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Oct 07, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I really wanted to like this book, as I found the premise fascinating. The execution, though, was so weak that it was almost unbearable to force my way through the entire book.

The story centers on Laurel, who survived a brutal attack as a young college student. She graduates from college, dates older men, and works at a homeless shelter, where she comes across a man named Bobbie, who carries with him a mysterious box of photographs. Laurel becomes obsessed with the photographs and wi More...

1 comment like (28 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Carolyn added it

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10 comments like (24 people liked it)

May 04, 2008

Jonna rated it:

Offensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many More...

8 comments like (30 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Debbie rated it:

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2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jaime rated it:

The first thing I did before I started this book was head to Wikipedia and read a summary of The Great Gatsby, since it’s been 12+ years since I read it, and it’s really an integral part of this book. I recommend that to anyone who picks this up.

I often start thinking about what I’m going to say about a book before I finish it. As I neared the end of this, my thoughts were “this wasn’t as good as Midwives or Water Witches“. Then, Bohjalian gives you a very M. Night Shyamalan-esque tw More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2008

Bonnie rated it:

Although I am familiar with Chris Bohjalian, the title caught my eye. I was told (by an editor who recently read about 80 pages of my novel--in-progress), that the mother of my POV character was a classic case of the Double Bind personality. I had not heard of this before. (Google it to discover what it is -- or read this book!) In part, the editor was correct, but, of course, not having read the whole book, she couldn't make a definite assessment. It was helpful, though. As was this book -- in More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2008

Kate rated it:

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0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2008

Stacey rated it:

This is a very creative premise but egregiously flawed. Most of this book chronicles an investigation that the main character is conducting that links an old box of photos with a homeless man, her own troubled past, and The Great Gatsby. She was a lot more interested in where this all was leading than I was. I was sort of lazily interested in the Gatsby thread because I just read it, but the rest of it was so repetitive and tiresome I could only read 5-10 pages at a time. I did not like the More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2008

Maggi rated it:

This is the sixth book of Chris Bohjalian I have read, and I found the others to be quite good. Perhaps his prose wasn't as gorgeous as some writers, but his stories were gripping, and I turned the pages quickly, (which, if you think about it, is the main reason we want to read a book!). Tran-sister Radio was fascinating and sensitive. I read The Law of Similars in a weekend. Before You Know Kindness was complex and compelling. But despite the pull of the mysteriously wonderful photos that seem More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2007

Valerie rated it:

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend, and had no idea that there was a surprise twist at the end. As a mystery, I didn't feel it was very compelling, but aside from that the story was definitely interesting enough to keep me engaged. A quick refresher of The Great Gatsby on Wikipedia is a good idea if you read this book, as its characters appear in The Double Bind as well.

I thought that they were well-integrated into the book, and it was definitely an innovative idea on More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2007

Jo Ann marked it as to-read

REWVIEW:
Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.

Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2007

Darlene rated it:

Not at all the book I thought I was getting. Far darker and more disturbing a story than the cover copy lead me to believe. I'm a fan of The Great Gatsby. I'm a fan of historical photography. I'm interested in mysteries.

I'm not interested in the details of women being brutalized over and over -- either physically or emotionally. I'm willing to believe it was unintentional on Bohjalian's part, but I couldn't help taking the thematic misogynistic overtones a little too personall More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Jackie rated it:

Laurel, a young social worker in Vermont, has clearly been traumatized by a brutal and sadistic act of violence committed against her during her sophomore year in college. This story reminds the reader of the powerful ability of the mind to alter life's horrific events to allow a person to live day-to-day with nightmarish acts. Laurel is given photos taken by a homeless man and manipulates their meaning and subjects to meld and intertwine fiction and fact in more ways than one. A fictionalized J More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2011

Neelu rated it:

What a twist at the end! It certainly saddened me to see teh degradation of the main character's mental health. You really grow to love her for being so compassionate to other human beings, especially the homeless and mentally ill. Then to see that she was also going down that road and to also learn that she suffered such a horrid enounter. So horrible that she blocked the reality of it from her self. There is still a lot of confusion in my head as to what was real and what was in her imagi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2008

Nick rated it:

If you were to write a book with the same themes as The Great Gatsby, but set it today, what would it look like? What archetypes would you pick to represent the lost, lonely people? The man who tries to live the American dream but at the end finds himself staring at the light he can never reach? The woman who tells herself stories about who she is and how she got where she was only to help avoid the truth of the horror of her life? The death of the American Dream, and its salvation in the or More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2007

Amy rated it:

There were moments where I thought this books was really stupid. The main character was so dramatic at times, the plot seemed like it was trying to be more than it was only b/c the author was making the main character make such a big deal out of minimal things.
Turns out there was a reason for that. You don't find out until the very end (which you can predict near the end). The entire thing is explained on the last pages because it has to be completely written out, otherwise it's a book More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jane rated it:

I reached page 155 in this novel, and I have decided not to continue. The protagonist, Laurel, is not compelling; the writing is unnecessarily adjectivey; the use of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, from The Great Gatsby, as characters in this novel feels tricked up; and one of the puzzles -- the "true" identity of a deceased homeless man -- is solved early and too easily for this reader's taste.

I understand, from reading other reviews in Goodreads, that I'm passing up a twist endi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

Reviewing this book properly would necessitate revealing the plot and spoiling the author's skillful and unusual handling of character development, narrative design, and technique. I have not read this author before. He is apparently known for his sensitive and creative exploration of serious social issues through fiction, and this book would be consistent with that.

While she's in college, Laurel is brutally attacked while riding her bike on a wooded country road in Vermont. The story More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Tracy rated it:

I would highly recommend this book to all book clubbers out there, because after you read it, you just want to talk to someone else who's read it. Kind of like after seeing the movie the Sixth Sense. There is a prerequisite that comes with this novel and that is to read or re-read The Great Gatsby. This is a must in order to understand all the references and parallels with Fitzgerald's novel. Bohjalian brings the characters from The Great Gatsby to life.
From reading the other reviews of T More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Sally rated it:

Good, good, nice bedtime reading. Bohjalian is talented, yet he, like Coupeland, creeps me out in his affinity to write from a female protagonist point of view? Why is this necessary? I'm loving all the golden era pictures and narration, however. This book is not destined for the abandoned shelf. No siree bob, we have a keeper folks. It's just short of fantastic...and I've yet to be able to put my finger on why. Could it be the romancing of male violence towards women? Perhaps. Updates to More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Janean rated it:

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12 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 01, 2008

Mike rated it:

Because I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" my contact at Barnes and Noble was sure I would like this book by Bohjalian. He had heard the two books had many things in common. Unfortunately, they don't. Fortunately, I moderately liked this one for much different reasons. As others have written in their reviews, this book was not edited with any real sense of purpose or aid. It lacked for a skilled edit job here and there.

(This review contains no spoilers of any serious degree).
More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2008

Diane rated it:

Whoa! This book grabbed me from the first page of the Prologue and kept me involved until - yes, I finished it bleary-eyed and wide awake in the wee small hours of the night trailing the same day I started reading it. It's mystery and suspense and a puzzle. The references to Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby stand alone, but I did reach for my old copy of The Great Gatsby and skim a couple of sections out of curiousity. The black & white photographs included in the story fit and seemed real, addin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Anne rated it:

The Double Bind is a fascinating exploration of memory and mental-illness. The book opens with the main character Laurel's brutal attack while riding her bike on a deserted road. Years later, she works at a homeless shelter and meets a schizophrenic man, Bobbie Crocker, who has a collection of brilliant photographs. When Bobbie dies, Laurel finds herself obsessed with figuring out where the photographs came from and who the man behind the pictures was. In an interesting plot device Laurel happen More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2007

Mary rated it:

This novel is intriguing, heartbreaking and beautiful. Starting with a violent act, the story takes us through the life of the victim Lauren, a privileged young adult who has since dedicated her life to helping the homeless. After the death of a homeless man named Bobbie, Lauren's life intertwines with the descendants of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in present day.

Bobbies only known legacy is a box of secretive photographs and negatives. Lauren recognizes the homes in the photographs fr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Cyndy rated it:

Not sure I liked it...one of those books that I liked, but was a bit disappointed in the way it was written. Not sure why.

The book is written well. It is the story of a girl who had something pretty horrible happen to her years before. In the present she is a social worker for homeless and she is given some pictures taken by a formerly homeless man who has passed away. She becomes obsessed by the pictures and the people the pictures may be of and decides it is her 'destiny' to find o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2008

Kori rated it:

chris bohjalian came to visit my midwifery seminar when i was a freshman in college, after we had read his book midwives, and ever since then i've been interested in reading more of his work. i really enjoyed midwives, and i found the caliber of his writing to be rather high, so i expected a lot of this book.

after i finished, i felt like the pay-off was definitely not worth the three hundred plus pages i blew through to get there. bohjalian seeks to blur the lines between past and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Hara rated it:

I was totally blind-sided by this book. I am generally of fan of Bohjalian, who writes with great sensitivity about everyday, generally good people caught in extraordinary, ethically tricky situations. This novel, however, felt unpolished. Constructed in such a way as to surprise the reader, it did manage to surprise me. However, the characters lacked the depth that I expect from this author so that the story-line never felt believable. When the surprise arrived, it felt overly manufactured More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 20, 2008

Marsha rated it:

The Double Bind tells the story of a young woman trying to come to terms with an attack by 2 men while riding a bike on a country road. Years later, while working with the homeless, she comes across photos taken by a deceased client which starts a chain of events which leads to mysteries from both his and her pasts, or does it?

Here is the rub and my problem with this novel. The unfolding of the mystery is exciting and page turning but the ultimate conclusion comes out of left field. More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Bree rated it:

Reading Chris Bojhalian is like watching daytime tv, it passes the time, might be moderately interesting, makes you wince a little sometimes and ultimately leaves you feeling slightly greenish afterwards. This book diverged from his usual tried-and-true structure of introducing emotionally complex EveryMen and EveryWomen who make a fatal mistake early on and struggle to repair things before their worlds go down the drain. I continued reading, and ultimately, finished feeling dissatisfied and res More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)