this book really makes me want to read Zuleika Dobson again.

it's probably nothing like it except that it centers around a beautiful, vivacious woman who drives all the boys to distraction, it is both comical and deeply tragic, and there is probably a lot of drinking (i don't actually remember the drinking-quantity in z.d.)

so richard is a novelist, struggling with that second-novel curse, house-sitting in one of the wealthy enclaves of nantucket when he finds himself enmeshed in the walking gree More...

I loved this book. The mystery, the world of the rich with tremendous problems, a beautiful setting, deep characters you could touch...but most of all, I loved the words. As gorgeous and enduring as a classic. It's been some weeks since I finished it, but I still feel the sea mist, still worry about the characters and their choices and still wonder about Lenore. This is a must-add to your summer reading list.

Gatsby-esque, but also riffing on Poe's The Raven, this novel could not seem to make up it's mind.

The Lenore character is so flat and shallow that the plot leaks like a sieve. Lenore unwittingly breaks hearts, leaving a trail of drunk and wallowing corporate men-children in her wake. As if this siren/femme fatal figure isn't disturbing enough, the novel only features two women, the impossible-to-have Lenore, and another woman, Cecilia, who the narrator sleeps with and promptly dumps because she More...

The Great Lenore by J.M. Tohline

Just imagine. You are an author who was once nominated for a National Book Award. You are working on a new novel, but your life is crazy. You yearn to get away, go to the seashore, and let the ocean inspire you. On Nantucket, you can write as you please, watch the waves, and fill your head with your characters so that they come alive on the page. Imagine you are Richard Parkland, the narrator of J.M. Tohline's debut novel The Great Lenore. Writing is the last thi More...

(This is the same review I posted on Amazon.)

A few other reviewers called The Great Lenore "rich and satisfying", "captivating", "engulfing", "riveting", and "a breath of fresh air". It is all of that and more. This is quality literature with a fantastic story; not just another throw-away novel (I've read my share of those.)

I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Lenore. It was wonderful. I'm still thinking about it, and that's the best part. It stays with you. It wasn't a long book but there was much p More...

This book was recommended to me after shortly after I joined GoodReads by someone who thought it matched my tastes. I was very happy to have a chance to try a title that I had previously not heard of, and I am happy to review it, but was not impressed.

I felt that this book really lacked depth in both the story and the characters. It seems rather than taking the time to make you believe something about a character, the author just tells you explicitly what he wants you to know. At first I though More...

I found "The Great Lenore" most intriguing. It's the sort of book that I really feel I need to re-read before commenting on it in depth. And I also feel the need to re-read "Gatsby" (one of my all-time 'greats') yet again and compare the two more carefully.
Richard, the narrator, is very like Nick, the narrator in "Gatsby". Lenore is just like Daisy - a woman who seems to promise so much - but who actually is an empty vessel with nothing of any value to offer. She's a toxic tease - she plays with More...

There is no doubt that Tohline has a writing style not unlike Fitzgerald. That is not to say that his work is derivative, but his observation of the super rich through the eyes of an outsider reminded me a lot of Gatsby. He puts forth the story and simply lets your mind make its own conclusions and judgments. I liked the softness of the book and the way it seemed to give outlines without filling in every detail. However, since Lenore seems to be the bright ball of energy that ties so many of th More...

I almost decided to give this 3 stars, but I just didn't enjoy it enough. It wasn't terrible, it was just a little empty. I didn't particularly like any of the characters. They're all pretty flat in spite of their unfortunate situations, and I thought Lenore was incredibly dull. I was very intrigued by the idea behind this book, but it just doesn't achieve all that it could. It didn't really make me feel anything. On to the writing. The review at the front of the book describes it as "lyrical wi More...

you notice in this book of communications/interpersonal relationships there is only one (and this reported at 3rd person) conversation between women. all, all others are men/men, woman/man, women/men , and author notes that most of our verbal spew is just noise making, with no real communication going on. that lack of women talking together = minus one star.
the trite ghoulishness of rich people being rich, tortured, mean and conflicted, meh.
that = minus one star.
the frankness, the more and more More...

Mi trovo in difficoltà mentre scrivo questa recensione. Come quando un libro ti piace così tanto che non sai cosa scrivere, anche questa volta non so da dove cominciare, visto che se avessi dovuto scrivere una recensione durante la lettura, probabilmente la mia valutazione, fino a pagina 90 circa, sarebbe stata di 1 stellina e ½. La ragazza che fermò il tempo è un romanzo breve ma che, all’inizio, si fa leggere con tanta difficoltà, si passa dal presente al passato, fino ad arrivare ad un attimo More...

Richard met Lenore when she had been dead for 4 days. Wow, what a way to start out a book! Everything revolves around Lenore, her life, her marriage, her loves, her in laws, her husband, Her Lover.....well you get the idea. But it is Richard you will get to know the best. Richard of the sarcastic comments (only in his head), The brilliant thoughts (which he would love if they were in his head) and second novel..which may never get written. All because of Lenore. This was a book like none other I More...

I won an ARC for The Great Lenore. I was expecting it to be very good. What I did not expect was that I would not be able to set it down. It is a great book!

The story is crafted with an expert's touch. It's from the perspective of the main character, Richard. But really, the main character is the world he creates -- a world which is a web of connections, relations, lies, and decisions.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
~Sir Walter Scott

The webs in The Great Lenor More...

Tohline’s debut novel begins with the line: “When I met Lenore, she‘d been dead for four days.” I’m pretty sure I can end this recommendation right here. However, I won’t, because I could go on and on about how much I adore this book. Tohline’s writing is utterly captivating and, above all, beautiful. The story, which takes place in the winter on the island of Nantucket, bounces back and forth between quietly reflective and on-the-edge-of-your-seat thrilling. But, above all, the success of the n More...

Title: The Great Lenore

Author: J M Tohline

Publisher: Atticus Books

Rating: 4 Shots of Espresso (The Red Eye)

I would first like to thank Atticus Books for graciously sending me a copy of Tohline's book to review. The Great Lenore was published June 15 2011.

Enjoy sensationalized mysteries that are grounded in the reality of life?

Catch J M Tohline’s recently released debut novel, The Great Lenore. Set in-between the winter vacation homes of Nantucket and within the narrator’s writerly head; The Grea More...

So, where to begin? Let's start by saying I'm not impressed. This book was recommended by someone after I finished The Great Gatsby, and the only thing I found the two have in common besides wealthy characters and tragedy is the word 'Great' in the title. So, so, disappointed in this book, as I really wanted to like it. The characters are shallow, unlike-able, and forgettable; I felt no investment in them. The plot meanders along randomly piecing together tidbits I desperately hoped would materi More...

I read this book "in one exhilarating sitting", as Mr. Tohline says. The writing is charming and reminiscent of an earlier age, perhaps the twenties. The characters are well-drawn and likeable (for the most part.) And the mystery of Lenore carries you through the book to arrive at the shocking ending.

It's a glimpse into the affluent life of Nantucket high society, all the quirks, the dreams and the lifestyle. The plot will have you guessing, and the mystery will drive you through the book withou More...

Let me tell you a funny story about what happened to me on my way to the grocery store…

It’s around 10am, and I’m walking out of my house to my car, and the mailman is just coming up my walkway with a box. I go back inside to open it, (because, hey, you know, I have a strict “no package left behind” policy), and much to my delight it’s my copy of The Great Lenore.

Well, I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book, so I figured I’d sit down for a couple of minutes and just read “a couple of chapte More...

To be completely honest, a lot of this book irritated/frustrated me. There was some repetition of phrases and some characterization that I didn't quite enjoy - especially of Lenore herself, who is constantly described as being perfect without ever truly justifying that description with her actions.

That being said, this book was incredible. I found myself engrossed in the unraveling mystery, completely fascinated by this obscenely wealthy First-World setting and its utterly believable characters More...

Due ville confinanti a Nantucket. Una, il “Palazzo”, è dei Montana, benestante famiglia con tre figli e un fratellastro che per il patriarca incarna tutto quello che i due maschi di sangue non hanno saputo dargli. L’altra, villa Banucci, è temporaneamente occupata da Richard Parkland, scrittore in esilio alla ricerca d’ispirazione, che si ritroverà fin da subito invischiato negli affari affettivi della famiglia Montana. Comune denominatore di tutti i protagonisti, Leonore, moglie, amante, oniric More...

This is the first novel by this author and I really enjoyed it. The surprising conclusion I came to even though the narrator was still in the dark made me feel like I was in on something secret. Very well written overall.

My only real bump was that the author is white and the narrator is black. I mean, the narrator's friend would joke that he looked "just like Denzel Washington" which I figured was funny because he was white. If the author had gone onto the narrator's body a little bit more, I wo More...

Read this book. You will not regret it. Lovely, tragic and quite a bit too short.

Maybe because Richard, like Nick Carraway, is the narrator without being completely involved in the story; maybe because you're left feeling that the book was too short; and maybe because the ending, The End that Richard talks about so often, triggers a memory of the green light that tomorrow may bring us closer to, this book reminded me of The Great Gatsby. For me, an enormous fan of Gatsby, this is high praise. I More...

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

This slim debut novel by J.M. Tohline has an interesting conceit at its core; cleverly combining details from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby but neither of their actual plots, it tells the story of a young novelist invited to housesit a mansion in Nantucket one winte More...

I was recommended this book by a random woman named 'Esther' on Goodreads. It seems maybe a little strange, in hindsight, that this 'Esther' has an email address listed with the name Jordan - you know, like the Jordan who wrote this terrible book? - but that may perhaps be neither here nor there. Jordan would not be the first mediocre author to troll Goodreads, recommending his terrible book, so I won't put him on blast for that.

I will however, put him on blast for recommending his book to me, s More...

Once in a while someone recommends me a book, and rarely--because my to-read list is entirely too long--I agree to give the book a try. Someone recommended The Great Lenore to me because of my love for Fitzgerald and Hemingway. I was intrigued, based on the minimal research I had done, it's gotten nothing but positive reviews, so I decided to give it a shot.

While I will say that the story itself is intriguing and wonderfully thought out, the writing was less than advertised. The book is adverti More...

That JM Tohline, a twenty-six year old author writing a debut novel, dares to pen a lovingly lyrical homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, arguably the "Great American Novel," gives me hope for the future of fiction. As Fitzgerald's last line of that beautiful novel continues to haunt generations of devoted bibliophiles--So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past--perhaps Tohline's opening will prove equally memorable: "When I first met Lenore, she More...

The Great Lenore by J.M. Tohline, published by Maryland-based Atticus Books, is loosely based upon F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (no, you don’t have to read Fitzgerald to enjoy Tohline’s novel), but it’s also part Edgar Allan Poe(m)-inspired.

Richard Parkland takes up his friend’s offer of using his summer home on Nantucket during the winter to write his next novel, and he soon comes in contact with the Montanas, who live in an ornate home much like that of Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s novel. More...