Commonwealth
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Commonwealth
Narrated by:
Hope Davis
Buy Now for $26.89
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Narrated by:
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Hope Davis
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By:
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Ann Patchett
'Dazzling … life-affirming and compulsively readable' Sunday Times
'Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it' Jojo Moyes
'An outstanding novel ... a master of her art' Observer
It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host’s wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later.
In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story…©2016 HarperCollins Publishers
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Critic Reviews
The book that really stood out for me was Ann Patchett’s novel Commonwealth. It’s so beautifully structured, and the characters are subtle and three-dimensional. If she were a man, I’m sure she’d be lauded as one of the Great American Novelists (Jojo Moyes)
An outstanding novel ... The opening is a show stopper … Patchett is a pleasure to read: there is a no-fuss casualness to the prose that is only possible when a writer is in control of every word and she is master of her art … What is so skilful is the way Patchett makes no moral judgments ... Brilliant
The opening scene …. is a faultless set piece ... Her prose is equally powerful when she’s evoking a 1970s summer in Virginia … Patchett deftly summons up a simmering childhood anger and dangerously ricocheting energy
Dazzling … sharply observed, ripe with humour, laden with significance … Patchett weaves a complex structure … Yet always feels in control … She is adept at showing, not telling, her characters shimmer with life-likeness, and she pulls you into every one of her vibrantly drawn scenes with great ease … The combination of lightness, warmth and remarkable incisiveness creates a novel that is life-affirming and compulsively readable
The book flows easily between narrators, constantly switching from past to present, and slowly revealing what happened that summer, allowing Patchett to play with memory and perspective to surprisingly moving effect ... Commonwealth is a book about relationships and the obligations they bring .. Poignant ... funny ... An engaging novel that draws you in with sharp observation, a gin-fuelled plot written in beautiful prose and convincing dialogue. You miss the characters once it’s over
Commonwealth is full of heart, and is Patchett’s most complex and emotionally suspenseful novel. She never hits a wrong note although she conjures with many deftly drawn characters. The opening chapter is one of the best party-scene seductions ever written (Louise Erdrich, author of The Beet Queen)
A deft craftsman … Patchett ultimately wins the reader over with her perceptive qualities, alluring characters and undertone of humour … In Commonwealth, Patchett’s nimble storytelling floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee
Patchett writes excellently and seemingly artlessly, her many sub-stories wandering in and out of each other like rivulets in a stream. Some characters swim into brilliant focus, while others remain dimly lit in the shadows, but Patchett boldly avoids resolving any of it and what emerges instead is the captivating music of life’s random, relentless pulse
So clear and clean and at the top of her game ... It is just so masterfully done. The sweep of it and the subtlety of the ideas (Esther Freud)
Beautiful (Katie Roiphe)
Gorgeously evocative writing and complex characters ... Patchett is a writer of exceptional talent, and this is one of her best yet
Compelling, real
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Easy listen
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Ultimately, a small domestic storyline, with a couple of key plot points, which are subsumed by the many adult and childhood relationships, so those dramatic events don't get their proper due.
It's a good compulsive read, it gallops along, but there's no cohesive theme or character to hold it all together.
Patchett is undoubtedly an excellent writer, I only wish her books were more memorable, and therefore more satisfying.
Good, but forgettable
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beautiful prose Ann Padgett style
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Disappointed
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