A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman: Amazon.co.uk: Rosemary Mahoney: Books

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars super, 6 Sep 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman (Hardcover)

marvelous depiction of youth, age, and coming to terms with an ms. Lily. To unreal relationship to mother, adoration.....

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3.0 out of 5 stars Why writing degrees can be a writer's worst enemy, 14 Jun 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman (Hardcover)

Rosemary Mahoney has definite talents as a writer: she has a good eye, she's well-read, and she has mastered the elements of the English sentence. On the other hand, she has not put her training behind her. This is an account of a summer she spent with Lillan Hellman. It should have been a great story; instead, Mahoney seems to have tried to make it great writing. Too often she abandons the story to show us how well she can capture an image in prose. Too often she gives us minute details that exist of themselves rather than help illuminate the narrative. Even with these faults, I read the book to the end, because Mahoney's training left just enough of the story-teller intact to keep me interested. Kids, if you want to be a writer, don't take graduate courses in writing unless you are sure enough of yourself to sift the useful from the bs. Writing is a means; it is not an end.

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2.0 out of 5 stars A writer who took too many creative writing classes., 5 Jun 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman (Hardcover)

I was excited at the idea of a slice of life with Lillian Hellman as viewed by a non-celebrity. The idea of the book was much better than the reality.

Mahoney wanted Hellman to be interested in Mahoney, for no particular reason, and was disappointed that Hellman didn't really care. Mahoney hasn't changed since she was seventeen. o.

I read it to find out about Hellman, and just found out about a bratty girl that didn't kindle Hellman's interest or mine.

It's ironic that the book was called A Likely Story. Mahoney constantly spoke about how one thing was "like" something else, on and on. The similes were distracting and irritating.

She also would pass complete strangers who had expressions on their faces that said a whole paragraph of Mahoney conjecture.