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6th out of 15 books
—
23 voters
Before You Know Kindness
by
Chris Bohjalian (Goodreads Author)
Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Midwives, presents his most ambitious and multi-layered novel to date--examining wildly divisive issues in today’s America with his trademark emotional heft and spellbinding storytelling skill.On a balmy July night in New Hampshire a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spence...more
Paperback, First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 429 pages
Published
August 2005
by Vintage
(first published January 1st 2004)
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I LOVED this book. I don't know why people are saying it was slow moving. I loved the pace. It's a character piece, and the suspense is in the slow and detailed unfolding of their lives and secret thoughts. To me, this book is a lot about what people think every day, but never reveal to each other, and how that affects what they can and can't say (or do) later. And, I liked that the author took a hard stance against animal activists -- not because I have anything against them. Like most of us, I...more
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. The book had a slow start & I stuck with it thinking that it would get better, but it dragged on & on. The problem with the book is that you already knew what was going to happen & you think that there will be a climax but it maintains the same pace throughout. When I finished this book I was just happy it was over.
Meh. I liked "Midwives" enough to give this one a try (but mainly because I'm out of books to read, too poor to shop, and too lazy at the moment to go to the library, and this book was crammed in my nightstand from some long-ago time when someone loaned it to me). I guess what I didn't like about it is the fact that at the end of the book I sort of shrugged and said "so?"
You meet a circle of people and a tragedy occurs and then the circle of people go through the various stages of grief and...t...more
You meet a circle of people and a tragedy occurs and then the circle of people go through the various stages of grief and...t...more
I was listening to this book on audiobook and was excited about it because I loved The Double Bind so much. However, this book I didn't connect with at all. Bohjalian seemed to try to hard on the complex sentences - William Faulkner he is not. And the plot was just so convoluted. By the fifth disk I felt that I had heard the same parts of the plot at least five times, and I KNEW I couldn't have cared less about the vegetable garden. So, on the sixth disk when the disk seemed to be damaged for at...more
I really enjoyed Bohjalian's book "Midwives" but I just couldn't get interested in any of the characters in this book. I pushed through it, thinking it would get better, but at the end, I still didn't care about any of these people.
I didn't really care for this book very much. I didn't mind the slow pace that much. What bothered me most was that the author failed to establish a separate and believable voice for each of his characters. Even when the reader was privy to a character's thoughts, there was no intimacy in the way the character thought of or referred to a loved one, no language/vocabulary appropriate to the character's age or personality. Perhaps the author inserted his own voice too much into each character. Any...more
I'm on the fence on this book. The topic of gun control, animal rights, and veganism was definitely interesting, but I struggled a bit with the author's portrayal of the animal rights issue. I was struck by how a few of the characters were so one-dimensional -- practically a stereotype -- and these were, with the exception of Spencer, all people on the side of animal rights. His other characters are so well developed with both positive and negative characteristics (everyone is humanely flawed) t...more
I'm writing this review so that I can remember different things about it for book club. Fellow club members, beware of spoilers. Like John, I wish I knew a damn thing about guns so I could understand what was wrong with his. Sara and Willow seemed a bit too good for me, like they were there to be microscopes more than characters. I was engrossed by the Seton family, especially Spencer, Charlotte, and Nan. Spencer is my argumentative side, the one who would ask God for a sign, see a hand come fro...more
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The novel begins with a prologue that details a devastating, tragic event during an annual summer trip of the Seton family. I dislike this plot device and thankfully, it ends fairly quickly into the regular narrative. The major plot is the family relationships and how they react when the tragic event takes place (a daughter mistakenly shoots her father and his right arm becomes damaged beyond repair) and all of the repercussions. Told from mulitple perspectives, the novel takes on a Regarding He...more
I am a little unsure how I feel about this book. There is a lot here: gun control issues, animal rights issues, pre-teen drug/alcohol use, multi-generational relationships, etc. I did appreciate that the initial defining moment (a twelve year old girl accidentally shoots her father) didn't go down the expected "Janie's Gotta Gun"- (apologies to Aerosmith) road but I still didn't think the book was as good as it could have been.
It seems to me that many famous authors today could use slightly str...more
It seems to me that many famous authors today could use slightly str...more
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In one word: Disappointing. I was excited to read another of his books after how much I liked Trans-sister Radio and especially Skeletons at the Feast (granted, I didn't like Midwives quite as much but just figured not every book can be your favorite...). I still plan to read his other works, but this book disappointed me in several ways.
The main problem for me was the extraordinarily one-sided presentation of guns and hunting. The entire book was a blatant argument for gun control. I lost some...more
The main problem for me was the extraordinarily one-sided presentation of guns and hunting. The entire book was a blatant argument for gun control. I lost some...more
I picked up this book because it was there, it was cheap, and I vaguely remembered that I read this guy's book Midwives and liked it a long time ago. This turned out to be a mistake. It looked like a small, quick read, but actually it was over 400 pages long with tiny font and took me 5 whole days to read. AND I didn't even like it!
I can't criticize the author much. He is technically a good writer. His grammar, structure, and everything else is beyond reproach. I just plain did not enjoy this b...more
I can't criticize the author much. He is technically a good writer. His grammar, structure, and everything else is beyond reproach. I just plain did not enjoy this b...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This book took me awhile to get into it but once I did I really enjoyed it. The story is long drawn out.
ohjalian's eighth novel, Before You Know Kindness, is a beautifully observed, delicately balanced portrait of a family that could only come from the hands of a tireless craftsman who keeps reaching into his story to straighten the tulips or tuck in a shirttail. It begins with two EMTs leaning over animal rights' activist Spencer McCullough's gushing shotgun wound and winds back through the ord...more
ohjalian's eighth novel, Before You Know Kindness, is a beautifully observed, delicately balanced portrait of a family that could only come from the hands of a tireless craftsman who keeps reaching into his story to straighten the tulips or tuck in a shirttail. It begins with two EMTs leaning over animal rights' activist Spencer McCullough's gushing shotgun wound and winds back through the ord...more
Chris Bohjalian's books feature strong characters and human interest issues. This one is no different. When a father, who happens to be the outspoken leader of an animal rights group, is accidently shot by his own daughter with his brother-in-law's hunting rifle, family relations become strained. An impending lawsuit against the gun manufacturer only serves to create more stress.
This was not my favorite of Bohjalian's books. I usually breeze right through his novels, so engrossed in the family/p...more
This was not my favorite of Bohjalian's books. I usually breeze right through his novels, so engrossed in the family/p...more
In all fairness, I'd really like to give this book 3 1/2 stars. If you're looking for an entertaining, edge-of-your-seat plot, I wouldn't highly recommend this novel. That being said, if you'd like a storyline that delves into some of today's pertinent issues in a thought-provoking way, this book comes highly recommended. The story definitely made me reassess some of my own priorities, as well as my approaches toward the people and topics I care about deeply.
There are a variety of fundamental is...more
There are a variety of fundamental is...more
Chris Bohjalian is such a great writer! The characters in this book are drawn with such detail and the dynamics of this family drama grew on me more and more. It's not a page-turning story, but one which moved along at a nice pace. (I remember reading another of his books, "Midwives", and marveling at the fact that it was written by a man - I thought Chris was female until the end of the book when I saw his photo. I had been thinking all along that the midwife experience and thoughts of the main...more
I'd have to agree that the pace of this novel was very slow, but somehow it seemed to enhance the story by piling up the every day details of life that contrasted with the huge issues the characters were wrestling with. This was a story of family, but one that had to deal with a horrible incident. You wonder who, if anyone, is to blame for the unfortunate shotgun blast that nearly broke a family apart. Or was it a convergence of many little mistakes, misunderstandings, and disappointments?
The...more
The...more
This was an audio book, and after the first twenty minutes I had to check to be sure it was actually written by the same author who wrote MIDWIVES. This book was more like something a college kid in their first creative writing class might write. It is filled with cliches and predictable situations, and the author has no idea what normal ten and twelve year old girls would talk like. Their dialogue is far too sophisticated for girls their ages, and it seems highly unlikely that two girls that ag...more
Aug 02, 2011
Nina Vandewater
added it
Wouldn't you know I'd choose the Bohjalian that reviewers here and on Amazon say is his weakest. I think there just wasn't enough here for a 413 p. book. And somehow you weren't in love with any of the characters. Not a difficult read by any means, but nevertheless, a slow go.
If you are a vegetarian or vegan or PETA member, then you might really enjoy this book since it deals with those subjects. You will read a lot about how different animals are killed - so much so that it does make one feel...more
If you are a vegetarian or vegan or PETA member, then you might really enjoy this book since it deals with those subjects. You will read a lot about how different animals are killed - so much so that it does make one feel...more
This is one of my favorite books, and I was happy that our book group voted to discuss it later this week. I wanted to share this with the group, and I wanted another chance to read it. I liked it just as well the second time. I liked it for several reasons. First, it takes a complicated issue and (no, I'm not going to say it makes it simple because it doesn't) looks at it from all angles. When 12-year-old Charlotte picks up a hunting rifle from the trunk of her uncle's car and accidentally shoo...more
"Her father taught at the University of Vermont, in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and he was one of the country's leading experts on a bug with the appalling-sounding name of the pear thrip" (86).
" 'So,' John began, deciding now was as good a time as any to ask the qustion that was standing in the room with them like an uninvited and slightly malodorous third person, 'how angry are you?'" (172).
"He hoped the anniversary would never become an excuse for retail sales bonanzas the...more
" 'So,' John began, deciding now was as good a time as any to ask the qustion that was standing in the room with them like an uninvited and slightly malodorous third person, 'how angry are you?'" (172).
"He hoped the anniversary would never become an excuse for retail sales bonanzas the...more
I liked this book quite a bit. I thought it was a bit slow moving and a lot pedantic at times, but it grappled with many tough issues. I wish my book group had selected it, as I think it would make for a good discussion. I'm certainly not a hunter, but I live in a rural area, and I found flaws in several of the book's comments on hunting. One I can recall is the statement that car accidents involving deer rise dramatically during hunting season, because the deer are frantically being chased. Tru...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This big fan of Bohjalian's Trans Sister Radio was not a big fan of this novel. Hence, I am unsure as to whether or not to read more by this author.
I really wanted to like the characters in this more than 400 page novel. I was hoping to relate to, or sympathize, or be intrigued by at least one of them.
I thought I might enjoy the relate to one of them who was a teacher, as so am I. If you have ever met a teacher, you know that teaching is not a profession, but really a lifestyle. Yet, we don...more
I really wanted to like the characters in this more than 400 page novel. I was hoping to relate to, or sympathize, or be intrigued by at least one of them.
I thought I might enjoy the relate to one of them who was a teacher, as so am I. If you have ever met a teacher, you know that teaching is not a profession, but really a lifestyle. Yet, we don...more
I read this book because my friend Heidi recommended it. The last books she recommended to me were The Hunger Games series so I was fairly sure I would enjoy reading this. Plus I really liked the book Midwives by the same author.
Yes, I did like the book and enjoyed reading it. I'm not sure I liked the way the entire plot was disclosed in the prologue of the book but the development of the story was enjoyable reading. This was a story of family and relationship which is always a winner for me....more
Yes, I did like the book and enjoyed reading it. I'm not sure I liked the way the entire plot was disclosed in the prologue of the book but the development of the story was enjoyable reading. This was a story of family and relationship which is always a winner for me....more
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I'm just going to come out and say it: I really didn't like this book. I picked it up because I really enjoyed Bohjalian's Midwives and although I disliked The Double Bind, I thought I'd give him another chance. I think this will be my last Bohjalian book, at least for a while.
The plot was somewhat interesting and could have been salvaged if it was approached differently. But the story arc was so odd and didn't lead up to anything. There was something that resembled a climax but that came very e...more
The plot was somewhat interesting and could have been salvaged if it was approached differently. But the story arc was so odd and didn't lead up to anything. There was something that resembled a climax but that came very e...more
Before You Know Kindness tackles 3 main issues: gun control, veganism, and animal rights. While Bohjalian did a wonderful job at shedding light on both sides of the gun control issue I was turned off at the way he presented Spencer as this raving, vegan, animal rights activist, lunatic. Obviously FERAL and PETA are mirror images which I get - PETA is extreme. I was glad that Bohjalian didn't make the woman the vegan/activist which would have fallen into the typical stereotype, but I still walked...more
I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which definitely affects my perception of it. However, I enjoyed getting to know these characters and what happened to them, particularly the two young girls.
I appreciated the descriptions and the details because I was listening to the setting of the scene and able to visualize it easier; I don't know if I would feel the same upon reading the novel. I thought the plot unfolded nicely and the subtleties of the tragedy well crafted. I was intrigued by th...more
I appreciated the descriptions and the details because I was listening to the setting of the scene and able to visualize it easier; I don't know if I would feel the same upon reading the novel. I thought the plot unfolded nicely and the subtleties of the tragedy well crafted. I was intrigued by th...more
As in his earlier books "The Law of Similars" and "Buffalo Soldier," Chris Bohjalian creates characters struggling to remain standing and move forward under the blows life deals us randomly or otherwise. We emphathize with these intelligent, well meaning people who bicker, love, drift apart, and try to figure out how to create or sustain the conections to each other that enable us to withstand those blows. Each character is believable and all too human, and the author really creates credible chi...more
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Chris Bohjalian is the author of sixteen books, including The Light in the Ruins, arriving July 9, 2013 from Doubleday. Set in Florence and rural Tuscany between 1943 and 1955, it began as a re-imaginging of "Romeo and Juliet."
His other books include the New York Times bestsellers, The Sandcastle Girls, The Night Strangers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before Your Know...more
More about Chris Bohjalian...
His other books include the New York Times bestsellers, The Sandcastle Girls, The Night Strangers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before Your Know...more
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Mar 28, 2008 02:10am