So Long at the Fair: A Novel

by Christina Schwarz (Goodreads author)

book data

144 ratings, 2.76 average rating, 60 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		4%
4		16%
3		37%
2		31%
1		9%

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published

July 8th 2008 by Doubleday

binding

Hardcover, 368 pages

isbn

0385510292 (isbn13: 9780385510295)

description

In SO LONG AT THE FAIR, Christina Schwarz explores the lure of new attraction, the pull of long-established love, and the lengths people will go to sa

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Readers' Guide Questions for SO LONG AT THE FAIR	1	9	07/25/2008 08:04AM

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 368)

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08/08/08

Sandie rated it:

Read in August, 2008

This mercurial story of love and adultery in a small Wisconsin town spans the course of three decades and serves as undeniable proof positive that people don't always learn from their mistakes or the mistakes of others.

Two stories, inextricably linked, are related to the reader in alternating chapters. Each of the plotlines is character driven and telegraphs a sense of foreboding. Agilely pivoting between one fateful night in 1963 and a single hot July day some thirty years later, S...more

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07/21/08

Melissa rated it:

Read in October, 2008

I wanted to love this book - I had such high expectations for it! I read 2 very positive reviews for it in major publications, I had it on hold at the library for months, read positive reviews for it on Amazon, I figured it must be good. It wasn't. It was ok… which is frustrating because it could have been great.

The books takes place in the span of 1 day with lots of flash backs telling the back story of how the main characters met and also telling a story from 1963 that inv...more

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07/19/08

Elaine rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, august_08

Read in August, 2008

The main story in So Long at the Fair takes place over the course of one Saturday in the lives of Jon and Ginny, a married couple who had been high school sweethearts. Their relationship has stagnated and Jon is having an affair with a co-worker, which has progressed to the point where Jon must make his choice between the two women. Jon begins his day hoping to re-ignite his passion for Ginny during a day-long road trip to a nearby county fair, but ends up stomping off in anger to spend the da...more

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07/07/08

Amanda rated it:

Read in September, 2008

I was going to skip this review completely, give the book one star, and leave it at that. But as I generally don’t give horrible reviews, I thought I might as well have a low opinion for once. Keep in mind that this is, of course, my own opinion, as I’ve noticed many people really enjoyed this book. However, it did nothing for me as far as entertainment.

The story spans only one day and is told from several different character points of view. The two main characters are the marri...more

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09/08/08

Cheryl rated it:

Read in September, 2008

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was very well written, interesting characters, and she does a brilliant job of weaving the past and present together and bringing everything together. I however hate it when books leave an open ending. A large event happens and that is how the book ends. I want to know how the characters react to that event, what happens to everyone after. Some people I'm sure don't mind it when books leave off like that, but I really don't. So good writing, good book, h...more

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06/17/09

emi Bevacqua rated it:

Read in June, 2009

I don't have much to say about this book... I liked that it's set in Madison, WI since I went to school there and recognized a lot of the setting. But, I'm just not impressed with Christina Schwarz the author.
This story is about a couple having marital problems, he's having an affair at work. It turns out their parents knew each other growing up, and they were all involved in some kind of dastardly scheme which is only vaguely hinted at before the book flips back to present day, where ...more

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02/17/09

Heidi rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I am so disappointed. Partly I can understand that it's hard for a new author to come in at the top (Drowning Ruth was on the Oprah bookclub and show) and try to sustain that level of success but this book was completely disappointing. It's as though the book ended BEFORE the climax and it leaves you wondering why you wasted the time to read half of a story. I even thought that maybe she was being rushed to get this book into publishing so she just ended it maybe even thinking that this will ...more

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09/19/08

Heather rated it:

So Long at the Fair is the story of pivotal day in the Life of Jon and Ginny. The couple are high school sweethearts who found their connection due to a devastating accident and have been married for several years. Ginny is a lovable pack rat whose gardening business is beginning to flourish, while Jon is a typical type-A advertising executive, driven and focused on Freddi, a woman outside of their marriage. The novel frames an intense day when Jon must decide whether to abandon his fledgling af...more So Long at the Fair is the story of pivotal day in the Life of Jon and Ginny. The couple are high school sweethearts who found their connection due to a devastating accident and have been married for several years. Ginny is a lovable pack rat whose gardening business is beginning to flourish, while Jon is a typical type-A advertising executive, driven and focused on Freddi, a woman outside of their marriage. The novel frames an intense day when Jon must decide whether to abandon his fledgling affair, or to continue it and leave Ginny behind. Sprinkled throughout this story is the story of Bud and Marie, Jon's parents, whose actions are told in flashback. Bud and Marie's actions have had repercussions that have impacted Jon and Ginny's life, and brought them where they are today. As the couple spends the day separated by an argument, both examine the relationship and and remember the events that ultimately brought them together. In between we learn of Freddi's attempts to dissuade a persistent admirer who doesn't seem to know when to let go, and Ginny's decision to do business with a man who has a shadowy connection to her past.

This book had a strange effect on me. I found the tenuous construction of the plot to be very difficult to keep track of. Many times it was confusing as to when in the specific time period action was taking place, or who the characters were in relation to one another. This was particularly so in the flashback portions of the book. The modern sections were more easily construed, but those sections had their difficulties as well. In particular, the way the back story was woven together was a little annoying. Instead of getting the full story at one time, the author chose to distribute the information in several bits, alternating between Jon and Ginny. Many of the secondary characters seemed to be underdeveloped and hazy as well, and I found most of the characters in this book to be very unlikable, especially Freddi. She seemed to have quite an attitude of self-importance, and her personality teetered between smugness and insecurity for most of the book. The male characters too were unsatisfying, as I found them to be unfeeling and somewhat uncommunicative. The only character that I felt any affinity for was Ginny; she seemed to be more expressive and her motives were more realistic. It is possible that the instances of infidelity were what turned me off in this book, but I rather think it was the way the situation was portrayed and the callousness of the characters that bothered me. Despite all this, I found that the story moved along with a great amount of force and direction, and I was compelled to keep reading. The author did a good job of maintaining the tension and urgency of the story despite the structural and character flaws. The ending was somewhat of a slow deflation of the story, and I think in some ways it worked, but in others it ways was anticlimactic. I am of two minds about the ending of this book because it gives the reader the opportunity to draw their own conclusions as to what happens next, but at the same time, after following the events leading up to the moment, it seems a bit of a cop-out for the resolution to be withheld.

All in all I found this book to be one I liked very much, and at the same time not at all. There was a lot going on structurally that I felt could have been done more evenly and efficiently, but at the same time there was a great driving force behind the narrative that kept me focused on the important elements of the story. I found that immediately after finishing the book I felt cold towards it, yet after a few days of thinking and digesting it, I liked it more. I would recommend this book with one caveat: this book needs to be appreciated as a whole, because the individual parts can be dissatisfying on their own. (less)

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11/24/08

Arbkdbarb rated it:

Two stories intertwined kept me a bit confused. It took me awhile to figure out what the connection was and even then I wasn't sure what the past really had to do with the current situation. However, I did get into the love triangle story (Jon, Ginny and Freddie), but I didn't understand the outcome at all! Pretty disappointing.

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09/28/08

Amy (amyb2332) rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, misc--genres

Read in October, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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12/04/08

Rhonda rated it:

bookshelves: read-in-2008

While the author had a good idea for a story, this book could have been told in 50 pages and not the 240+ that it was. The main plot line took place in ONE day, but there was so much "unnecessary" flashback and background information that I lost interest in all of that and only cared about the main story.

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12/16/08

Barbara rated it:

Read in December, 2008

At the end, I guess I thought the story was pretty good. However, I had to keep paging back to see how the characters all connected. I sometimes like a story within a story but this one was somewhat confusing for me after awhile.

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12/07/08

Evalyn rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Although I remember liking Drowning Ruth written by this same author, I didn't care for So Long At The Fair very much. One of the main reasons was the unsympathetic characters. Most of them were unlikable because they did whatever they wanted with little thought to others. The writing was just as good as in her previous book but she makes it difficult to care about the characters.

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03/03/09

Veralene rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Same author as Drowning Ruth, which I thought I had read and listed but apparently not. This book is poignant, heartbreaking, and suspenseful at times but overall is soap-operish.

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03/17/09

Jessica rated it:

Read in April, 2009

I was really disappointed with this book. I really liked her previous books, Drowning Ruth and All is Vanity, so I was looking forward to this one too. There are a few intertwined stories of the past and present that work together in this book, but you never really get the whole of any one story which is frustrating. At the end there was some implied closure, but a lot of loose ends. Very disappointed.

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09/27/08

Michelle rated it:

Read in September, 2008

Having just finished this novel, I admit to feeling frustrated. Schwarz's writing is pretty to read, which made the book pleasant. However, the characters reflected every cliche possible: the long-suffering and clueless wife, the equally long-suffering and clueless mistress, the cad, and long-suffering, shrewish woman who's desire for revenge ruins lives. I think that Marie's character could have been the most interesting, but she never was fully developed, nor was her quest to get even with...more

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12/29/08

Mindy rated it:

This was good, but not great. It all takes place in one day. I liked the "layered" story....an old story woven in with the new one.

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01/09/09

Debbie rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I felt very unresolved after I finished it. The middle was ok but the ending sucked!

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09/04/08

Marie rated it:

bookshelves: finished

Do you ever have really high expectations and feel frustrated that a book doesn't meet them? Do you ever feel like an author with high expectations put on them feels like they have to make their work complicated in order to catch people's attention. [return][return]That's how I felt about this book. I really wanted to like it and struggled through the whole book. But I found the characters hard to like and the storyline difficult to follow. I like mystery in the storyline and even a little heads...more

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07/31/08

Susan rated it:

Read in August, 2008

What Christina Schwarz does in this book that I appreciated the most was zero in on the thoughts and motivations of her characters . . . not just one, but several of them. I enjoyed the psychological scrutiny she gives the people who populate this novel and find them fascinating and real. For example, you have a married couple who has had a disagreement about what they want to do on a weekend day~~this doesn't sound intriguing, but when you're privy to each of their thoughts and petty grievanc...more

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quotes from this book

"She and Jon had been startled and a little frighented by his misery. What happened when you were married, she realized, was that, although you began as two independent people, you eventually grew in certain ways to accommodate your partner's weaknesses and let other parts of you atrophy in deference to his strengths. It was a fine system as long as it endured, but if you extricated yourself from it you couldn't help but be, a least for a time, deformed." More quotes...