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63rd out of 73 books
—
967 voters
Songs in Ordinary Time
Songs in Ordinary Time is set in the summer of 1960 - the last of quiet times and America's innocence. It centers on Marie Fermoyle, a strong but vulnerable woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for the dangerous con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice, seventeen - involved with a troubled young priest; Norm, sixteen - hotheaded an...more
Paperback, 740 pages
Published
August 1st 1996
by Penguin Books
(first published 1995)
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This is about the time I quit reading Oprah's bookclub books. I want to slash my own wrists after reading most of them. I mean a steady diet of tragedy is just too much.
Oh, my. I absolutely detested this book; I finished merely because I HAD to get finished with it so that I could put it away. Morris has created a world in which no one is free of some warping or embittering experience except the family next door to the protagonists, and they are presented in such cliched, matchstick form as to be beyond credibility--they exist merely as a balance to the pitiful main family and the characters who attach to them in an ever-widening series of cracks in the society...more
this is a long ass book. i traded a David Sedaris book that i had just finished for this one at a youth hostel while i was traveling. if i wasn't on an island in a foreign country, i probably would have held out for something better, but options (on everything) were limited. amazingly, i got through 'Songs' and didn't feel like it was a waste of my vacation time. there are over 2 dozen characters and many subplots to keep up on, so that got a bit confusing at times. some of the subplots probably...more
Songs is well written.
The characters are interesting.
The plot is believable.
The town is realistic.
And all of it is incredibly, incredibly depressing.
Not *one* single person in the entire book has a good life. Or even a reasonably happy one -- or a shot at happiness, at that. And the fact that it's well written does nothing to help the fact that it's painful to read about these pitiful little lives in this pitiful little town.
Even though it's set a decade and a half before my birth, maybe it just...more
The characters are interesting.
The plot is believable.
The town is realistic.
And all of it is incredibly, incredibly depressing.
Not *one* single person in the entire book has a good life. Or even a reasonably happy one -- or a shot at happiness, at that. And the fact that it's well written does nothing to help the fact that it's painful to read about these pitiful little lives in this pitiful little town.
Even though it's set a decade and a half before my birth, maybe it just...more
I don't usually give bad reviews; I just skip those books. And the fault here may lie in the reader, not in the book. But I found this novel simply unreadable. I only managed to get through 50 pages, but there was not one hint in those pages that the book had any message other than the world is an ugly place and people can be badly damaged. I don't need a book to tell me that. Perhaps I should have been interested in knowing what happened when the murderous con man moved in on the dysfunctional...more
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I had mixed feelings when I put down this book last night after a long 2-week read. It was frusterating yet realistic in that many of the characters were angry, constantly fighting, and rarely able to catch a break. I longed for the Fermoyle family to end the novel at some sort of peace, but I felt like Alice was the only one who really achieved any sort of happiness (she also was the only one to get away from the clutches of her mother, who try as she might, only seemed to perpetuate the despai...more
*** “Songs in Ordinary Time” by Mary McGarry Morris. This overly long novel is typical Morris in that the characters are ordinary people who get themselves into trouble by constantly making wrong choices. While the characters and their situations are interesting, the problems seem to go on and on with no solutions. Too many of her characters never seem to learn from earlier mistakes. The story involves mainly the Fermoyle family in Atkinson, Vermont in the early 60’s. Marie struggles but does no...more
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The characters in this novel are facing bleak prospects, their plights hard and long... no surprise; it is an Oprah pick after all.
I hesistantly picked it up - 740 pages of bleakness is what I first thought. What can I say, I've read enough of Oprah's picks to know that sometimes the journey she's recommended I embark on will leave me with feelings of hopelessness.
But altogether it was not a bad read... there is a bit of redemption in the end but the author is true enough to the characters to n...more
I hesistantly picked it up - 740 pages of bleakness is what I first thought. What can I say, I've read enough of Oprah's picks to know that sometimes the journey she's recommended I embark on will leave me with feelings of hopelessness.
But altogether it was not a bad read... there is a bit of redemption in the end but the author is true enough to the characters to n...more
“Songs in Ordinary Time” was an Oprah Book Club pick in June 1997. Some might call it a 740-page tome. I loved every word.
In hundreds of mini-chapters, Morris takes readers to the summer of 1960 in small-town Atkinson, Vermont, where readers meet Marie Fermoyle, a divorced mother of three, along with her neighbors, her ex-in-laws, her boss, a variety of other townpeople – and, most significantly, Omar Duvall, a man without a shred of honesty.
Marie’s oldest child, daughter Alice, graduates from...more
In hundreds of mini-chapters, Morris takes readers to the summer of 1960 in small-town Atkinson, Vermont, where readers meet Marie Fermoyle, a divorced mother of three, along with her neighbors, her ex-in-laws, her boss, a variety of other townpeople – and, most significantly, Omar Duvall, a man without a shred of honesty.
Marie’s oldest child, daughter Alice, graduates from...more
Again, I'm wanting a half star. 2.5 really fits better and I will probably keep waivering between 2 and 3.
Songs in Ordinary Time is written in a lovely prose and is focused on developing characters and place. These tend to be winning qualities for me. The tale explores many inhabitants of a small Vermont town with a focus on a single mom, her drunk ex, her three kids, and the con-man who takes up residence in her life with promises of riches and, perhaps more importantly to her, stability. I got...more
Songs in Ordinary Time is written in a lovely prose and is focused on developing characters and place. These tend to be winning qualities for me. The tale explores many inhabitants of a small Vermont town with a focus on a single mom, her drunk ex, her three kids, and the con-man who takes up residence in her life with promises of riches and, perhaps more importantly to her, stability. I got...more
I really enjoyed this book. Morris crafted the book in such a way as to not only write about the family at the center of the book, the Femoyles, but so artfully included so many other characters who inhabit the small town in 1960's Vermont. I was so pleased that as I started reading the book that Morris' web pulled me into the fictional universe of Songs in Ordinary Time. Some books I read have a character or two, if I am lucky, which is not only captivating but with each word I feel I am even m...more
my rating should be more like 25. It is better than okay but a little extreme to say I liked it. I respect it but did not like it. The book is well written and I didn't notice any serious flaws. But it just didn't do anything for me. Usually I can enjoy depressing books and feel moved by them or feel better that my own life wasn't that miserable. But this did not touch me or move me or even leave me all that satisfied with my life.
Perhaps the problem is me. I wasn't feeling well when i read it a...more
Perhaps the problem is me. I wasn't feeling well when i read it a...more
I had read one other book by this author and loved it -- especially the poetic q1uality of the writing.
This one -- although rivetinng was not quite as good as the last. The topic -- a dysfunctional family and all its traumas, issues and communication (or lack of) was not quite so enticing. Nor did it lend itself to the style of writing I encountered in the first book of this author I read.
However, it is a good read -- the Fermoyle family -- all of whom seem sad, lonely and barely making it, in t...more
This one -- although rivetinng was not quite as good as the last. The topic -- a dysfunctional family and all its traumas, issues and communication (or lack of) was not quite so enticing. Nor did it lend itself to the style of writing I encountered in the first book of this author I read.
However, it is a good read -- the Fermoyle family -- all of whom seem sad, lonely and barely making it, in t...more
I actually ended up liking this book --- although it ended abruptly. It reminded me a lot of Carson McCullers or even a little Flannery O'Connor or Faulkner-like -- because it's a collection of these misfits --- the focus is on a family, but we also get glimpses of all the characters in this town. They're all so pitiful, lost, eccentric, etc. It took me a long time to read the book, however. I could only read about 25 pages a day, but I kept reading because I couldn't figure out how it would all...more
LOVED the story; or should I say stories! It was actually several stories rolled into one! I had trouble starting the book; had to read the first 15 or so pages a few times to try to grasp where it was going. I judge a book by the ending; either I say "AHHH, perfect ending!" or "AWWWW, I want it to go on & on....I don't want this story to end!" WELL... this one was neither; I was disappointed in the ending - some story lines weren't finished. I could relate to Marie, the divorced mother stru...more
What a fantastic story! I am so surprised to read all of the negative reviews here. I thought the novel was beautifully written, and I enjoyed every last word of it. It took some time to get through, but Morris held my attention for two weeks with her wonderful, in depth characters and story telling. All of the characters are tragically despondent and intricately entwined with each another, all of them constantly moving away from one another only to come to a full circle in the end.
The story fo...more
The story fo...more
First and foremost, this book was WAY too long. I am not against a long book, but 740 pages of the summer of 1960 in a small VT town where the action is either lacking, or repetitive, is excessive. What was the point? Morris could have left 200+ pages out of this book and no one would have known. The editor clearly did not do his/her job. Interesting, though universally depressing, characters, but again, why so many? It was not possible to keep up with them all, or care about them all. And a fat...more
I learned nothing, and I have no idea what Oprah was thinking. For 740 pages I stuck with this book, thinking it has to get better, there has to be something more. There isn't. Everyone ends up in the same place they started.
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This is another one of those long books that you feel like you HAVE to finish, even though there is not one likeable character or believable scenario. Maybe somehow if you keep reading, something will happen to change your mind. Sadly, this doesn't unfold. If you want a complete imersion into co-dependant anxiety and the children of alcoholcs, this is your book. Poorly edited,with unfinished story lines... Alice hates Mooney, then goes out with Mooney, then no more is said about that...even thou...more
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Beautifully written and depressing. Not something to read if you're looking for a good time.
It reminds me of a song by Patty Griffin, Poor Man's House. The stories are different but the themes are the same for me...difficult to break the cycles of life into which we're born and unbelievably sad (I suppose sadder still is that both stories are believable and are real for many people).
You can click here to listen to a cover version of the song instead and then move on to something else. Click her...more
It reminds me of a song by Patty Griffin, Poor Man's House. The stories are different but the themes are the same for me...difficult to break the cycles of life into which we're born and unbelievably sad (I suppose sadder still is that both stories are believable and are real for many people).
You can click here to listen to a cover version of the song instead and then move on to something else. Click her...more
This books reminds me of why I stopped reading Oprah's book club selections. Thank goodness I don't live in Arlington, VT, where this book is set (nominally, via references to ski boots and neighboring NY and Quebec). The town is composed of the entire class list from "ACME book of Dopes and Losers." They are all here: the Con Man, the Drunk, the Bitter Divorcee, the Pervert, the Conflicted Priest, the Seemingly Normal Person with Hidden Secrets..not a likable character in the bunch. If I weren...more
I started a book club once and this was the book that we started with. It was awful. We all struggled through it and I think only three of us finished it. There were threats not to come back and I was banned from picking any further reading material for the group. Nothing happy, nothing good, just a pathetic mess of characters making poor choices. I'm all about poor choices - I make my fair share of them. But I try to learn from them and move forward. No forward movement in this book. Everyone w...more
This book was a bit difficult to get into at first, but the author has such a way with words that I found myself reading some of her lines over and over again just to savor the artistry. I read this book about a year ago, and I still think about it regularly. The characters were so well crafted that I feel like I know them and wish I could read more about them. They were not all likeable, but they were so real. I wish I could write like this! If you prefer character driven novels over plot drive...more
A slow and arduous read for me. I really had to force myself to keep going at points.
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Not a favorite.
Every single one of these characters continually made the worst possible decisions at every opportunity. It became increasingly absurd that no one seemed to ever learn from their mistakes or to even recognize that their own poor decisions were to blame for their misery.
The con-man was written very well- he came off as sleazy and slimy as he should have been. All of the characters were written really solidly, to be honest. It was just the constant, unfailing, pick-the-worst-choice...more
Every single one of these characters continually made the worst possible decisions at every opportunity. It became increasingly absurd that no one seemed to ever learn from their mistakes or to even recognize that their own poor decisions were to blame for their misery.
The con-man was written very well- he came off as sleazy and slimy as he should have been. All of the characters were written really solidly, to be honest. It was just the constant, unfailing, pick-the-worst-choice...more
Until I saw this on a friend's "currently reading" list, I had forgotten this book existed.
i read this book when it first came out and I was in college. i remember being utterly depressed, but impressed by the writing in this heartbreaking novel.
i felt such a connection to every character. each one was written with such spirit and life, i got lost in the story as if it were happening around me.
i know that this story warrants a second read, as it took me to a place of despair and hope and frust...more
i read this book when it first came out and I was in college. i remember being utterly depressed, but impressed by the writing in this heartbreaking novel.
i felt such a connection to every character. each one was written with such spirit and life, i got lost in the story as if it were happening around me.
i know that this story warrants a second read, as it took me to a place of despair and hope and frust...more
Not many people will like or finish this book of 740 pages, but I did. Demon for punishment or my usual bent of voyeurism into life that puzzles me. Lives that seem so terribly pathetic and without hope or optimism and the few times that something good seemed to foment, it was again without a lifejacket to save it. I wanted to shake, yell at and hold a mirror up to some of the main characters as some solutions seemed so simple, but unattainable for these downtrodden and weary souls. As one can s...more
Oh, Oprah! Whatever did you see in this book? Only because of my hard-and-fast rule that I must finish reading every book I start, did I complete "Songs in Ordinary Time". Had the book been capped at, say, 300 pages it might have been, at least, moderately tolerable. At page 600, I was ready to physically hurt people . . . and there were still 152 pages to go! I'm truly at a loss for even one kind word to say about this book. The whole thing was fraught with far too many characters, many with wo...more
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Nov 11, 2012 07:32am
Dec 21, 2012 06:51pm