- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New edition edition (15 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006511333
- ISBN-13: 978-0006511335
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 587,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Impressive… enough sardonic wit to keep even the most cynical book reviewer happy’
Daily Mirror
‘Extremely entertaining, funny and at times quite touching. There’s a crazed energy that occasionally tips into pure surrealism’
Observer
‘April Rising stands on its own terms: a sharp and distinctive novel about family life. Lemaitre has wit and warmth, and the ability to be strange. She’s found her own voice. Not many writers do that.’
Nicci Gerrard
‘A fractured fairy tale, a scathingly zany take on Goldilocks… Ellen is a wittily acerbic narrator, and her descriptions are sharp and funny’
Publishers Weekly
The Observer, 18 April 1999
Lurking beneath the veneer of wisecracking cynicism is a second narrative, where privilege is juxtaposed with poverty, cruelty with redemption. The result is extremely entertaining, funny and at times quite touching. There's a crazed energy that occasionally tips into pure surrealism
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
The story and premise started off interesting but I didn't feel any compassion or interest for any of the characters. I felt that so much more could have been created from the initial idea but it didn't fulfill its inital promise and I felt let down but not bad in general!
Format:Hardcover
April Rising doesn't read like a first novel - that is to say it is written with the sureness of touch of an accomplished writer. The narrator, Ellen, manages to be self-obsessed yet sympathetic, for in her vendetta against April we see sparks of warmth for her victim - which she suppresses earnestly! This is a blackly comic book with many layers for the canny reader to enjoy. Buy it, read it, recommend it to your friends ...
Format:Hardcover
April Rising is a highly entertaining expose of American suburban life. Ms. Lemaitre brilliantly satirizes everything that your perfect neighbors don't want you to know about them. The green lawns, doctorate degrees, and country clubs mask a labyrinth of truly bizarre behavior.
Through the eyes of Ellen, we see every quirk, every obscenity, every untruth, and every comfort that makes suburbia so addictive.
April Rising well illustrates some of life's great paradoxes. April's naivete acts as a protective force. Her wants and needs seem easier to come by, the less she knows. Ellen's sophistication and keen awareness are isolating, making everyday life more difficult than if she were simple folk. Matthew, the loner, seems to have a better grasp of social interaction than anyone.
This novel is at once an incredibly humorous adventure, and a fascinating study of human nature. Ms. Lemaitre demonstrates a wonderfully original acid wit, in this character driven story. I am very much looking forward to her next book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazing
This first novel is aboslutely brilliant and I thought the story was great! At first I hated the way April had fitted herself into the family, but I started to like her, at the... Read more
Published on 15 July 2000
A RIVETING BLACK COMEDY OF FAMILY LIFE
April Rising is touching and hysterical. Ms. Lemaitre's take on American Suburban life is poignant and right on the nose!!! Read more
Published on 8 Mar 1999
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