Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry :o(, 10 Jul 2008
First thing that needs to be said is this is better than Second Chance. It really is better. The only problem is this isn't very good, either. I really think Green has just run out of ideas, or inspiration, because one of the characters in this book is a 37-year old woman called Carrie... who happens to be a writer. Are we directly ripping characters off tv shows now? Another character is called Matt; a gay man who is every woeful stereotype you could possibly imagine. Amongst others, he calls people "honey", calls his gay friends "the girls" while discussing his numerous flings.
Also, it's not very well written. For example, there are a couple of phrases used again, and again, and again. The most annoying is how the characters "feel they've come home" when they kiss their new person; running a close second is how half of the characters at various points eventually feel "comfortable in their own skin". Both of these phrases are used at least 4 or 5 times throughout and by halfway through, I was rolling my eyes.
Am so worried that sounds mean, but this book is pretty much the final straw for me when it comes to reading any more Green. Parts of it did make me genuinely quite cross. In it, we're told that a particular character - "like all women" - is a chameleon when it comes to men; willing to change on a whim to please the new man. I think that's insulting, and a little arrogant. Are you so desperate for a man you're willing to compromise who you are? *Are* all women that way? I'm saying no.
Similarly, 9/11 is once again referred to. A character compares the events of 9/11 to their life being a little topsy turvy suddenly, and I actually had to put the book down for a day or so upon reading that. Citing terrorism - yet again - is just reprehensible.
Few of the characters are very kind. They all seem to cheat on people, or go after married people... what's more, the plot is really, truly predictable. You'll know what's coming within 10 pages. You'll know who ends up with who, and you'll know exactly who *is* who.
On the plus side, the descriptions of Nantucket are wonderful. They'll make you want to be there; to uproot and live there peacefully for the rest of your life... and I think that may be the problem in some ways. Green used to be a single gal around London. Her writing was real, and earthy and beautiful. Now, though, it's a little smug, and disassociated and, truthfully, it's mundane.
I wanted to love Beach House, because Straight Talking and Jemima J are remarkable, and Second Chance was such a let down, so a lot was riding on this one. I tried to love it, but everything I've mentioned combined just got too much and this is the last Green book I'll be reading.
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43 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Memorable Summer Story, 9 Jun 2008
This book opens with a scene female readers of a certain age will adore: Nan Powell, 65, stops for a skinny dip in her absent neighbor's pool, then cycles into a local village smoking all the way, scandalizing a family of tourists.
"What has happened to people?" Nan thinks, as she traverses the cobblestones. "When did we become so precious?" A family of six passes her, father, mother, then four little ones, like four little ducklings with sparkly aerodynamic helmets on. "When did our children have to wear helmets, When did we all become so scared?"
Nan Powell's great virtue is that she doesn't become scared easily, even after her financial adviser tells her she's in dire straits. After her husband committed suicide, drowning himself one morning, Nan grew tough, raising her son Michael on her own, living her life on her own terms. Now she's become the resident eccentric in a town of tourists, known for her beauty and her trademark red lipstick.
Facing the new challenge, Nan turns her home into a summer bed and breakfast, and draws a circle of new friends around her, all come to the beach to heal themselves -- a divorcee still recovering from her husband's infidelity, a young father of two girls struggling with his sexual orientation, and Nan's son Michael, on the rebound after a disastrous love affair of his own. Soon the rambling old house has come to life with the sound of children laughing, life streaming all around.
The plot takes some unexpected twists and turns -- there are some nasty developers on the scene, naturally -- but this is a sweetly memorable summer story, capturing the relaxing, renewing quality of life at the shore, when we find ourselves on the edge of something new.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice easy summer read, 28 Aug 2008
Nice easy summer read,with a few twists and turns thrown in at the end that i didn't see coming at all.Not her best but enjoyable all the same.
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