Most Helpful Customer Reviews
110 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A family suffering, June 14, 2011
This was kind of a heartbreaking, lovely story. The plot short and simple: The husband is dying and saying goodbyes to everyone: his friends and his wife and kids. He is sure to die first, but he didn't. His family seems to have a really bad luck and one bad thing happens after another: his is terminally ill and then his wife dies in a car accident. Now he has to face the hard choice of what to do with the kids, who would take care of them, where would they go. He recovers, and gathers his kids back togehter and they all go to South Carolina.
This is one of those books were miracles actually happen. It was a sweet story. The author made it believable by the way he told the story of the family.
If you are looking for a good summer reading, then you probably want to pick up this one. It is not similar to the Camel Club novels, but it was still likable story. I liked the Camel Club more because the characters seemed to be more believable than in this novel. But then again, maybe this is a start of a new series with this family and what happens next...
This is a very well written novel. The pace is good. The dialogue and prose is good. It is worth reading even if it is not the normal Camel Club style -novel. If you are looking for a light summer reading then pick up this book. You will like it.
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45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes life doesn't work out, June 17, 2011
Jack Armstrong is a former army ranger married to his other half...a marriage meant to be, made in heaven. Then he comes down with an unnamed fatal illness which will leave his wife and 3 children alone.
David Baldacci completes an artful and accurate description of what illness does to the whole family. The story is told from Jack's viewpoint..."he couldn't make it upstairs to his bedroom...It was another piece of his life taken from him, like he was being dismantled, brick by brick. ". The story is heart rendering and oh so true in its description of its` characters, in the thoughts of Jack, the actions of his wife and his teenage daughter. The two younger sons really do not have much depth in their part, but that does not hamper the story.
The family suffers another horrendous tragedy and blow after blow. Jack has to struggle to rebuild his life, his emotions and most of all his family. The bulk of the story takes place at his wife's family beach house, where we see a family struggling with the anger, the angst of the setbacks they are dealt.
This is a heart wrenching story, but also one that proves the power of love and determination and yes of miracles. It is for romantics and those who search for what life is all about, what people can do and learn and how they can change their lives. It shows the mistakes and tenderness that we all need to see and would find absorbing to read about. This is a book, a good story with all the interesting plot twists and turns of a mesmerizing summer read....Sometimes life doesn't work out and then maybe it does.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written and touching story, June 17, 2011
David Baldacci is one of my favorite writers and I have read almost everything that he has written. This novel differs markedly from his others, and showcases masterful writing that does not focus on his trademark political intrigue and nonstop action, as in the Camel Club series and other works such as his recent The Sixth Man. Instead this beautifully written novel explores in a sensitive and moving way, but without any maudlin sentimentality or cliches, how one family copes with the curve balls that life often throws.
The novel opens with a dying father of three children telling his loving wife that despite his unspecified incurable terminal illness, he hopes to survive for one more Christmas, which is coming soon. His wife hopes that somehow he will survive even longer to spend the summer with her and the children at the beach house in South Carolina that she lived in as a small child (which her grandmother still owns), where a tragedy occurred that until now has kept her from returning to visit.
Her husband miraculously fully recovers and does spend the summer at the beach house with the three children--but without his wife, who has died in a tragic accident. Baldacci deftly explores the family's grieving and healing process, and how a workaholic father develops new bonds with his children as he tries to find his way in both comforting and parenting them. In the process Baldacci skillfully weaves together so many interesting themes-- teenage love and teenage cruelty (the oldest child is a girl turning sixteen), the tensions between the "haves" and the "have nots" in a small town, the fallacy of thinking that everything in life can be prepared for and fixed (the father is a former Army Ranger and now a building contractor), and respecting the past but not living in it ( the father is torn between his intense love for his deceased wife and his feelings for a woman whom he meets in the beach town), just to name a few.
This is not a tear jerker, but a tribute to the power of love, friendship, family, courage, and determination. The characters and situations are very real and true to life, and not one dimensional stereotypes. While this is definitely not a typical Baldacci novel, I think it is certainly one of the better ones that he has written. I highly recommend it.
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