- Hardcover: 421 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; First Edition edition (Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060193751
- ISBN-13: 978-0060193751
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,731,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A novel about three generations of women and the changes they face when one of them is unexpectedly widowed. Carrie Van Allen is left supporting a teenaged daughter in emotional turmoil and an elderly mother confronting her own mortality.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Patricia Gaffney gave up her job in 1984, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following her successful treatment she has written 12 historical romances, which have all been bestsellers in the USA. Circle of Three is her second venture into contemporary fiction. Her first, The Saving Graces, is also published in the UK by Simon & Schuster UK. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read "The Saving Graces", I couldn't wait to find another book by Patricia Gaffney. It then took me just the best part of a weekend to read "Circle of Three", and got exactly what I was looking for. The author relates so very well to human - male and female - qualities, be they positive or negative. For me, she hits the nail right on the head on every other page. The book made me laugh, cringe, and cry, not least because I recognised myself in the actings of more than just one of the female protagonists.
This book is a suitable read for a teenager as well as a granny - and I would suggest that guys read it too. It would definitely help them understand us that tiny wee bit better!
The only disappointment about Patricia Gaffney's books is that the pleasure to read them doesn't last longer. "Circle of Three" is no exception, and I am impatiently waiting for the next one!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
I have daughters, and I found this a painful, truthful book to read. Patricia Gaffney pulls no punches when she explores the mother/daughter relationship. She tells it straight. The story is told in three viewpoints, Carrie, her daughter Ruth and her mother, Dana.
Most mothers of teenage daughters would be hard-put not to identify with Carrie, the mother in the middle as she struggles to come to terms with her feelings of guilt and inadequacy, and her need to protect daughter Ruth from the truth, after the sudden death of her husband in early middle-age. But it isn't just one relationship we have here, there is also Dana, her own mother, approaching seventy and resisting every step of the way.
We are led subtly into the depths of character as the three women explore their lives and the bonds that bind them. I identified with each viewpoint as it was presented and experience the dilemma of every generation, the loving of an offspring and the eternal desire for that closeness to continue beyond childhood.
Dana, the grandmother, married for security and is disappointed with the deal in old age, and Carrie realised very shortly after her own marriage that her husband was a carbon copy of her father; she should have married childhood sweetheart, Jess. But her mother put a stop to that...
And Ruth - well, Ruth is fun, and awful, like most teenage girls who know how to hurt those who love them as they struggle for status and identity in their own right. Yet we can see her bewilderment at her own mood-swings, her inability to prevent herself hurting the person who loves her most. Especially when Jess comes back into her mother's life...
It's hard to believe that the author, who writes with such perspicacity about all her characters, has still to experience the `Dana' age, for it seems that she speaks from experience, she shows such acute observation and understanding.
Most mothers of teenage daughters would be hard-put not to identify with Carrie, the mother in the middle as she struggles to come to terms with her feelings of guilt and inadequacy, and her need to protect daughter Ruth from the truth, after the sudden death of her husband in early middle-age. But it isn't just one relationship we have here, there is also Dana, her own mother, approaching seventy and resisting every step of the way.
We are led subtly into the depths of character as the three women explore their lives and the bonds that bind them. I identified with each viewpoint as it was presented and experience the dilemma of every generation, the loving of an offspring and the eternal desire for that closeness to continue beyond childhood.
Dana, the grandmother, married for security and is disappointed with the deal in old age, and Carrie realised very shortly after her own marriage that her husband was a carbon copy of her father; she should have married childhood sweetheart, Jess. But her mother put a stop to that...
And Ruth - well, Ruth is fun, and awful, like most teenage girls who know how to hurt those who love them as they struggle for status and identity in their own right. Yet we can see her bewilderment at her own mood-swings, her inability to prevent herself hurting the person who loves her most. Especially when Jess comes back into her mother's life...
It's hard to believe that the author, who writes with such perspicacity about all her characters, has still to experience the `Dana' age, for it seems that she speaks from experience, she shows such acute observation and understanding.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
43 reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful relationship drama
31 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
Carrie instigates an argument while her husband is driving home from an outing when he suddenly keels over and dies from a heart attack. Carrie's guilt is so intense, she slides into a deep depression for the next four months, unable to eat or even dress until her mother Dana forces her into obtaining a job. Dana hopes that Carrie's new boss will prove to be a suitable spouse once her daughter comes out of mourning.
Carrie cares about no male except perhaps her first love Jessie, a person she fled when she decided to abandon her small hometown. Carrie's teenage daughter Ruth knows nothing about the shared past her mother and Jessie had. Instead she likes him, treating him like a friendly older brother and occasionally like a father. Dana never approved the "socially inferior" Jessie, but feels that when he thinks the time is right he will make his move. However, when Ruth catches Jessie and Carrie in a compromising position, she feels betrayed causing a crisis that forces the three generation of women to confront each other and themselves.
Patricia Gaffney follows up her last bestseller THE SAVING GRACES with another powerful drama that will appeal to her fans as well as that of Delinsky and Siddons. The poignant story line deals with problems on different levels as the three females bring differing perspectives to the table. This makes for an engaging tale that charms the audience as everyday people try to do their best to attain a happy life for themselves while hoping to bring contentment to their loved ones. CIRCLE OF THREE is family drama that is impossible to put down until the final page is read.
Harriet Klausner
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Very Worthwhile Read
9 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
Ah - a new Patricia Gaffney book -- reading rarely gets better than a work from this talented author. The follow-up to her much-acclaimed THE SAVING GRACES, CIRCLE OF THREE is really more of a romance than THE SAVING GRACES in that the main character, a recent widow, ends up seeing her old high school sweetheart and things really heat up. I think the main theme of the story is intended to be the relationships between three generations of women in a family, but this middle character is so much stronger than the other two that her story really is at the forefront of the book making the other two (her mother and daughter) more like subplots. The story is told in first person from the POV of each of the three main characters and I love the way Gaffney seems so easily able to alternate between the three and give them their own unique voice. I can only give it 4 stars because it really isn't as powerful as THE SAVING GRACES, but nevertheless a very worthwhile read and worth paying the hardcover price.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Richly layered and complex
29 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
Many romance readers were sorry to see Patricia Gaffney move from historical romance into hardcover women's fiction last year. I for one am glad she made the move if that means more readers will read her books. In Circle of Three, author Gaffney does what she does best - creates complex characters who might not always be likable, but who are true to themselves. They don't act according to the plot written for them; they drive the plot by the force of their personalities.
The three women whose voices narrate this book are bound by blood and gender in a manner only women can be. Grandmother, mother, and daughter, Dana, Carrie, and Ruth are connected through their actions and the men in their lives in an honest and emotional story. The plotting is inventive (the ark subplot is funny at times and poignant at others) and the writing is intimate. The reunion and developing romance between Carrie and her first love, Jess, is quite lovely, although her choices do not always have the impact she'd hoped for.
This can be a difficult book to read, however, precisely for the same reasons it is worthwhile. I'm going to get Gaffney's The Saving Graces out of my TBR pile and try it next!
TTFN, Laurie Likes Books
Publisher, All About Romance
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