With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, thirteen-year-old Henry—lonely...
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May 18, 2011
Barbara
rated it: 
I must comment that early in my reading of this book, I was contemplating that it would be deserving of a 3 star rating. I certainly was in error, because as I progressed the story became richer and more nuanced. When finally I reached the denouement I realized that I held in my hands a beautiful, evocative gem, which had brought me to tears.
Labor Day is the tale of a fourteen year old boy, Henry, who lives in isolation with his long-divorced, emotionally fragile mother. On one of th More...
Labor Day is the tale of a fourteen year old boy, Henry, who lives in isolation with his long-divorced, emotionally fragile mother. On one of th More...
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Dec 08, 2009
Jackie
rated it: 
This is only a bound manuscript at this point, but I believe it's scheduled for late summer 2009 publication.
I haven't read anything by Maynard before, but she's certainly on my list of authors to read more of now. This story, which I easily devoured in a lazy day at home, is touching on so many levels. Told through the eyes of a 13 year old boy, it's the story of five days when an escaped criminal comes to live with him and his mom, changing their lives forever. Henry feels resp More...
I haven't read anything by Maynard before, but she's certainly on my list of authors to read more of now. This story, which I easily devoured in a lazy day at home, is touching on so many levels. Told through the eyes of a 13 year old boy, it's the story of five days when an escaped criminal comes to live with him and his mom, changing their lives forever. Henry feels resp More...
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Dec 08, 2009
Sarah
rated it: 
Well written and mildly satisfying, Labor Day is a very quick read. In fact, I read it just this afternoon after hiking. A suspicious stranger, who turns out to be an escaped prisoner, approaches a young boy and his mother for a ride while they're out shopping. They take him in, he offers to help around the house, and interesting bonds form. The mother is your standard borderline character, suffering from depression and desiring isolation. Her son is a typical teenage product of divorce, st
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Dec 08, 2009
Rhonda
rated it:
Thirteen-year old Henry and his divorced mother take a RARE trip to the mall the Friday before Labor Day. While there, a bleeding man approaches Henry and asks to come home with him. Strangely, his mother agrees...
This may be the answer Henry has hoped for...someone to bring her mother out of her funk. But this man brings with him some secrets...which eventually teach Henry about friendship, jealousy, betrayal, the importance of others in your life, and that real love is worth waiting f More...
This may be the answer Henry has hoped for...someone to bring her mother out of her funk. But this man brings with him some secrets...which eventually teach Henry about friendship, jealousy, betrayal, the importance of others in your life, and that real love is worth waiting f More...
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Dec 08, 2009
Will
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Henry is a 13-year-old living with his pet hamster, Joe, and his agoraphobic, damaged mother at the end of a cul-de-sac in Holton Mills, New Hampshire. He sees his father on Saturday nights for unappetizing outings to Friendly’s with dad’s new family. Henry is small, unathletic and on the lower steps of the social ladder at school. But changes are afoot. His body is changing in obvious ways and his interests are beginning to point, sometimes embarrassingly so, toward girls. Life takes a turn on
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Dec 08, 2009
Kasa
rated it:
There is a metaphor at the heart of this book, that of the creation of an upper crust for a peach pie and the difficulties encountered when the hands are shaky and the weather is humid. It must be handled delicately and involves a little magic. Such magic is present when a stranger who also happens to be an escaped convict lands in the house of a 13 year old self-described "loser" and his agoraphobic mother, both of whom could use a great deal of help. If the setup sounds a little too
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Dec 08, 2009
Mary
rated it:
I started reading this book at 10 PM and I just could not put it down.
Labor Day is such a family day. It is idylic in American life; it is the last breath of that carefree Summer. Except there is nothing carefree about Henry and his family and Labor Day changes their lives.
A sad adolescent boy and his depressed mother meet a convict at the discount store and take him home with them. What happens in the next few days makes for a great story. These characters are real and the rea More...
Labor Day is such a family day. It is idylic in American life; it is the last breath of that carefree Summer. Except there is nothing carefree about Henry and his family and Labor Day changes their lives.
A sad adolescent boy and his depressed mother meet a convict at the discount store and take him home with them. What happens in the next few days makes for a great story. These characters are real and the rea More...
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Dec 21, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
I love books that take place over a small time period. Throw in a small cast and what could be a boring book, is a story I'll really enjoy! This book takes place over Labor Day weekend, so timeline, check. A prison escapee talks his way into a single mother and son's house and sort of holds them captive all weekend, but not really. The mother is crazy, which contributes to the story a lot. But the story was told from the son's point of view, which was interesting. He knows there is something not
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Jul 25, 2011
Pam
rated it:
http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2011/...
There isn’t much to do in Holton Mills, New Hampshire, especially for thirteen-year-old Henry. He lives with mis mom who has a strange history to go along with her current habit of running scared from the outdoors. Though he occasionally gets out of the house for school, as Labor Day weekend dawns, he admits to feeling like the summer has been a bit long. Relying on his talkative, albeit, generally anti-social mother and a hamster for compan More...
There isn’t much to do in Holton Mills, New Hampshire, especially for thirteen-year-old Henry. He lives with mis mom who has a strange history to go along with her current habit of running scared from the outdoors. Though he occasionally gets out of the house for school, as Labor Day weekend dawns, he admits to feeling like the summer has been a bit long. Relying on his talkative, albeit, generally anti-social mother and a hamster for compan More...
Jan 28, 2011
Steven
rated it:
Joyce Maynard's Labor Day is a seriously flawed book, a disappointment in so many ways. But...
The book is written from the viewpoint of a 13 year old boy except for the last 30 pages. She manages to write that quite convincingly. There seemed to be honesty in the emotions expressed. Some of the characters are three dimensional, though most aren't.
So what are the flaws. Frank is a saint, not a bad bone in his body. Everybody has a few bad bones. The timing is far too con More...
The book is written from the viewpoint of a 13 year old boy except for the last 30 pages. She manages to write that quite convincingly. There seemed to be honesty in the emotions expressed. Some of the characters are three dimensional, though most aren't.
So what are the flaws. Frank is a saint, not a bad bone in his body. Everybody has a few bad bones. The timing is far too con More...
Jan 21, 2011
Jaime
rated it:
I had mixed feelings about this book. In one way, it’s a gentle story about love and a teenaged boy who has had to be the adult for way too long. On the other hand, it feels a little contrived. A woman and her son bring into their home a strange man without even a flicker of worry or doubt or suspicion? Even before they find out he’s an escaped convict, you’d expect the situation to raise some flags. But, if you can accept the premise, the story of their Labor Day weekend does its job to pull
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Nov 02, 2010
Judith
rated it: 
Joyce Maynard caught my interest years ago with the publication of her memoir about her life with J.D. Salinger. At the time she was widely vilified for exposing an intimate picture of an author who is practically a national treasure. I found that book fascinating, well-written and I had no problem with her sharing her story with the world. By the time I finished that book I had more respect for Maynard than for Salinger.
Labor Day is my first experience with her fiction and I fo More...
Labor Day is my first experience with her fiction and I fo More...
Jul 27, 2010
Jennifer
rated it:
From My Blog...
Thirteen-year-old Henry and his mother Adele meet Frank Chambers in Pricemart and bring him back to their home, beginning 6 days that change the course of several lives in the novel Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. Henry narrates the story giving the reader insights into his life prior to meeting Frank, the life changing six days of Labor Day weekend of his 13th year and then Henry jumps forward in time eventually bringing the reader to present day, two decades later with More...
Thirteen-year-old Henry and his mother Adele meet Frank Chambers in Pricemart and bring him back to their home, beginning 6 days that change the course of several lives in the novel Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. Henry narrates the story giving the reader insights into his life prior to meeting Frank, the life changing six days of Labor Day weekend of his 13th year and then Henry jumps forward in time eventually bringing the reader to present day, two decades later with More...
Apr 24, 2010
Joan
rated it:
Maynard has a way of emotionally impacting the reader that is unique. At first, in this story where the narrator is a 13 year old boy, I had trouble accepting that a boy of that age would have this amount of sensitivity, but then I realized that the story was being told in retrospect. The novel is about 6 days preceding the Labor Day weekend. The narrator and his mother, who suffers from depression which followed a stillbirth and repeated miscarriages, and then a divorce, are approached in a sto
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Feb 20, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
I've really enjoyed Maynard's nonfiction--I've reread the essays in "Domestic Affairs" a number of times--but her fictional books have been less compelling for me. Good reads, but always with a character or situation that irritated me enough to reduce enjoyment.
There was something about "Labor Day," however, that wouldn't let me go. On the face of it, it's another oddball story--a mentally unstable mother, an escaped prisoner, and a kid whose life shows signs of g More...
There was something about "Labor Day," however, that wouldn't let me go. On the face of it, it's another oddball story--a mentally unstable mother, an escaped prisoner, and a kid whose life shows signs of g More...
Jan 03, 2010
Abigail
rated it:
I read this book in a few days. I couldn't put it down. I found the story line very interesting, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen. The story is about what happened to a 13 year old boy named Henry during labor day weekend. The book is narrated by him when he is younger and as an adult.
Henry is a misfit who lives with his depressed and slightly mentally unstable mother. On a rare shopping trip to a store, they are approached by an injured man (a prison escapee) who talks t More...
Henry is a misfit who lives with his depressed and slightly mentally unstable mother. On a rare shopping trip to a store, they are approached by an injured man (a prison escapee) who talks t More...
Jul 30, 2009
Anderson's Bookshops
rated it:
Joe rated it: 5 stars
Read in June, 2009
This is the best novel I've read since The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and expect it will be the best I'll read this year. Labor Day focuses on six days around the end-of-summer holiday and similarly marks transition as the 13-year-old narrator feels himself growing up. He tells the story of the unlikely -- but completely believable -- relationship that develops as he and his mother shelter the prison escapee. The book explores the transform More...
Read in June, 2009
This is the best novel I've read since The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and expect it will be the best I'll read this year. Labor Day focuses on six days around the end-of-summer holiday and similarly marks transition as the 13-year-old narrator feels himself growing up. He tells the story of the unlikely -- but completely believable -- relationship that develops as he and his mother shelter the prison escapee. The book explores the transform More...
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Apr 26, 2011
Mickey
rated it:
I thought this was a young adult novel, but it was really a novel about a young adult. There is a big difference in these two things. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why any adult would want to read (basically) an adult novel written from the perspective of a very young teenager. This story of this family couldn't be told from any other perspective if the reader wants to understand the fundamental details, why things happen the way they do, etc. Henry is the son of Adele, a hermit o
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Apr 21, 2011
Robyn
rated it:
The concept is pretty straightforward: over a Labor Day weekend, an escaped convict comes across a single (damaged) mother and her young teenaged boy, and "kidnaps" them. The book is about what unfolds over that weekend. I started off not being convinced by the story. The set up and the writing was a little on the precious side: not convincing as the voice of a 13 year old boy, but seeming more like a writer trying to impersonate a 13 year old boy. The narrative also dragged about
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May 31, 2011
Carol
rated it:
This was another "I can't put it down" book for me! After seeing the high ratings it was getting on Amazon and Goodreads, I was really looking forward to this book. However, the opening pages did not impress me - such a simplistic style of writing. I actually looked it up to see if I was reading a book from the Young Adults section. Soon, I realized, it was because of the narrator being thirteen years old. Duh! After having discovered this, I quickly became very engrossed in the story
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Aug 04, 2009
Laurel-Rain
rated it:
From the very beginning of “Labor Day,” the reader is immersed in the mind, emotions and everyday life of a thirteen-year-old boy during one memorable Labor Day weekend. All told from the first-person narrator Henry.
Living in a small New Hampshire town, Henry is miserably aware of his limitations and those of his family members—from his mother, who is almost an agoraphobic, to his father whose new family with his new wife and new kids has no idea how to relate to him. Their stilted More...
Living in a small New Hampshire town, Henry is miserably aware of his limitations and those of his family members—from his mother, who is almost an agoraphobic, to his father whose new family with his new wife and new kids has no idea how to relate to him. Their stilted More...
Jul 14, 2010
Andrea
rated it:
THE STORY IS ABOUT A DEEPLY DEPRESSED MOTHER RAISING HER 11 YEAR OLD SON. THE ACTION TAKES PLACE OVER THE LONG LABOR DAY WEEKEND - IN THIS CASE IT WAS 5 DAYS. HENRY LIVES WITH HIS MOTHER AND GOES TO DINNER WITH HIS DAD AND NEW FAMILY ON SUNDAY EVENINGS.
HIS MOTHER, ADELE NEVER GOES OUT - SHE SENDS HENRY FOR MOST EVERYTHING. BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS, ADELE GOES TO A DEPARTMENT STORE WITH HENRY TO BUY HIM NEW SCHOOL PANTS. DURING THIS TRIP, A MAN THAT HAS A OBVIOUS HEAD WOUND, ASKES H More...
HIS MOTHER, ADELE NEVER GOES OUT - SHE SENDS HENRY FOR MOST EVERYTHING. BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS, ADELE GOES TO A DEPARTMENT STORE WITH HENRY TO BUY HIM NEW SCHOOL PANTS. DURING THIS TRIP, A MAN THAT HAS A OBVIOUS HEAD WOUND, ASKES H More...
May 18, 2011
Cynthia
rated it:
Fiction like this is what makes people want to read biography.
This is a real "paint by numbers" novel, a book that has all the requisite plot points and the required story arc and "challenging situation" that the characters have to resolve. It has integrity, but only in the sense that the voice and tone are pretty consistent from beginning to end.
But this is a book with no heart or soul or honesty. It's contrived. It's full of Important Symbolism. It seems like so More...
This is a real "paint by numbers" novel, a book that has all the requisite plot points and the required story arc and "challenging situation" that the characters have to resolve. It has integrity, but only in the sense that the voice and tone are pretty consistent from beginning to end.
But this is a book with no heart or soul or honesty. It's contrived. It's full of Important Symbolism. It seems like so More...
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Oct 03, 2011
Janneke
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Oorspronkelijke titel Labor Day
Vertaald door Dirk-Jan Arensman
'Een man viel uit het raam op de tweede verdieping en vluchtte rennend een discountsupermarkt in. Een vrouw reed met hem naar huis. Het waren twee mensen die de wereld niet konden trekken, die met elkaar een wereld opbouwden, tussen die te dunne muren van ons oude gele huis. Ze hielden zich voor de duur van minder dan zes dagen aan elkaar vast, alsof hun leven ervan afhing' zo beschrijft Henry meer dan achttien jaar lat More...
Vertaald door Dirk-Jan Arensman
'Een man viel uit het raam op de tweede verdieping en vluchtte rennend een discountsupermarkt in. Een vrouw reed met hem naar huis. Het waren twee mensen die de wereld niet konden trekken, die met elkaar een wereld opbouwden, tussen die te dunne muren van ons oude gele huis. Ze hielden zich voor de duur van minder dan zes dagen aan elkaar vast, alsof hun leven ervan afhing' zo beschrijft Henry meer dan achttien jaar lat More...
Aug 05, 2011
It's Labor Day weekend in the small town of Holton Mills, NH. Thirteen-year-old Henry lives a fairly solitary existence with his divorced mother, Adele, a former dancer who has retreated further and further into herself over the years. Henry knows his mother is unhappy and unlike other mothers (she usually waits in the car and sends Henry to do her errands, she eschews friends and a job) but refuses to tear her down to his father and stepmother.
And one day everything changes. While at a store, More...
And one day everything changes. While at a store, More...
Aug 04, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
For Henry, the 13-year-old at the center of “Labor Day,” his life and his relationship with his mother — and his peers — is irrevocably changed over the course of the long weekend. The narration is from his point of view, but as an adult looking back.
Henry lives with his mother, Adele, who doesn’t go out much since the divorce. Not much as in barely ever. But at the start of Labor Day weekend, Henry and Adele have to go back-to-school shopping, and at the discount score, they’re targeted b More...
Henry lives with his mother, Adele, who doesn’t go out much since the divorce. Not much as in barely ever. But at the start of Labor Day weekend, Henry and Adele have to go back-to-school shopping, and at the discount score, they’re targeted b More...
Sep 28, 2010
Tanya
rated it:
While the story took place over six days, it almost felt longer because so much happened in the course of that short week. I hadn't ever really read a book that had the perspective of a boy on the verge of adolescence as the narrator - I found it interesting to deal with emotions and circumstances from his point of view.
The story makes me believe in true love and destiny--that a certain path must be followed to lead you exactly where you are supposed to be--though there may be si More...
The story makes me believe in true love and destiny--that a certain path must be followed to lead you exactly where you are supposed to be--though there may be si More...
Aug 02, 2010
Ti
rated it:
The Short of It:
This is a story about love, loss and the struggle to find yourself. It’s proof that in this great big world, it is possible to find happiness and a place to call home.
The Rest of It:
Henry is thirteen-years-old and a bit of a recluse. As the other boys in the neighborhood spend their time outside, Henry spends his time indoors, watching TV and taking care of his divorced mother, Adele. Their meals consist of canned soup and quiet conversation. T More...
This is a story about love, loss and the struggle to find yourself. It’s proof that in this great big world, it is possible to find happiness and a place to call home.
The Rest of It:
Henry is thirteen-years-old and a bit of a recluse. As the other boys in the neighborhood spend their time outside, Henry spends his time indoors, watching TV and taking care of his divorced mother, Adele. Their meals consist of canned soup and quiet conversation. T More...
Jul 10, 2010
Erin
rated it:
Just beautiful. Beautifully written, beautifully characterized, beautifully set. Told in first person by a 13-year old Henry over a Labor Day weekend in the 80s, the story is about an awkward pre-teen and his fragile slightly agoraphobic mother who go out to the Pricemart before Labor Day and encounter a bleeding escaped con who asks for their help--to hide him away for a few days. What Henry's mother Adele sees in this Frank that makes her say yes is the basis for a wonderful story about lov
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Oct 03, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Maynard has crafted a tender and highly readable coming-of-age tale with an endearing young protagonist. Henry, whose adolescent experiences with love, loss, and crushed expectations brought to mind Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel Atonement, charmed the critics. But these same reviewers also pointed out elements of the preposterous, including Adele's easy acceptance of a bleeding stranger when most mothers would have run for the authorities. Additionally, they felt Adele's risky behavior jarred wit
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