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Jan 21, 2011

Teresa rated it:

As I neared the end, I found that the pace of my reading had slowed down; I didn't want the book to end; I didn't want to leave these characters or this writing. Phillips writes like a dream, as the expression goes.

I thought the chapters 'narrated' by Termite (a boy who can't talk or walk) especially fine. At first, I thought of Benjy in "The Sound and the Fury," but make no mistake about it, Termite is Phillips' own character and needs no comparison to any other. At t More...

16 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 25, 2011

Susan rated it:

I did it!!! It only took me a month to get through it, but I finished! I know, I should heed my own advice and should have put it down by page 50. But out of respect for my book group, I wanted to finish this to see if my opinion of it might change, post-book group discussion. And while I have a greater appreciation for the book, I still felt it was too slow. Just not my cup of tea, I guess. The Termite chapters kind of drove me crazy -- too much impressionism, and I'm not sure I really " More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

James rated it:

What's going on here? Even though the reader can tell he's in the hands of a gifted novelist, especially if he has previous Jayne Anne Phillips experience, he might ask this question before allowimg himself to sink into her narrative, confident she'll get him to the end safely and satisfactorily. And she does.

Lark and Termite is a novel told in 2 narrative threads. There's a thread beginning July 26, 1950 in which a U. S. Army soldier fighting in Korea, his unit retreating before More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2010

Charlie rated it:

I had to abandoned this book. After about 60 pages, I just couldn't keep going. The poetic flow of the story was so abstract that I was left in a dreamy haze often wondering what exactly was going on. I don't mind poetry style prose as long as they are grounded in something concrete to give it a real place in time. A scene here or there, sure I'll go along with, but page after page and character after character all thinking and talking in abstract thoughts and images just worked to totally a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

alana rated it:

I read this for a book club that never ended up meeting. So I SHOULD be frustrated that I read it for nothing. But. I am not. Because if I had not been reading it for a book club, I likely would have thrown it against a wall 30 pages in and said "i give up! shifting perspectives, a mentally challenged youth, and endless scenes in a korean tunnel. who cares!?"

but instead, i powered forward, thinking if i didn't finish it, book club would mock me. and i am glad i did. becaus More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Maria rated it:

this is a haunting, beautiful book. i wasn't sold on the plot when i read the reviews: it follows the stories of a soldier in Korea, his disabled young son back in the States, the little boy's half-sister, and their aunt. the "action" of the novel occurs within a 2 day span (if you don't count a 9 year jump between the worlds of the soldier and his son), but it's incredible how much happens in that time. phillips is an extraordinary writer, and the sensory images she evokes create a More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2010

Sara added it

Lark and Termite takes place over the course of six days in 1959 in a sleepy West Virginia Town, where the teenager Lark and her disabled younger brother Termite prepare for a storm that will wash away the lives they thought they knew. Interwoven with (and almost superimposed over) this story are the six final days of Corporal Robert Leavitt, Termite s father, wounded and hiding in a South Korean railway tunnel in 1950. The book is told in turns by Robert, Lark, Termite, and the children s aun More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2009

J.C. rated it:

Not My Cup of Tea; But Recommended For Some

Let me start by saying that this is one of those times when I dislike assigning star ratings to reviews. That being said, and this being a non-professional, completely consumer review, I had to give it two stars. This book, as the title of this review suggests, was not my cup of tea; however, I would not encourage people to shy away from this book. In fact, once it is published and released, I intend to recommend it to my mother.

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Gretchen rated it:

This book was well above average, but not stellar. It is a jigsaw puzzle. Throughout pieces are given and the reader needs to fit them in. Suspense is driven by lack of information. The characters are well developed. The most intriguing challenge Phillips took on was revealing a special needs child's mind. Termite is minimally hydrocephalic, visually impaired, has spina bifida, and other problems. He does, however, have extremely acute hearing, and acute sense of smell to a lesser extent. More...

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Feb 27, 2011

Eri rated it:

Set in the time just past the Korean Conflict, this is a tender story of a family with secrets and deep, passionate loves. Many reviewers have said the prose is "luminous" and I have to agree. There is so much dark in this book that the poetry of the writing really lifts it out of the ordinary. It's told in several voices. Termite, who is mute, nearly blind and immobilized--even Termite's voice is heard and Phillips conveys his voice as if it were a mosaic of sound. Really good and br More...

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Feb 27, 2011

switterbug (Betsey) rated it:

A promising start. It didn't fully engage me, but it pre-engaged me. Enough to trudge on with Corporal Robert Leavitt through Korean villages, as memories of his pregnant wife, Lola, flooded him. There were even flavors of Tim O'Brien and Mailer--a hint, a possibility, a soft lure.

As Leavitt advanced with the story, it began to get soggy. And I am not referring to the terrain in Korea. Rather than some critics' accolades describing the novel as "elegant and mystical," I ex More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Girls Gone Reading added it

I must begin by saying that Lark and Termite is beautifully written, almost painfully beautiful. Jayne Anne Phillips is a master of words, and certain lines stopped me in my tracks and forced me to take notice. Here is just one example:

“He moves forward, glimpsing his jumbled past amid jagged vestiges of the present, all of it intermingled as though equally important and alive.”

It was lines like this that kept me reading as long as I did, but it was also one of the reasons th More...

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Mar 17, 2010

Jude rated it:

This is the kind of book in which I tend to completely immerse myself. I was moved on so many levels. Two stories run side by side - a corporal trapped in a tunnel in Korea, and the story of Lark, a young girl coming of age, taking care of her half-brother, the corporal's son, in a West Virginia town way past its hey day. Termite is special with disabilities but also with the acute ability to see and hear in a different way. As the reader enters the hearts and minds of each character it is oh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2009

Trena rated it:

This was on the library's new book shelf and had endorsement quotes from interesting contemporary authors (though the Junot Diaz one gave me pause, considering how I felt about the excessive hipsterness of Oscar Wao) so I picked it up. Ultimately, the author tried to take on too much and ended up with a mediocre result.

Challenging elements: period piece set in the 50s, dying man narrative, profoundly autistic (or otherwise locked in) character with first person passages, and the su More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2009

Mitzi rated it:

This is the story of Lark and Termite, and the mystery of what happened to their mother and respective fathers. Lark is 17 and on the verge of finding her place in the world. Termite is her half-brother who can't walk, doesn't really talk, and can't see well. Phillips lets us peek into his consiousnous however and we realize he may see and know more than most. Lark takes care of her brother with a tenderness and understanding that is at once tender and hoepeful. They both live with their au More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 26, 2009

Matt rated it:

A pretty awesome book, all told... There's an awful lot of beautiful writing in this book, and its not merely limited to those sections that capture the POV of Termite, who is sort of the Benjy or this books attempt to rewrite Sound and the Fury. I'm not sure it's as worked out as S and F, which is fine by me-- the drifting prose style seems less to change from character to character than to be more or less present-- but the writing is frightfully pretty, and in some cases reminded me as much of More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Caley rated it:

This book had such a promising beginning and middle that I was let down by the dullness of its climax and final resolution. I loved the opening scenes; the war segments detailing America's involvement in Korea had a Tim O'Brien feel to them and the sections of the novel dedicated to Termite's "voice" were compelling and gentle. I was very involved at several points while reading and even gasped out loud a few times. Phillips certainly has the ability to write eloquently on several diff More...

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Jan 03, 2010

Diana rated it:

I liked the structure of this book, the way the story evolves in successive tellings by Termite's father, Corp. Robert Leavitt, in Korea in 1950, and by young Lark, in 1959, as well as by Lark's aunt, Nonie, Termite himself, and finally Lark and Termite's mother, Lola. It's a complicated family story that Lark only unravels at the end.
But despite the period details, the strongly drawn characters and the evocative atmosphere, the story didn't really get going for me until about two thirds More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2009

Jo rated it:

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

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Feb 03, 2011

Glorialaihuang rated it:

I thought this was a beautifully written book. Phillips has a unique mastery of the English language. Her style has been called Faulkner-esque, which surprised me because I'm not a big fan of Faulkner, but I liked her. The story switches between several points of view, and between multiple time periods/places - primarily between the massacre at No Gun Ri during the Korean war and a family raising two children (including a severely handicapped child) in West Virginia. Phillips deftly weaves t More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Mary rated it:

A Sleeper

This story is told in multiple points-of-view: an American soldier fighting in the Korean war in 1950; his nine year old mentally/physically challenged son, the boy's teenaged half-sister who cares for him, and their aunt, in Virginia in 1959. I think of it as having 2 time dimensions, but related. Many of the narrations are in stream-of-consciousness method, not poetry as someone else suggested.

As the story unfolds, there are parallels that link the soldier and More...

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Jul 30, 2010

Mr. Woodnal rated it:

This book was one of the most boring books I've ever completed. I placed it on my "to read" shelf after it was shortlisted for last year's National Book Award and a few others (I think it was even on the list for the Pulitzer). I should have taken heed that it didn't win anything.

The story jumps between the same few days nearly a decade apart, the early years which focus on the death of Termite's father in the Korean War and the latter focusing on Lark and Termite (half-s More...

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Jul 01, 2011

Barbara rated it:

If you've ever lived with anyone who is differently abled like Termite, then you will have strong feelings about this book. What one person can sense across miles, continents and time is not something others can necessarily understand. But the bonds of love move these characters beyond normal limitations.

Lark is going to understand herself, her brother, her aunt, her mother and the men in her mother's life as she seeks to define her future. What unfolds as the characters tell thei More...

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Jun 27, 2009

Nancy rated it:

I had seen a couple of favorable reviews of this book, then saw it at the library last week. This book, like so many others I've read lately it seems, is written from the viewpoint of multiple narrators. At first, I didn't like that, skimming through the characters that I did not like as much or was not very interested in. But in the end, the author's use of language and dialogue won me over. I had not known of Jayne Anne Phillips before, but apparently she is somewhat reknown, and I may loo More...

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Feb 16, 2009

Susan rated it:

First I admired the structure of this book, told from five points of view on four different dates, separated by nine years. That being said, Lark and Termite is a brilliant creation and I believe will receive much praise. In 1950 Corporal Leavitt is fighting in the early days of the Korean War. Fast forward nine years and we see what's happened as a result of the love affair he had with Lola, Lark and Termite's mother. There were echoes of Empire Falls in certain relationships I thought, but More...

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Mar 02, 2010

Lisa rated it:

I liked this book okay, although I don't think I share the exuberance of most reviews I've read. The book moves back and forth by chapter from the past to the present. One chapter, you are in Korea with the father of Termite; next chapter you might be in the mother's life; sometimes you are with Lark and Termite, Lark being an older girl who takes care of her disabled brother, Termite. This kind of jumping around isn't my favorite modality, so that is part of what I wasn't too excited about. Als More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2010

Maggie rated it:

I have this feeling that "beautifully written" really means that I can't understand it without the aid of a read-between-the-lines-ist.

The general story line is clear enough, but the feelings or thoughts of the characters were often expressed in some form of prose like a Joni Mitchell song. I have a sense of your mood here, but what? What did you just say?

There's the mood about how everyone loves Termite so much, but why, really? Tell me so I get it. I d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Gail rated it:

This is a wonderful book, and VERY close to receiving 5 stars. There were just a couple of things that bothered me enough to drop it down to 4 (if only there were a 4.75 button!). More on those in a moment...

First, the good stuff: I love the rotating points of view and hearing about things from different characters' perspectives. And one of these POVs is that of a severely developmentally disabled boy. I haven't seen this pulled off quite the same way. I thought, for the most p More...

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Oct 21, 2009

Ann rated it:

I loved it, but am discovering through it some inkling of the way what I love in stories works. And that's a bit troubling. The most gorgeously arresting portions of this work, for me, are perhaps the ones that strip out a certain layer of experience-in-time most precisely. That is, they are highly fabricated . . . and this poses the question then of what is driving the fabricating urge. Why this layer and not another? Why is what is left out left out? Finally then, why do we make the stories we More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 31, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Lark and Termite has been on my reading list for a long time, and I was glad to finally get around to it. I've checked it out from the library several times, even with multiple renewals, but it just kept getting bumped. So now that I have read it, I just feel sort of unimpressed. I wanted to like it because it was recommended by my mom and sister, and I wanted to like it because the characters were interesting and the story was different . . . but then the last 50 pages or so just seemed so f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)