- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Trade P/bk edition (6 Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743208285
- ISBN-13: 978-0743208284
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 966,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Wish You Well
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers with larger-than-life plots. However,Wish You Well set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hope and wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentious urbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they can rest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.
The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leaves their mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York City to their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as a profound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb their abandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginable rewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggy Appalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quickly become invested with an almost mythic significance:
They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside and drank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse, which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's little secrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching and listening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade.Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debt to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel's central plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculous recovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt to save their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all, nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn
Guardian
He is able to deliver eloquently what the public wants
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
'Wish You Well' is a superb novel written by a man normally associated with stories of mystery and intrigue. The theme is simple but beautifully portrayed and is obviously the result of some studied and in-depth research, combined with a degree of personal experience. It takes the reader into a world of hardship, joy, love and personal triumph, somtimes in the face of the harsh realities of the 1940's and the prejudice's that existed during that time. One can't help but re-live the lives of the two young children, whilst at the same time experience the anguish suffered by the more elder members of the mountain community, who live with nature and are dependent on it's mercy. This is a book of sheer escapism combined with a compelling story-line. Absolutely brilliant.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. It is not a thriller but, rather, a beautifully written, human drama, most of which takes place in the mountains of Virginia. In this unabridged, audio book edition, the richness of the drama and the beauty of the writing is brought to life by the wonderful narration of Norma Lana, who manages to convey the down home sense of feeling that is palpable in the book.
This is a coming of age story. It is the story of the Cardinal family, as seen through the young eyes of twelve year old Louisa Mae Cardinal, known as Lou, a precocious twelve year old, whose father is a highly acclaimed writer of note with great literary distinction but little commercial success. She lives with her beloved father, her mother, and her younger brother, Oz, in New York City. The year is 1940. The family is on the brink of moving to California, when tragedy strikes, and the lives of Lou, Oz, and their mother are forever changed.
Lou, Oz, and their now catatonic mother go to live with their paternal great-grandmother, Louisa, for whom Lou is named. This no nonsense, strong willed, loving matriarch lives high up in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Lou's father grew up, and that is where Lou and Oz will now grow up. They are strangers in a strange land, big city children now living on a farm without electricity, running water, or central heat. It is there that Lou comes of age and, together with her brother, Oz, has many new experiences. They are experiences that provide rights of passage and life lessons in friendship, loyalty, loss, and redemption. She gets a large dose of the good, the bad, and the ugly in life.
While there, big business threatens their way of life and pits the townsfolk against each other in a struggle for survival. It is a struggle that sees Louisa take a stance that will, ultimately, be the death of her, leaving the children to cope with their mother, who is physically sound, but locked in her own mind since the tragedy that changed their lives forever. The interests of big business and those of the Cardinal family clash in a Virginia courtroom in a riveting drama that is not easily forgotten. With the help of a family friend, a humble and kindly, country lawyer, things are, eventually, put to rights.
This well written book has richly drawn characters and a sensitive and descriptive narrative that transports the reader to another time and place. It is so evocative of the hardscrabble, mountain existence, so as to make the readers feel as if they, themselves, were experiencing it. It is a sentimental journey that is calculated to tug at one's heartstrings. It is a journey, however, well worth taking. With this book, the author has set himself apart from the pack and proclaimed himself a true literary talent.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was definitely one of the worst books that I have ever read. I have read other Baldacci books, and though they are 'airport fiction', they are normally great thrillers with runaway-train plots. This was dire.
Wish You Well is like one long, unending episode of The Waltons with an injection of pure cheese topped with sugar. Whatever you do, don't read this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very touching
I really liked this book. Not the standard Baldacci.. I have read quite a few of Baldacci's books and although it was different from his usual theme I still liked it very much.
Published 9 months ago by Bianca
Corny but still readable
Not one of Mr Baldacci's best but still an interesting insight into how life may have been. This is probably a fair view of a part of America at a particulat point in history. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ian Willsher
A mountain view
I felt this was a complete departure for David Baldacci. The story of children whose life is fractured by the death of their father and the coma in which their mother lies trapped;... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Celia Wood
***** Fabulous *****
Being a thriller fan et al.... I was completely bluffed by this book. I loved all Baldacci's books, but this one is really wonderful. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2008 by bally-berger sophie
Awful. Absolutely awful.
What a disappointment! An entirely predictable plot is threaded - woven would be too strong a word for this slender cord - through a sentimental nostalgiafest in which the glorious... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2008 by Phil Back
A surprising read
I'm used to David Baldacci's thrillers, which are never less than good. This was somewhat of a surprise, an affectionate tribute to the Virginia mountains from which his family... Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Teemacs
A RICHLY TEXTURED COMING OF AGE STORY...
Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2005 by Lawyeraau
The Waltons in Honey
This book is dreadful. A schmaltzy, cheesy, saccarin infused bore fest. Mr Baldacci writes some really cracking thrillers: page turning, roller-coaster rides. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2004 by MrShev
TAKE ME HOME...COUNTRY HOME...
Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2002 by Lawyeraau
TAKE ME HOME...COUNTRY HOME
Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2002 by Lawyeraau
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