The Thin Place
by Kathryn Davis
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Thin Place.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 504)
Read in January, 2006
The premise of the story has been summarized by other reviewers, so I won't take the time to do it here, but I will note that I bought this book after reading a review, thinking that it was going to be more focused on the supernatural, the review leading me to think that the focus was the "thin place," the division between this world and the next that is thinner in Varennes than in other places. I envisioned ghosts or magical realism, of sorts. In short, this book was not what I expect...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2006
Reading the other reviews, I feel like a loser in that the book didn't work well for me. Somehow, I missed the genius and magic that others seemed to find and savor. The book is very fragmented, goes from the inner thoughts of animals (which to me were merely human's thoughts about what animals may be thinking versus what they are really thinking) to mundane observations about ordinary life that were rather boring and mostly unhelpful to me: An elderly 90 year old women with a son in his 60s who...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in June, 2007
This is not an easy read but it is an interesting one. I read good things about it in various places and snapped it up at a used book sale.
I started reading it while in a waiting room during the work day, which was probably not the best idea. This book is rather lyrical and especially at the beginning jumps around in perspective between the 15 or so characters which includes dogs, beavers, bees, fish and a small village of people of all ages. It is beautifully written with layers of story t...more
I started reading it while in a waiting room during the work day, which was probably not the best idea. This book is rather lyrical and especially at the beginning jumps around in perspective between the 15 or so characters which includes dogs, beavers, bees, fish and a small village of people of all ages. It is beautifully written with layers of story t...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
The Thin Place is a metaphysical story with a strong Christian flavour; I took it to be primarily about a loss of innocence. There is an abundance of characters (elderly, adult and child humans, and a range of animals); the omniscient narrator slips from one to the next of these to report their internal monologues - which all have the tone and vocabulary of a white, middle-aged, university-educated woman. This makes the characters a bit difficult to distinguish from each other, and I think that...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
this is jessa at bookslut's best book of 2006 (yes, already) so since i trust her judgement (unlike certain columnists) i had to read it (one of her best books of 2005 was francine prose's a changed man, which i liked a lot, too). jessa's review is much more articulate than anything i'll write. it's beautifully written and, like the bone people, does multiple view points (including those of dogs, a beaver and corn) very well, although there are a lot of different view points so they weren't as f...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I would have liked this book a lot better had the ending not been so contrived. It really felt like Davis just couldn't think of a way to end it. Really, there's not much of a plot in this book. It's religious but not preachy. It's one of those books that centers around a small town and you are let into the lives of many different people who eventually all come together in one way or another. The most interesting story in the book is about Mees, a little girl who discovers she has the ability to...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I am perplexed as to how to describe the plot of the rich and magical The Thin Place. It is a book whose value is in language, imagery, and form. This is not to say that it does not have a plot, but plot here is secondary to language. Set in a fictional small town, and with an ensemble cast, The Thin Place delves into universal experience and feeling to advance the stories of existence and death. Many characters--the young, the old, even animals and plants--are given voice and tell of a spiritua...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in January, 2008
I picked up this book because of the cover art - very whimsical and intriguing. The plot sounded likewise - small New England town where the membrane between the natural and supernatural world was thin. Sadly the book really focused on the rather trite public and private goings-on of a number of thoroughly unsympathetic residents. The only likeable characters were the dogs and beavers -did I mention that the book is told from everyone's point of view including the animals? The final straw was th...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Absolutely breathtaking. It's hard to provide any kind of a plot summary; the book is about a town, and all the living things in it. The perspective shifts from one person to another, to a local dog, to a beaver in the lake, to incidents in the past. The prose is so beautiful you just get sucked in, in spite of the fact that after you finish it you'd be hard-pressed to provide a distinct plot summary. It's more like vignettes about all the intertwined lives in the town, though I think some of th...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in September, 2007
This book was a top recommended book from 2006. I really liked the feel of some of it, but I didn't feel that I really got it. I felt that the book was about isolation due to lack of communication and the separation of our interior thoughts from our exterior speech. However, when I read the interview with the author in the back, the themes that she was talking about were totally different from what I took away.
There are moments of searing beauty in this book, but it didn't take me anywher...more
There are moments of searing beauty in this book, but it didn't take me anywher...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2007
This book has a magic to it (getting into the minds of animals and such) that might make it potentially off-putting to a staunch realist, but it's so well done that it feels believable, at least within the confines of its own worlds.
I won't give anything away, but it draws together threads from different lives and times in this small Northeastern town, blending the fantastic and the mundane in a way that I found completely charming.
The writing is comfortable, even. It draws you along steadi...more
I won't give anything away, but it draws together threads from different lives and times in this small Northeastern town, blending the fantastic and the mundane in a way that I found completely charming.
The writing is comfortable, even. It draws you along steadi...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
Great. If I knew better I might compare to Magical Realism or however it's termed. But anyway. This is a summer in the life of a small USA town in the not so distant future. The narrator is everywhere, but each page/chapter looks at only one aspect: some girlfriends, a weather system, dogs running away from home, human drama too of course (mostly that actually). There's also a girl who resurrects some folks. But I just like the caring attention to individual lives' details and interests. ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
I'm getting closer on the quirky but good front...it was recommended by Nancy Pearl on NPR, after all. It's the story of the residents of Varennes - a thin place where the border between this world and otherworldly or extraordinairy phenomena is fluid.
What I liked about it was that the author puts you in the world of Varennes without any exposition - you have to find your way and understand without Davis telling you why. For me, that was also the novel's shortcoming. I wanted her to give m...more
What I liked about it was that the author puts you in the world of Varennes without any exposition - you have to find your way and understand without Davis telling you why. For me, that was also the novel's shortcoming. I wanted her to give m...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Nastassia by:
Nadia
This book was initially very hard for me to get into. I think it was because the characters who narrate change so rapidly and I was a bit confused. After I got into the rhythm of the writing I was able to understand the author's point of view. This is a book about contrasts, science v. religion, life v. death, animals v. people, and every shade of gray in between. It was certainly interesting and tests your patience and close reading abilities at times. But overall it was quite a good read ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I feel badly about shelving this book under 'read' as I was unable to finish it. I'm sure that some readers might really enjoy this book but it was simply not meant for me. I dislike the narrative structure intensely, I didn't like the characters, and I didn't have the patience required to get to the point where the 'thin place' in the title made a difference in the story.
I'm still willing to read Davis's _The Walking Tour_, however, but I'll be more prepared to abandon the book if it fails ...more
I'm still willing to read Davis's _The Walking Tour_, however, but I'll be more prepared to abandon the book if it fails ...more
Like this review?
yes
4 comments
Read in January, 2008
An enjoyable book (I listened to it). I liked the story and the cast of characters. It is not often that a story gets moved along switching from the point of view of a teenage girl, to a dog, to a cat, to a elderly women, to a priest, to a beaver... I never know what the next chapter would bring. The different voices bring unique perspectives. The author introduces ideas and thoughts that I was not sure what make of. Seems other readers had the same experience. I will try others she has written.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
Apropos Title.
While this book was received with rave reviews, I found it to be a "thin" attempt by the author and cannot fathom why it was praised so highly. The characters, setting, and plot line appear undeveloped. I never once connected with any of the characters nor the place or exactly what the plot line was. Random story lines appeared without ever really achieving total development or closure.
Future readers would do well by creating a character list.
While this book was received with rave reviews, I found it to be a "thin" attempt by the author and cannot fathom why it was praised so highly. The characters, setting, and plot line appear undeveloped. I never once connected with any of the characters nor the place or exactly what the plot line was. Random story lines appeared without ever really achieving total development or closure.
Future readers would do well by creating a character list.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
One of those annoying books where the author's painfully-constructed style (meant to Reflect their Grand Philosophical Point about the universe) completely overwhelms any sense of story or character. Chock-full of portentious foreshadowing that goes nowhere, completely opaque characters who are little more than constructs, and periodic ramblings about birth and death and life and the universe.
Tedious and frustrating.
Tedious and frustrating.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
When I bought this book, I thought the Thin Line was a supernatural place between life and death. I don't know if I misread the jacket, but it wasn't what I expected. However, I did like it, though may not have "got" it entirely. I did enjoy the writing and the inclusion of animals as well as people in the characters. The power of one of the characters to return the dead back to life was confusing. Was it just me?
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2006
Davies is an unusual writer--kind of creepy and provocative at the same time... she introduces you to a normal kind of small town setting and then tells you what the dogs are thinking, and how the family of beavers in the town lake are dealing with environmental changes...you actually get the beavers' perspective, along with regular people and their everyday thoughts and reactions to things. It's very interesting.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
