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Jamesland
Jamesland, the buoyant second novel by Michelle Huneven, critically acclaimed author of Round Rock, is a witty, sophisticated, and deeply humane comedy of unlikely redemption.
When thirty-three-year-old Alice Black discovers a deer in her dining room after fighting with her boyfriend, she wonders if she’s going crazy. Pete Ross, forty-six, knows he’s crazy. He’s wrecked his...more
When thirty-three-year-old Alice Black discovers a deer in her dining room after fighting with her boyfriend, she wonders if she’s going crazy. Pete Ross, forty-six, knows he’s crazy. He’s wrecked his...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
December 18th 2007
by Vintage
(first published 2003)
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Between 3 and 4 stars- I really enjoy Hueven's writing style,and sometime's it's so Nice to read a book that ties up loose ends and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I liked the philosophy bits, and I'm a huge sucker for characters, so I enjoyed those as well. That being said, some parts are a too unrealistic, and the characters' faults are almost universally erased or turned into virtues by the end of the book - I was very happy reading it, but in retrospect I'm less content. Still a go...more
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I don't think I've gotten such pleasure from a book about everyday people doing everyday things since Anna Quindlen's Blessings. It's a difficult book to summarize. This brilliantly written book is full of dysfunctional individuals, but unlike so much contemporary fiction, it focuses not so much on the dysfunctional behavior as on how these isolated individuals learn in the course of the novel to function almost as a supportive family, or in the words often thought by probably the most dysfuncti...more
Descendant of William James, Alice Black lives in LA's Los Feliz and is involved with the husband of a beautiful movie star. Helen Harland is a Unitarian minister struggling to involve and inspire her new congregation who don't want too much "God talk". Pete Ross has come out of a psychiatric hospital for slashing his wrists after breaking the computer monitor of his ex-wife in a rage. He's living with his mother- a recently turned nun.
Compassionate and joy filled book abou...more
Compassionate and joy filled book abou...more
This book has such a good heart that it is easy to overlook its shortcomings.
Jamesland was a total surprise to me as I'd picked it up having heard nothing about it and found the cover copy to be completely vague.
There are essentially 3 main characters in this book: Alice Black (an aimless young woman who happens to be a descendant of William James, lives at her crazy aunt's house, and has just broken up with her boyfriend who was and is currently married to a movie star), Pete Ross (an overweight, formerly acclaimed chef in his mid-40's recovering from going o...more
There are essentially 3 main characters in this book: Alice Black (an aimless young woman who happens to be a descendant of William James, lives at her crazy aunt's house, and has just broken up with her boyfriend who was and is currently married to a movie star), Pete Ross (an overweight, formerly acclaimed chef in his mid-40's recovering from going o...more
I think some books are victims of our expectations. This book is one of them for me. I picked up this book based on the recommendation of a fellow bookseller who said he secretly divided the world into two groups: people who loved Jamesland and those who did not. A bold statement, to say the least, so when I went into the book, I expected to either have a transcendent experience, or, well, hate it. This book was neither of these things for me. It was a nice book. A really, really, really nice bo...more
I enjoyed reading this, got pretty involved with the characters, and will be happily puzzling through their interactions and what they meant to the story for at least a few days. Huneven brings the L.A. scenery to life (even the concrete river), and the food descriptions are luscious. Spiritual, religious, and archetypal themes, questions of sanity, and ways of healing are at the heart of the book and yet it is not at all heavy-handed, didactic, or New Agey. ("What's wrong with New Age?"...more
In Los Feliz, California, a group of dysfunctional people come to the Unitarian Church and begin a relationship, as Helen's congregants. The symbol of the deer is strong and keeps cropping up in the story. Alice's Aunt Kate is all caught up in her ancestor, William James. Alice likes sleeping with married men. Pete's mother has become a nun in mid-life, and Pete struggles with sanity. What is their destiny?
I like this author, went back to read this after someone said this was better that Round Rock. I'm not so sure. I thought it was a bit squirrelly especially toward the latter third of the book. She has an awkward was of introducing her characters. I still think that BLAME is her best work so far.
Set in the Los Angeles area it follows the travails of three people trying to figure out what they are missing and what is essential. Their search brings them in a quest for a deeper meaning of what is the "variety of religious experience." It was a funny and interesting book to read.
This book was too much for me. The prologue grabbed me, but I wasn't impressed with the rest of the book, or the development with the "deer" aspect. Jamesland is full of cliches, but lacked realistic characters and character development. For a book that starts out so promising, with characters so broken, I was sad to see she tied a bow on with the ending.
"She regarded the small, cheap phone as if it were a weapon she didn't know how to use."
"Her voice quavered, then regained its briskness. 'Old age is not for the timid, Alice. You get shot full of fissures. And memory takes on a life of its own.'"
"Her voice quavered, then regained its briskness. 'Old age is not for the timid, Alice. You get shot full of fissures. And memory takes on a life of its own.'"
this was such nice, quick read. basically it's about a few unlikely people who come together through a minister and begin to attend church together in los angeles. it had symbolism and emotion, but wasn't too pushy. real nice. recommend this book
i really enjoyed reading this and the characters make you like them. i'm not entirely sure how i feel about some of what i perceive the deeper messages of the book to be, but i enjoyed it. i especially loved that it had a lady uu minister. she was awesome. she's sort of who i used to want to be when i grew up.
Story of mismatched souls meeting and forming that elusive bond of friendship. Centered in CA Unitarian Universalist minister's Wednesday night sessions. Interesting peek into life of a minister as well.
I love Michelle Huneven, and this book just happens to be set in my new neighborhood of Los Feliz. I think Huneven just does characters really well -- the story grows organically out of them -- so that's it's hard to do an easy "this is about" summing up statement. But I highly recommend her if you haven't read her work.
The least favorite of the three I have read bu this author. The characters were not a slikeable nor the plot as well developed, but it did have its interesting moments. Some of the characters were odd, Helen, the minister of the community church who isn't sure she believes in God, And Aunt Kate, who has been writing her book about her family for many years, and of course, Alice, who aunt Kate can't keep straight which Alice she is. Didn;'t get the symbolism of the deer, just like Alice couldn...more
Perfection. I'm not sure why Huneven is not more widely read (or revered); I want to have her over for dinner and coax her to stay for the week.
If LA was Nova Scotia, and dreary like The Shipping News then this little "OMG the world is so small and full of charcters!" story about Los Feliz would be a bit more...tolerable?
I don't know though. The East Side does have a lot invested in its own sense of quirkiness. I guess if L.A. was Nova Scotia then Griffith Park could plausibly be the 2-degrees-of-separation enclave the author so desperately wishes it was.
Although the relationships between the characte...more
I don't know though. The East Side does have a lot invested in its own sense of quirkiness. I guess if L.A. was Nova Scotia then Griffith Park could plausibly be the 2-degrees-of-separation enclave the author so desperately wishes it was.
Although the relationships between the characte...more
I enjoyed this novel with its collection of odd characters trying to make sense of their lives in LA.
Michelle Huneven writes like a natural.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book
Man oh man oh man oh man. I loved this book.
1st edition
This is the second time I've read this book. The first time was about a year and a half ago, and I loved it. I recommended it for my book group this year, which is why I read it again. I still enjoyed it very much, though it didn't have the same sense of discovery that it had for me on my first reading. I think the characters are all compelling, and the questions about spirituality and one's life, of love, loss, and redemption, are all ones that resonate with me.
This is a quick, light, and comical read.
There have been so many rave reviews about this book that I think I might be missing something (or a lot). I didn't get the significance of William James in a broad sense, and I just couldn't connect to any of the characters! They weren't interesting to me (with the possible exception of Pete) and I kept waiting for something to "happen" to them but it just didn't. Debi, what am I missing?! ;)
An enjoyable read - not mainstream lit though
I liked this novel about quirky characters trying to figure out how to live. I especially liked Helen, a Unitarian Universalist minister.
I bought this book from my local bookshop, Skylight Books, because the little handwritten card under it said it was the product of a local writer and featured locations from the neighborhood I had just moved to.
I found it to be a good character study, but probably had more interest than the average reader because of the mentions of so many nearby locations.
I found it to be a good character study, but probably had more interest than the average reader because of the mentions of so many nearby locations.
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