom

Darrelyn Saloom — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:00:14 +0000

Great post, but I can’t get over four weddings in December (including a son!).

By: junebug65

junebug65 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:43:13 +0000

Sounds like a truly absorbing novel. And you’re right, the prose you quoted read perfectly. These days when I read, I’m so busy looking for beautiful prose — to challenge myself and improve my writing — that I get bored with the story itself. This sounds like a perfect balance. I’ll be checking it out.

Thanks for the recommendation.