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Dec 17, 2009

Beth rated it:

This book sucks. It had potential - the plot centers around the question of what we owe those we love. The main character is a girl engaged to a man who becomes a paraplegic just after their relationship goes sour. Potential for a good read, right? The problem is that this becomes a novel about a girl trying to become a fashion designer in NY and the paraplegic boyfriend is left in the dust after all of 90 pages. Then it's all about fashion, and BAD fashion at that. The author lost me when More...

3 comments like (18 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2007

Kelly rated it:

**SPOILERS**
This book sucks. It came highly recommended to me by a friend so I gave it a shot. The Midwest setting appealed to me; I live and grew up in Northeast Wisconsin. The appeal ends there. Sure, I felt bad that the boyfriend became paralyzed. I could only imagine what a position that would put the girlfriend in, how one would become wracked with guilt for wanting to move on and make a better life for herself. To me, her moving to NYC was justifiable and not cold in the least. More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Feather rated it:

I hated this book with a passion.

From the Publisher
A riveting novel about loyalty and self-knowledge, and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves.

Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life. She’s had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend, Mike, now her fiancé, for as long as anyone can remember. It’s with real surprise she finds that, at age twenty-three, her life has beg More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Perrine rated it:

I don't think that I would have stumbled upon this book had my friend not recommended it to me. It is a rich and utterly human story of loss, coming of age and self-discovery. Carrie, the protagonist, is a 23-year old girl who hasn't yet been allowed to spread her wings. When she is considering making a life change, destiny makes it for her. Her boyfriend (now fiance) of 8 years takes a plunge from Clausen's Pier, breaks his neck and becomes a quadriplegic. He cannot move his hands, has no sexua More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2007

Amanda rated it:

Way back in the day, I used to read these terrible teen dramas by Lurlene McDaniel. Someone in the book either had cancer, was dying, or was just killed and I sobbed from the beginning of the book to the end. So I stopped reading those books.

The Dive From Clausen's Pier was a grown-up Lurlene McDaniel' novelette. Well written? Yes. Engaging characters? Yes. An enjoyable read? Not quite. I could decide if I sympathized with the main character or hated her. The pivotal event happens so More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2010

Eliza rated it:

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3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Catherine rated it:

UG! I can't put into words my utter disappointment with the main character Carrie. I actually wanted her to come to life so I could bitch slap her. I don't want to divulge too much for I might ruin the ending for those who want to read it (please don't). The story had merit, the writing was good, but the ending was utterly incomprehensible to me. I actually felt trapped as if the main character were making life decisions for me. I felt doomed to a life without personal growth. rrrgg.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Lisa rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2008

Kate rated it:

Carrie Bell feels the pull of a new life awaiting her outside her Wisconsin hometown. Her relationship with her fiance Mike is boring her, and she wants to see the world and learn who she is. She goes out with Mike on Memorial Day, and he dives headfirst into a shallow lake and is immediately paralyzed. Can Carrie stay? No. But with pressure from all sides, her mother, Mike's parents, their friends in Madison, Carrie feels terrible about deciding to leave and not return home. Still, she moves to More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2007

Kristine rated it:

i wanted to like this. i started out liking it but by the time i was wrapped up in it, i realized how trite it was. i grew up near madison and kept trying to find connection to the characters and places. i just kept thinking "why would people like her?" and "who the fuck would be friends with these people?" - everyone was a cliche, or not very detailed. no one talks or acts like these people, especially 23-year-olds. i really like the premise of the book - your fiance is More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Kathy rated it:

While this isn't classic literature, I was touched by the book.

Carrie Bell is a 23 year old woman who is questioning whether Mike, her high school boyfriend turned fiancee, is really the man and the life she wants to commit to. Her decision becomes more complicated and conflict laden after Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident. Would she loyally proceed with the plan to eventually marry Mike and become his cook, nurse, helper, chauffeur, attendant and somehow his wife? Or woul More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Zeek rated it:

I picked this one up at a yard sale for 50 cents and I'm glad I didn't pay more. Thoroughly depressing, I wanted to quit many times. The problem? The premise and first chapter contained a good enough hook to make me wonder how in the heck Carrie, the main character, was going to handle the situation the author threw at her.

Carrie and Mike had been dating since high school. Now, 5 or so years later, she's realized that her life in small town Wisconsin is suffocating her and is ready to More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2008

Jessica rated it:

The book was entertaining in an easy-read kind of way. I definitely wanted to know what Carrie, a 23-year-old girl from Madison, Wisconsin, was going to do when faced with a fiancee who broke his neck and became a quadriplegic. Her guilt is exacerbated by the fact that she had been gradually falling out of love with him in the months prior.

The story felt hackneyed in many parts: the "I couldn't help but wonder" moments; the vague "it wasn't that, nor did I know what i More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

This book surprised me. I initially wrote it off, expecting that it would fall into the Lifetime movie category of contemporary fiction. Ironically, a Google search did inform me that it has had a second life as an honest-to-goodness Lifetime movie (or maybe it was Oxygen; I wasn't paying that close of attention).

For emotion-centric, literary fiction, it was jarringly suspenseful. I almost wanted to hide it under my desk at work, on my lap, to finish it. I felt desperate to figure out More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2008

Katherine rated it:

Finishing Ann Packer's The Dive From Clausen's Pier is at once an immense relief and an immense loss. The character Kilroy talks about "hard" art (Picasso) and "soft" art (Matisse) and certainly Packer's is the former. The entire book is one long exercise in feeling and memory, in love and in loss.
Packer such a wonderful writer, she actually makes you feel what Carrie, her main character, feels, even after the book has been closed. Of course, that's what the best of b More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2008

Sydney rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2007

KIM rated it:

I'm still haunted by this story. It's about a young couple in their early 20s living in the midwest-- Wisconsin (I think). They've been dating since high school. She's about to break up with him, then he has a horrible diving accident while they're picnicing with friends. He becomes a quadraplegic. Up until this point, everyone including both of their parents have assumed they were going to be married because they've dated for so long. She wanted to break it off with him before the acciden More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

Kelli rated it:

A story that strikes home because the main character does not do what seems to be the right thing. She is confused, sometimes self-centered, yet struggles to keep her integrity in an overwhelming turn of events. Packer perfectly captures her alienation. This one made me think, and made me feel like I had just heard the story of someone I knew.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Monday rated it:

This book was recommended to me by a friend. She loved it. I hated it.

The plot of this book - and yes, i'll be spoiling it - is that there is this girl who hates her bf, wants to break up with him. He gets hurt showing off for her because he knows she's going to ditch him. She runs away and meets another guy. New guy is somewhat screwed up, but this is where this book divides into a love it or hate it book. She eventually succeeds, while with new guy, but then goes back to home More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2008

Michelle rated it:

Meghan from my Book Lust class kept talking about how thought-provoking this book was, so when I saw it on the school library shelf, I picked up it during my lunch break. I am compelled to read on!

*later*

Wow, I finally finished this last night, and feel satisfied at the ending. I was afraid for awhile that I was going to be disappointed, but it seemed realistic to me and there was even a little surprise.

The story posed a moral quandary, described a believa More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2011

bookczuk rated it:

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from this book. I tend to be a little cautious of books that get rave popular reviews. This turns out to be a story about facing tragedy and growing up (or not growing up as perhaps is the case with Killroy). So many of the characters have faced some huge hurdle or a major tragedy in their life, but work their way through to the other side of it. Carrie not only had to grow up, but she had to experience life on her own first, not as someone joined at the hip More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

Nanci rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2008

Kirsten rated it:

Definitely the best book I read on my weekend vacation. A young woman (just out of college) is already feeling uncomfortable in her relationship with her high school sweetheart - and then he suffers a serious accident. She's left to decide whether to stay with him or leave. About love and friendship, and about the ties we have to people we grew up with, and breaking out of familiar routines to find something new. The only problem is that several parts left me on the verge of tears, which was More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Andrew rated it:

My enjoyment of this books surprised it is a book involving deep introspection of a 23 year old woman. By confession, I would have expected to be bored with all the detail and analysis. Nevertheless, this book did more than hold my attention.

The protagonist is a young woman torn between the world she grew up in (Madison, WI) and the world she runs to (New York City). She is torn between two men, each disabled, but in completely different ways.

Along the way, she discover More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Judith rated it:

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0 comments like

Jun 24, 2007

Eveline rated it:

Reading this I was really impressed at what an undeniably good writer Ann Packer is, but then I really disliked the book itself. It was just sort of dumb. The protagonist kept having all these realizations and experiences and stuff that all just seemed really obvious and banal to me. It was kind of like reading a book about dogs who had no idea what dogs were & had only just discovered them & was going on and one about how amazing dogs were, & has no idea that everyone knows what a dog is, dummy More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Ron rated it:

Rarely have I cared so much about a character: Carrie Bell is faced with the gut-wrenching decision of staying with her boyfriend, Mike, of 7 years after he has become a quadriplegic. Making matters even more complicated, in the months just before the accident she had begun to fall out of love with Mike. Carrie is emotionally paralyzed with fear of making the wrong decision: "How much do we owe the people we love?...What I had discovered was that I couldn't give up my life for Mike--that ho More...

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Dec 02, 2011

marymurtz rated it:

I loved the depth of all the characters in this book, how the author layered them and made them come to life. So many books I've read recently have one-dimensional characters with the main character perhaps two or three millimeters deeper than the page.

But in this book, the author does a wonderful job of making each person into a whole being that rises from the page and you feel that you know them, that you are right there with them.

Carrie Bell is a Wisconsin girl. She's More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Nick rated it:

Recent college grad falling out of love with her longtime boyfriend and now fiance has to decide what to do when he dives off Clausen's Pier, the water is too low, and he becomes a quadriplegic. Should she stay in Madison, Wisconsin by her man or should she leave as she might have done anyway? There's a suitcase on the cover so you can probably guess what she does. But does she stick with her decision? There's the real question.

The writing is lovely and the characters are generall More...

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