On The Same Page discussion

Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

I have the paperback, so this one will probably take most of the month for me.

I read this a couple of years ago. I'll be interested in reading everyone's comments.

Patricia wrote: "I read this a couple of years ago. I'll be interested in reading everyone's comments."

Wonderful! I am really looking forward to this one.

Are you ladies reading this? I hope to get to it after my current read.

I am , and honestly I don't know if I'm reading it wrong but so far i;'m underwhelmed :/

I am, and I can't get into it either. I think it is my problem, not the book's problem, so I'm going to make an extra effort this weekend to make some progress.

Sorry you're underwhelmed, Alissa. That makes me feel a bit better. I was blaming myself, but maybe the book shares a bit of the blame. :-)

I feel so much better now...I'm about 23% into it and....I really don't feel like continuing.

I finished this book, finally...

The good, for me, was the gentle story line. The author shows, not tells, a story of a long-time friendship. How beautiful that is, yet how frustrating it can be, how the friendship changes with time, and changes your perceptions and how you perceive the world. The beauty of this book is the viewpoints from multiple perspectives, from the kids and grandkids who find the relationships less than healthy (we would say toxic and codependent nowadays). Yet, all relationships have a little bit of that, and I looked at my marriage and my long-time friendships, and thought to myself, from the outside, I'm not sure people would understand them. I loved that part of the book and would definitely read more from the author.

The bad, for me, was the slow plot. It started out slow and took me EIGHT times to get past the first 20 pages. I was in a little reading slump, but still, I started this book on May 9th and it usually wouldn't take me 47 days to read a 320ish page book. And, the ending was a bit lackluster and depressing. I expected a little bit more, and then just kind of felt relieved that the book was over.

It's a hard book for me to rate, so I ended up with 3-stars. It had moments of greatness, but also I struggled with the book. I'm glad I read it and would read another book by him, but I have got to be prepared for the pace.