4th out of 307 books
—
584 voters
Apart From Love
by
Uvi Poznansky (Goodreads Author)
Written with passionate conviction, this story is being told by two of its characters: Ben, a twenty-seven years old student, and Anita, a plain-spoken, spunky, uneducated redhead, freshly married to Lenny, his aging father. Behind his back, Ben and Anita find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. They take turns using an old tape recorder to express their most inti...more
Paperback, 292 pages
Published
February 15th 2012
by Uvi Poznansky
(first published January 11th 2012)
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The characters quickly draw the reader in to Uvi Poznansky’s Apart from Love, and a haunting air of fable invites the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. Returning from long absence to revisit his elderly father, Ben finds himself oddly drawn to the new young wife who so resembles his absent mother. The missing mother was a concert pianist who divorced his father and left to tour the world. But this story’s more about art than music, truths reflected in the shifting landscapes of lives and...more
As one who knows Alzheimer's and its effect on the family all too well, I took great interest in this novel’s approach to the subject. While Alzheimer’s manifests in its victims with common symptoms (and many peculiar symptoms as well), its manifestation in the immediate families is anything but common. Apart From Love displays in vivid, eloquent prose how one micro family is touched by a disease that strips all but the shell of a human from his or her loved ones.
Told primarily from two perspec...more
Told primarily from two perspec...more
Uvi Poznansky is an artist! There is no doubt about it. As I read "Apart from Love", I was drawn into a masterfully created piece of artwork. This is no ordinary novel. It richly depicts the product of a dysfuntional family and how they are drawn together, yet so repulsed by each other.
There is a quality so deep and raw in "Apart from Love" that it's almost impossible to put this book down. In my opinion, Uvi Poznansky writes like a painter. She starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint...more
There is a quality so deep and raw in "Apart from Love" that it's almost impossible to put this book down. In my opinion, Uvi Poznansky writes like a painter. She starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint...more
Jul 18, 2012
Marcia Noren
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Introspective readers who love complex characters, Sam Shepard fans, poets, artists, film noir buffs
Recommended to Marcia by:
Goodreads participants in Uvi's Q&A
This debut novel's characters are still with me, locked down in Jungian psychoanalysis. Uvi Poznansky's writing penetrates the subconscious, where dreams are ignited and poets find words.
As Anita and Ben reveal their innermost thoughts, the lives of Lenny and Natasha, linked tightly with theirs like the ropes in a Celtic knot, become increasingly vivid. This complex family of secret keepers triggered an avalanche of emotions in my mind and heart. Reading the book felt more like standing before...more
As Anita and Ben reveal their innermost thoughts, the lives of Lenny and Natasha, linked tightly with theirs like the ropes in a Celtic knot, become increasingly vivid. This complex family of secret keepers triggered an avalanche of emotions in my mind and heart. Reading the book felt more like standing before...more
Book Review of Apart From Love, by Uvi Poznansky
review by Rich Weatherly
The family saga, Apart From Love by Uvi Poznansky opens on a scene in the family home. The reader finds Ben, son of Lenny, the family patriarch, in a strange, tense situation. It is a tense situation because Ben has just been greeted by Anita, his father’s bride. He finds Anita to be attractive if uneducated. She is a year younger than Ben who is 27.
As chapters progress through the saga, each is delivered as a first person a...more
review by Rich Weatherly
The family saga, Apart From Love by Uvi Poznansky opens on a scene in the family home. The reader finds Ben, son of Lenny, the family patriarch, in a strange, tense situation. It is a tense situation because Ben has just been greeted by Anita, his father’s bride. He finds Anita to be attractive if uneducated. She is a year younger than Ben who is 27.
As chapters progress through the saga, each is delivered as a first person a...more
This book starts with the perfect title. Apart from love is a phrase used by all three of the main characters and its meaning is slightly different for all three. Amazing.
This story is written by Lenny but, he uses Ben's and Anita's words as they seem to narrate.
A story of secrets, family conflicts and confusion. Each of the characters has a stumbling block which keeps them unable to love or be loved.
Ben is the son who is estranged from his father due to the fact that his mother left. Even aft...more
This story is written by Lenny but, he uses Ben's and Anita's words as they seem to narrate.
A story of secrets, family conflicts and confusion. Each of the characters has a stumbling block which keeps them unable to love or be loved.
Ben is the son who is estranged from his father due to the fact that his mother left. Even aft...more
Uvi Poznansky has penned a literary symphony, complete with a cast of likeable yet bruised characters.
The story unfolds as each central figure takes center stage, allowing the reader to slip inside and vicariously experience their true emotions--no matter how damaged they are.
The story centers around Ben, his father Lenny, and Anita--Lenny's new wife. The underlying currents of a myriad of emotions are woven throughout each chapter as each of them struggle to deal with their new role and place...more
The story unfolds as each central figure takes center stage, allowing the reader to slip inside and vicariously experience their true emotions--no matter how damaged they are.
The story centers around Ben, his father Lenny, and Anita--Lenny's new wife. The underlying currents of a myriad of emotions are woven throughout each chapter as each of them struggle to deal with their new role and place...more
Here it is:
There are rare novels that complete capture you from the first sentence and leave you wanting to the very last word. Apart From love is that type of novel it has a central romantic plot between a son and his step-mother but yet still brings powerful themes into play and shows the battle of guilt one feels when one is forced into choosing the betrayal of another or the betrayal of oneself. The tone is light hearted in some and dark with a mist of the mysterious in others. Is Ben going...more
There are rare novels that complete capture you from the first sentence and leave you wanting to the very last word. Apart From love is that type of novel it has a central romantic plot between a son and his step-mother but yet still brings powerful themes into play and shows the battle of guilt one feels when one is forced into choosing the betrayal of another or the betrayal of oneself. The tone is light hearted in some and dark with a mist of the mysterious in others. Is Ben going...more
A `novel' Novel that succeeds exceptionally well: `Say anything apart from love'
Uvi Poznansky wears a coat of many colors. Originally from Israel where she studied Architecture and Town Planning then moving to the US where she studied Computer Science and became an expert in Software Engineering, Poznansky managed to combine the design elements of two studies into unique formats. And she has accomplished the same with the other side of her brain - making visual her ideas (she is an accomplished...more
Uvi Poznansky wears a coat of many colors. Originally from Israel where she studied Architecture and Town Planning then moving to the US where she studied Computer Science and became an expert in Software Engineering, Poznansky managed to combine the design elements of two studies into unique formats. And she has accomplished the same with the other side of her brain - making visual her ideas (she is an accomplished...more
I truly enjoyed this unique book!
"Apart From Love" is a truly unique story. It's written as a narrative and I found The characters to be very interesting and well developed. As a result of this effective style of writing, I found myself thinking about Anita, Ben and Lenny for hours after reading each chapter. I especially enjoyed how the Author was able to convey the personalities of Ben and Anita as they told their stories throughout the book. I had the sense that these characters were actuall...more
"Apart From Love" is a truly unique story. It's written as a narrative and I found The characters to be very interesting and well developed. As a result of this effective style of writing, I found myself thinking about Anita, Ben and Lenny for hours after reading each chapter. I especially enjoyed how the Author was able to convey the personalities of Ben and Anita as they told their stories throughout the book. I had the sense that these characters were actuall...more
Apart From Love
By Uvi Poznansky
Reviewed by R. Murry
The family dynamic has been written about since the beginning of time: the Biblical story of Joseph, Macbeth, and in the 1930s, William Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury. Like Faulkner, Ms. Poznansky uses more than one person to tell the story of “Apart From Love.” Faulkner used four. Ms. Poznansky uses two: Ben and Anita. Their voices are orchestrated close to perfection in a loving way.
Each chapter is told by one or the other, explaining thei...more
By Uvi Poznansky
Reviewed by R. Murry
The family dynamic has been written about since the beginning of time: the Biblical story of Joseph, Macbeth, and in the 1930s, William Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury. Like Faulkner, Ms. Poznansky uses more than one person to tell the story of “Apart From Love.” Faulkner used four. Ms. Poznansky uses two: Ben and Anita. Their voices are orchestrated close to perfection in a loving way.
Each chapter is told by one or the other, explaining thei...more
This is one of the most exquisitely written novels I've ever read.
From the very beginning, this story engages you as it is written with elaborate execution, mixing poetry with a novel. The author immediately pulls you in with Ben's return after having been gone for ten years. His emotions are raw and disjointed as he grapples with his father's recent marriage to a woman that has played a huge role in why he left in the first place.
Though it took me a few chapters to get my bearings as the stor...more
From the very beginning, this story engages you as it is written with elaborate execution, mixing poetry with a novel. The author immediately pulls you in with Ben's return after having been gone for ten years. His emotions are raw and disjointed as he grapples with his father's recent marriage to a woman that has played a huge role in why he left in the first place.
Though it took me a few chapters to get my bearings as the stor...more
‘Apart from Love’ is quite unlike any story I’ve ever read, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The writing is full of lyricism and imagery, melancholy and hope, whilst the story seldom wanders very far from one cramped apartment in Santa Monica.
It is not a book that will take you on a journey through a place or an era, but rather through the minds of three people.
Anita, Ben and Lenny are undoubtedly connected through kin and marriage, yet are so sadly disconnected by their individual histories,...more
It is not a book that will take you on a journey through a place or an era, but rather through the minds of three people.
Anita, Ben and Lenny are undoubtedly connected through kin and marriage, yet are so sadly disconnected by their individual histories,...more
Touchingly Warmhearted and Eloquently Written…..
I was drawn in quickly by the quiet articulacy in which the author introduces you to a world of love, mistrust, acceptance, anger as well as the full history of the characters within her novel. I enjoyed the way “Author Uvi Poznansky” patiently moves her readers through a wonderfully rich journey of a family full of secrets, full of a rich and even sometimes tragic history….. All the while bringing us the readers into an opulent cultural understand...more
I was drawn in quickly by the quiet articulacy in which the author introduces you to a world of love, mistrust, acceptance, anger as well as the full history of the characters within her novel. I enjoyed the way “Author Uvi Poznansky” patiently moves her readers through a wonderfully rich journey of a family full of secrets, full of a rich and even sometimes tragic history….. All the while bringing us the readers into an opulent cultural understand...more
I wasn't totally sure what to make of this book because there were parts that I both loved and hated. I felt that the concept behind the novel as very unique and you could clearly tell that there was something much more than your average story here within the pages. for me it felt like there was something personal, whether it be from the authors own experience or from something else altogether. The story itself was well introduced and written, with the four main characters clearly identified as...more
This novel had a bit of a clunky start, but it is a decent first novel. At first, I was wondering what the heck was going on with the characters and shared the frustration of the male main character in regards to his father and mother. However, as the story unfolds, you understand more and more about what happens, and you see that Dad and his new wife really are not bad people like you would think they are in the beginning, and you find out what happens to Natasha and why things happened the way...more
This novel starts out S-L-O-W, and never quite reaches that phase where you just want to tear through the pages. The basic premise is intersting and well done, but there were things that kept me from all out enjoying the story. First and foremost it was very difficult to figure out the setting. I believe the story was supposed to take place in modern times, but the style of speech, the actions of the characters, etc made it seem as though it was set back in the early 1900's or late 1800's. The l...more
To me, this novel is reminiscent of a Chinese mystery from Ming Dynasty. Allow me to elaborate - we know WHAT crime was committed; we know HOW it was done; we know WHO committed the crime. Now we need to find answers to the following questions - WHY the crime was committed and what PUNISHMENT the criminal would or deserve to receive.
Take it from there and we spend a lot of time inside main characters' heads unraveling these mysteries all through the story which makes for a fascinating and twiste...more
Take it from there and we spend a lot of time inside main characters' heads unraveling these mysteries all through the story which makes for a fascinating and twiste...more
Here is the first review of Apart From Love from the UK. A. Rose is a Top Amazon Reviewer:
A Beautifully Crafted Triangle of Love, 9 May 2012
By A. Rose (Devon & Menorca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Apart From Love (Paperback)
The story is told from the viewpoints of Ben and Anita. Ben is the adult son of Lenny who has been estranged from his parents for the past ten years, with Ben blaming his father for the break up of the family when L...more
A Beautifully Crafted Triangle of Love, 9 May 2012
By A. Rose (Devon & Menorca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Apart From Love (Paperback)
The story is told from the viewpoints of Ben and Anita. Ben is the adult son of Lenny who has been estranged from his parents for the past ten years, with Ben blaming his father for the break up of the family when L...more
Apart From Love grabs your attention and does not let go until the final pages of the book. The attention to detail showcases the smooth pen of the author as she weaves a tale of a dysfunctional family and the complex love that binds them and pulls them apart. Ms. Poznansky masterfully teases the reader with just enough mystery to keep you reading. It is a pleasure to read and I recommend it for your good reads list. Teresa E. Gallion, Poet and Author
I discovered this book a few days ago when it was advertised on Twitter, and loaded it to my Kindle. To my surprize it was a profoundly deep story with many layers, love-hate father-son relationship, set against the mental deterioration of the mother, who suffers from alzheimers. For mother's day I loaded it on my mom's Kindle and she's loving it. We now have a mini 'bookclub' discussion about the book between us! Highly recommended.
Beautifully written! The author did an amazing job of telling a very complex story of love, deception, anger, passion, and the sadness of Alzheimer.
"Apart From Love" is written in the viewpoint of a man and a woman, which are both very well done. The previous reviews cover all the details so I won't bother, but I will say it is one good read, and one you may want for your book-shelf to tell your friends about.
"Apart From Love" is written in the viewpoint of a man and a woman, which are both very well done. The previous reviews cover all the details so I won't bother, but I will say it is one good read, and one you may want for your book-shelf to tell your friends about.
Free book for review. It is all in this book, love, secrets as well as all the ups and downs in life. A must read.
Truly a novel to be savored. Liberally salted with buttery smooth prose and fascinating insights as to the mindset of a dysfunctional family, Uvi Pozansky's Apart From Love chronicles Ben, Anita and Lenny's struggle with their desires, hopes and dreams as they clash with decency, moral values, and tragic secrets unveiled. Pozansky vividly illustrates the cracks in the fragile relationship between these characters. So much so, I felt I was inside their heads speaking and acting for them. Seldom h...more
Jul 14, 2012
Therese
marked it as to-read
$0.0
May 12, 2012
Janice
marked it as abandoned
I got half way into the book and couldn't turn another page. I thought the focus of the book was early onset alzheimers, but it was more about dysfunctional family and the lust between a son and his step-mother. Couldn't do it.
I didn't have qualms with the writing style of the author. I thought she did quite well for a debut novel.
I didn't have qualms with the writing style of the author. I thought she did quite well for a debut novel.
Aug 31, 2012
Sherri Christian-Samson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Sherri by:
http://uviart.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-rose-by-any-other-name.html
Absolutely Brilliant. I loved Apart From Love!
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q&A with Uvi ...: The Writing Process | 294 | 63 | 20 hours, 1 min ago | |
| Making Connections: 708. APART FROM LOVE by Uvi Poznansky | 36 | 65 | May 21, 2013 02:05pm | |
| Genre Readers loo...: Apart From Love | 117 | 16 | May 21, 2013 02:05pm | |
| THE JAMES MASON C...: New Author, New Member: Apart From Love, Home, A Favorite Son | 79 | 49 | May 21, 2013 02:04pm | |
| GR Magazine: Apart From Love | 120 | 27 | May 21, 2013 02:04pm | |
| Booksy Cup Freebi...: Bargain price: Apart From Love | 16 | 58 | May 21, 2013 02:04pm | |
| Book Haven: Apart From Love | 73 | 182 | May 21, 2013 02:04pm |
Uvi Poznansky is a California-based author, poet and artist. You can view daily posts of her writing and art on her blog, http://uviart.blogspot.com.
She earned her B. A. in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion in Haifa, Israel. During her studies and in the years immediately following her graduation, she practiced with an innovative Architectural firm, taking a major part in the large-...more
More about Uvi Poznansky...
She earned her B. A. in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion in Haifa, Israel. During her studies and in the years immediately following her graduation, she practiced with an innovative Architectural firm, taking a major part in the large-...more
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May 24, 2012 08:09am