The Situation In South Carolina: A Novel

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The Situation in South Carolina

Heartstown South Carolina is a small, quaint segregated town filled faithful, god-fearing obedient families. When the Black community in this small city becomes fed up with years of police brutality and second-class treatment, they join together in an epic fight that exposes the inequality and corruption to the entire country.

As the story unfolds, the entire nation becomes mesmerized by the incredibly complex story of murder, revenge and the faith of an entire community. Thousands of people from across the nation race to join this battle, not as a fight for the independence of a community, but as a symbol of every struggle for dignity and equality in the world. Soon, every eye in America becomes focused on the situation in South Carolina.
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 "Ingenious Author" 2008-06-06
By Omekula Austin (Greenville, SC)
In respect to the anniversary of the Rodney King beating, the killing of Sean Bell, the recent beating by Philadelphia policemen, the killing of a 90+ year old woman in Atlanta by a policeman, and the current beating of an innocent black man by Long Island policemen...are all evidence that even though THE SITUATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA is a fictitious story, it's also veritable in many aspects.



When reading this novel, you become a character yourself. Either you find yourself portraying one of the characters that are already depicted in the novel; or, you find yourself modifying the novel to include yourself as a character and taking action against THE SITUATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA.



As for the author, from his bio, you learn that he has had many jobs in his 30+ years; however, there is still a greater plan for him. The way he has written this novel lets us know that a FUTURE POLITICIAN is within him. Also, the sermons that Reverand James preached in the novel lets us know that a future MAN OF THE CLOTH is within him. Also, last but not least, the verbiage and history lets us know that Michael Harriot will continue to write prominent novels and that a PROFESSOR is within him.



I encourage you to read THE SITUATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA and it would make a great FATHER'S DAY GIFT!!!

 "Well worth your time, even if you don't read fiction" 2008-05-27
By Anthony Smith (Memphis, TN)
I usually don't read many fiction novels, but I like a good story. This is a GREAT story. Well written and it hooks you from the first chapter. Not only does the book entertain you, but there are excerpts from the book that deal with actual history.



People from all different faiths will appreciate some of the religious undertones, as well as other GROUPS of people.



I finished the book in two days. I would love to see this novel turn into a movie. It could be on the success level with A Time to Kill, but matching this new millenium story.



Ahmad James - Played by Chris Brown or Lance Gross

Montressor Solomon - Played by Columbus Short

Napoleon James - Louis Gosset Jr.

Officer Coble - Josh Duhamel

Mayor Coble - ?



Well worth your time and money.

 "A Must Read!" 2008-05-02
By D. Pringle (Atlanta, Georgia)
Michael Harriot is a fluent, socially observant writer whose sentences move with intelligence and wit. He compassionately renders unyielding prose that illustrates the veracity of racial iniquity, political corruption, and cultural disparity. The Situation in South Carolina articulates how the most powerful organization in society is deeply rooted in legalized discrimination and entangles its victims into a web of deceit.



For much of American history corrupt police have infringed upon the liberties of oppressed citizens. Always at the mercy of a criminal justice system that unapologetically preferred not to protect them, these citizens remained socially insignificant. When police brutalities lead to the death of a well respected resident, the community decided to take action. They demanded authentic justice. They denounced the authority of the police and refused to allow them into their territory.



The Situation in South Carolina serves as a vehicle that reviles the virulence of racism, retaliation, and redemption. Harriot deftly conveys history with an artistry to capture attention and conjure conversation. He initiates universal dialogue that merits debate from historical scholars to coffee house conversationalists. Harriot should be celebrated for his courage to broach the immensely important, often neglected topic. A spectacular debut, by far!

 "Outstanding debut novel" 2008-04-18
By K. Reynolds (Cheraw, SC United States)
The Situation in South Carolina is an great introduction to novelist Michael Harriot. The reader is given a glimpse into Heartstown South Carolina, a town both unique and familiar. The uneasy and sometimes volatile relationship between the African American community and Law enforcement provides the undercurrent for this skillfully, often poetically told story of anguish, revenge, and finally, the hope of redemption. I look forward to more from this author.

 "Great Book. Great Author" 2008-04-15
By C. K. Boyce (New Brunswick, NJ)
Wonderful book and well written. I finished the book the same day.

Can't wait for his next one!


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Sufficient Grace: A Novel

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Set against the backdrop of two neighboring Southern towns, Sufficient Grace is the powerful, affecting story of two families over the course of a year, from one Easter season to the next.One quiet spring day, Gracie Hollaman hears voices in her head that tell her to get in her car and leave her entire life behind -- her home, her husband, her daughter, her very identity. Gracie's subsequent journey releases her genius for painting and effects profound changes in the lives of everyone around her.

A spellbinding work, Sufficient Grace explores the power of personal transformation and redemption, and the many ordinary and extraordinary ways they come to pass through faith, love, motherhood, art, even food. This poignant, poetic study of the human condition affirms the enduring importance of relationships and the strength we derive from them, even though we sometimes have to leave behind an old identity in order to discover our soul.

Beautifully paced, filled with unforgettable characters, Sufficient Grace reveals the vital place that spirit and belonging have in every inner life -- and in the everyday world.
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 "Enlightening, entertaining, richly spiritual" 2009-03-23
By Caro (N Georgia)
This purchase was my fourth copy of Sufficient Grace. After I read it, I had to order two more to share with friends; I simply asked that they pass them on to share with others. Then I found that I needed yet another to share with a new friend. I cannot share my own.



I did find the book a little hard to get into; it just didn't seem like my kind of story at first. It is, however, a book about family--both blood and found; about accepting and understanding mental illness; and about character redemption and growth.



I just love it! I hope she writes another novel. I'm waiting.

 "Whimsical and uplifting" 2009-02-04
By M. Bertolone
It happens sometimes that I accidentally buy a book on amazon that is more religious in themes/messages then I care for. When I started this book, I thought this was one of them. However, while the book has some general tones of forgiveness and redemption, the religious overtones are gentle and uplifting. I enjoyed meeting these characters and learning about their world. I appreciate that the author could walk a balance that I enjoyed.

 "Boring, Boring, BORING!" 2008-12-11
By S. Kaiser (St. Louis, MO)
I could not get into this book. I was not very intrigued by the characters. Some of them were interesting but most of them I didn't care about at all! It is at times amusing but most of it is just plain painful to get through. There is way too much description about things that really didn't matter to the story. I really wanted to like this story and I kept waiting for it to get good but it didn't and I finally I gave up.

 "work of art" 2008-10-03
By Judy D.
Anyone who knows Darnell knows she is a warm and caring person. These characteristics emerge in her beautiful novel of a life with a mother who is mentally ill. Deftly and skillfully, Darnell pulls us into the story and sweeps us along for the ride.

 "Sufficient Grace" 2008-09-15
By C. Fletcher (Concord, CA USA)
Absolutely loved this book. It was a surprise as it took a little reading to find just how delightful a read it is ... with a lot of thoughts to ponder. I'm still thinking about it. Best thing I can say about it ... I didn't want it to end.


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Sufficient Grace: A Novel

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Set against the backdrop of two neighboring Southern towns, Sufficient Grace is the powerful, affecting story of two families over the course of a year, from one Easter season to the next.One quiet spring day, Gracie Hollaman hears voices in her head that tell her to get in her car and leave her entire life behind -- her home, her husband, her daughter, her very identity. Gracie's subsequent journey releases her genius for painting and effects profound changes in the lives of everyone around her.

A spellbinding work, Sufficient Grace explores the power of personal transformation and redemption, and the many ordinary and extraordinary ways they come to pass through faith, love, motherhood, art, even food. This poignant, poetic study of the human condition affirms the enduring importance of relationships and the strength we derive from them, even though we sometimes have to leave behind an old identity in order to discover our soul.

Beautifully paced, filled with unforgettable characters, Sufficient Grace reveals the vital place that spirit and belonging have in every inner life -- and in the everyday world.
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 "Enlightening, entertaining, richly spiritual" 2009-03-23
By Caro (N Georgia)
This purchase was my fourth copy of Sufficient Grace. After I read it, I had to order two more to share with friends; I simply asked that they pass them on to share with others. Then I found that I needed yet another to share with a new friend. I cannot share my own.



I did find the book a little hard to get into; it just didn't seem like my kind of story at first. It is, however, a book about family--both blood and found; about accepting and understanding mental illness; and about character redemption and growth.



I just love it! I hope she writes another novel. I'm waiting.

 "Whimsical and uplifting" 2009-02-04
By M. Bertolone
It happens sometimes that I accidentally buy a book on amazon that is more religious in themes/messages then I care for. When I started this book, I thought this was one of them. However, while the book has some general tones of forgiveness and redemption, the religious overtones are gentle and uplifting. I enjoyed meeting these characters and learning about their world. I appreciate that the author could walk a balance that I enjoyed.

 "Boring, Boring, BORING!" 2008-12-11
By S. Kaiser (St. Louis, MO)
I could not get into this book. I was not very intrigued by the characters. Some of them were interesting but most of them I didn't care about at all! It is at times amusing but most of it is just plain painful to get through. There is way too much description about things that really didn't matter to the story. I really wanted to like this story and I kept waiting for it to get good but it didn't and I finally I gave up.

 "work of art" 2008-10-03
By Judy D.
Anyone who knows Darnell knows she is a warm and caring person. These characteristics emerge in her beautiful novel of a life with a mother who is mentally ill. Deftly and skillfully, Darnell pulls us into the story and sweeps us along for the ride.

 "Sufficient Grace" 2008-09-15
By C. Fletcher (Concord, CA USA)
Absolutely loved this book. It was a surprise as it took a little reading to find just how delightful a read it is ... with a lot of thoughts to ponder. I'm still thinking about it. Best thing I can say about it ... I didn't want it to end.


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Sufficient Grace: A Novel

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Set against the backdrop of two neighboring Southern towns, Sufficient Grace is the powerful, affecting story of two families over the course of a year, from one Easter season to the next.One quiet spring day, Gracie Hollaman hears voices in her head that tell her to get in her car and leave her entire life behind -- her home, her husband, her daughter, her very identity. Gracie's subsequent journey releases her genius for painting and effects profound changes in the lives of everyone around her.

A spellbinding work, Sufficient Grace explores the power of personal transformation and redemption, and the many ordinary and extraordinary ways they come to pass through faith, love, motherhood, art, even food. This poignant, poetic study of the human condition affirms the enduring importance of relationships and the strength we derive from them, even though we sometimes have to leave behind an old identity in order to discover our soul.

Beautifully paced, filled with unforgettable characters, Sufficient Grace reveals the vital place that spirit and belonging have in every inner life -- and in the everyday world.
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 "Enlightening, entertaining, richly spiritual" 2009-03-23
By Caro (N Georgia)
This purchase was my fourth copy of Sufficient Grace. After I read it, I had to order two more to share with friends; I simply asked that they pass them on to share with others. Then I found that I needed yet another to share with a new friend. I cannot share my own.



I did find the book a little hard to get into; it just didn't seem like my kind of story at first. It is, however, a book about family--both blood and found; about accepting and understanding mental illness; and about character redemption and growth.



I just love it! I hope she writes another novel. I'm waiting.

 "Whimsical and uplifting" 2009-02-04
By M. Bertolone
It happens sometimes that I accidentally buy a book on amazon that is more religious in themes/messages then I care for. When I started this book, I thought this was one of them. However, while the book has some general tones of forgiveness and redemption, the religious overtones are gentle and uplifting. I enjoyed meeting these characters and learning about their world. I appreciate that the author could walk a balance that I enjoyed.

 "Boring, Boring, BORING!" 2008-12-11
By S. Kaiser (St. Louis, MO)
I could not get into this book. I was not very intrigued by the characters. Some of them were interesting but most of them I didn't care about at all! It is at times amusing but most of it is just plain painful to get through. There is way too much description about things that really didn't matter to the story. I really wanted to like this story and I kept waiting for it to get good but it didn't and I finally I gave up.

 "work of art" 2008-10-03
By Judy D.
Anyone who knows Darnell knows she is a warm and caring person. These characteristics emerge in her beautiful novel of a life with a mother who is mentally ill. Deftly and skillfully, Darnell pulls us into the story and sweeps us along for the ride.

 "Sufficient Grace" 2008-09-15
By C. Fletcher (Concord, CA USA)
Absolutely loved this book. It was a surprise as it took a little reading to find just how delightful a read it is ... with a lot of thoughts to ponder. I'm still thinking about it. Best thing I can say about it ... I didn't want it to end.


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Pure Poetry: A Novel

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Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in terza rima," she goes about her life in Pure Poetry with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no longer compose so much as a couplet; ghosts have taken over her Greenwich Village apartment, and the contrast between her feelings for her present lover and her former husband is breaking her heart. And neither her best friend, Carmen, nor her cross-dressing analyst, Leon, is able to soothe her angst over her impending thirty eighth birthday, an occasion fraught with a thirty-seven year tradition of emotional devastation. But time waits for no woman, and the dreaded birthday does bring insight: Love can be undone by the same desires that nurture it. Lila knows that she has got to take action, and in doing so she comes to realize some startling truths about herself, her capacity for love, and the nature of true freedom.

Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Already a bestselling author in Germany, Kirshenbaum demonstrates a brilliant maturity in Pure Poetry. Not since Erica Jong's Fear of Flying has a novel so captured a woman's heart and desires. Readers will cheer Pure Poetry for its heady mix of humor and sadness, and for its slyly unsettling visions of modern life.
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 "Very disappointing" 2006-01-06
By hafnarfjordur (Portland, OR)
Having enjoyed some of the author's previous novels, I found Pure Poetry to be very disappointing. The story centers around the main character who is incredibly annoying and doesn't seem to ever get it. She is not likable, nor is she even interesting. When the reader does not care one whit about what happens to the main character in a character-driven novel lacking any cohesive plot, the result is a mess.



I recommend A Disturbance in One Place instead; that is a much more enjoyable read.

 "Haven't I Read This Before?" 2001-12-16
By
I found Binnie Kirshenbaum's latest novel disappointing. Having read (and loved) her previous novels, I really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately that didn't happen. The main character, Lila, is annoying and unlikeable. It's hard to care about what happens to her because she's so immature. I actually found myself rooting for her family and was happy with the ending, even though I don't think that's the author's intention. A short story with an annoying main character can work, but in a novel it's excruciating. Lila is witty and somewhat interesting, but these qualities are overshadowed by her pettiness. I don't care how badly her family treats her. I agree with other reviewers in that the poetry seems to be slapped on. I found the definitions at the beginning of each chapter irrelevant. I felt the same way about the ghosts. They pulled me out of the narrative and detracted from the plot. Lila bares great resemblance to characters from Ms. Kirshenbaum's previous books, she's sexually charged and slightly raunchy. That in itself doesn't make an original, interesting character. The scene with the blood (slightly altered) appeared in a previous work. This makes me feel like I'm reading the same story over again, but with an unlikely plot and a disappointing character. That said, Ms. Kirshenbaum is skillful with dialogue, and the story is seriously funny in places. Laugh out loud funny. But in the end, that's not enough.

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "A Complete Waste of Time" 2001-04-12
By Melissa Brill (Lonetree, CO USA)
I started this book about 6 months ago and never finished but I started reading it on a recent vacation and unfortunately had nothing else to read so I finished it. Lila, the supposed-heroine of the book is the most annoying and selfish character I have read lately. The rest of the characters were no better and seemed so stereo-typical and boring. I think the whole story was completely illogical, especially how she had never been in love yet but when she gets married she turns into a co-dependent and pathetic excuse for a woman who then is supposed to be this nationally acclaimed poet who seems like nothing but a shallow 30-sometihng who sleeps around. Plus the characterization of her family is completely ridiculous; I know of no one whose own family is that insensitive. The whole story was so trite and so predictable. I wish I would have read all of the reviews before I bought this book.


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Pure Poetry: A Novel

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Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in terza rima," she goes about her life in Pure Poetry with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no longer compose so much as a couplet; ghosts have taken over her Greenwich Village apartment, and the contrast between her feelings for her present lover and her former husband is breaking her heart. And neither her best friend, Carmen, nor her cross-dressing analyst, Leon, is able to soothe her angst over her impending thirty eighth birthday, an occasion fraught with a thirty-seven year tradition of emotional devastation. But time waits for no woman, and the dreaded birthday does bring insight: Love can be undone by the same desires that nurture it. Lila knows that she has got to take action, and in doing so she comes to realize some startling truths about herself, her capacity for love, and the nature of true freedom.

Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Already a bestselling author in Germany, Kirshenbaum demonstrates a brilliant maturity in Pure Poetry. Not since Erica Jong's Fear of Flying has a novel so captured a woman's heart and desires. Readers will cheer Pure Poetry for its heady mix of humor and sadness, and for its slyly unsettling visions of modern life.
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 "Very disappointing" 2006-01-06
By hafnarfjordur (Portland, OR)
Having enjoyed some of the author's previous novels, I found Pure Poetry to be very disappointing. The story centers around the main character who is incredibly annoying and doesn't seem to ever get it. She is not likable, nor is she even interesting. When the reader does not care one whit about what happens to the main character in a character-driven novel lacking any cohesive plot, the result is a mess.



I recommend A Disturbance in One Place instead; that is a much more enjoyable read.

 "Haven't I Read This Before?" 2001-12-16
By
I found Binnie Kirshenbaum's latest novel disappointing. Having read (and loved) her previous novels, I really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately that didn't happen. The main character, Lila, is annoying and unlikeable. It's hard to care about what happens to her because she's so immature. I actually found myself rooting for her family and was happy with the ending, even though I don't think that's the author's intention. A short story with an annoying main character can work, but in a novel it's excruciating. Lila is witty and somewhat interesting, but these qualities are overshadowed by her pettiness. I don't care how badly her family treats her. I agree with other reviewers in that the poetry seems to be slapped on. I found the definitions at the beginning of each chapter irrelevant. I felt the same way about the ghosts. They pulled me out of the narrative and detracted from the plot. Lila bares great resemblance to characters from Ms. Kirshenbaum's previous books, she's sexually charged and slightly raunchy. That in itself doesn't make an original, interesting character. The scene with the blood (slightly altered) appeared in a previous work. This makes me feel like I'm reading the same story over again, but with an unlikely plot and a disappointing character. That said, Ms. Kirshenbaum is skillful with dialogue, and the story is seriously funny in places. Laugh out loud funny. But in the end, that's not enough.

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "A Complete Waste of Time" 2001-04-12
By Melissa Brill (Lonetree, CO USA)
I started this book about 6 months ago and never finished but I started reading it on a recent vacation and unfortunately had nothing else to read so I finished it. Lila, the supposed-heroine of the book is the most annoying and selfish character I have read lately. The rest of the characters were no better and seemed so stereo-typical and boring. I think the whole story was completely illogical, especially how she had never been in love yet but when she gets married she turns into a co-dependent and pathetic excuse for a woman who then is supposed to be this nationally acclaimed poet who seems like nothing but a shallow 30-sometihng who sleeps around. Plus the characterization of her family is completely ridiculous; I know of no one whose own family is that insensitive. The whole story was so trite and so predictable. I wish I would have read all of the reviews before I bought this book.


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Pure Poetry: A Novel

Buy Cheap Pure Poetry: A Novel

Buy Low Price From Here Now

Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in terza rima," she goes about her life in Pure Poetry with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no longer compose so much as a couplet; ghosts have taken over her Greenwich Village apartment, and the contrast between her feelings for her present lover and her former husband is breaking her heart. And neither her best friend, Carmen, nor her cross-dressing analyst, Leon, is able to soothe her angst over her impending thirty eighth birthday, an occasion fraught with a thirty-seven year tradition of emotional devastation. But time waits for no woman, and the dreaded birthday does bring insight: Love can be undone by the same desires that nurture it. Lila knows that she has got to take action, and in doing so she comes to realize some startling truths about herself, her capacity for love, and the nature of true freedom.

Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Already a bestselling author in Germany, Kirshenbaum demonstrates a brilliant maturity in Pure Poetry. Not since Erica Jong's Fear of Flying has a novel so captured a woman's heart and desires. Readers will cheer Pure Poetry for its heady mix of humor and sadness, and for its slyly unsettling visions of modern life.
Readmore

Technical Details

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 "Very disappointing" 2006-01-06
By hafnarfjordur (Portland, OR)
Having enjoyed some of the author's previous novels, I found Pure Poetry to be very disappointing. The story centers around the main character who is incredibly annoying and doesn't seem to ever get it. She is not likable, nor is she even interesting. When the reader does not care one whit about what happens to the main character in a character-driven novel lacking any cohesive plot, the result is a mess.



I recommend A Disturbance in One Place instead; that is a much more enjoyable read.

 "Haven't I Read This Before?" 2001-12-16
By
I found Binnie Kirshenbaum's latest novel disappointing. Having read (and loved) her previous novels, I really wanted to like this one. Unfortunately that didn't happen. The main character, Lila, is annoying and unlikeable. It's hard to care about what happens to her because she's so immature. I actually found myself rooting for her family and was happy with the ending, even though I don't think that's the author's intention. A short story with an annoying main character can work, but in a novel it's excruciating. Lila is witty and somewhat interesting, but these qualities are overshadowed by her pettiness. I don't care how badly her family treats her. I agree with other reviewers in that the poetry seems to be slapped on. I found the definitions at the beginning of each chapter irrelevant. I felt the same way about the ghosts. They pulled me out of the narrative and detracted from the plot. Lila bares great resemblance to characters from Ms. Kirshenbaum's previous books, she's sexually charged and slightly raunchy. That in itself doesn't make an original, interesting character. The scene with the blood (slightly altered) appeared in a previous work. This makes me feel like I'm reading the same story over again, but with an unlikely plot and a disappointing character. That said, Ms. Kirshenbaum is skillful with dialogue, and the story is seriously funny in places. Laugh out loud funny. But in the end, that's not enough.

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "Pure doggerel.." 2001-09-24
By
Disappointing.....the author desperately needs some Vitamin P (for Prozac) in her morning coffee....petty, mean-spirited, and not too bright....the heroine (??) screws up her life over and over....and does not seem to learn from the experience....what a downer.......

 "A Complete Waste of Time" 2001-04-12
By Melissa Brill (Lonetree, CO USA)
I started this book about 6 months ago and never finished but I started reading it on a recent vacation and unfortunately had nothing else to read so I finished it. Lila, the supposed-heroine of the book is the most annoying and selfish character I have read lately. The rest of the characters were no better and seemed so stereo-typical and boring. I think the whole story was completely illogical, especially how she had never been in love yet but when she gets married she turns into a co-dependent and pathetic excuse for a woman who then is supposed to be this nationally acclaimed poet who seems like nothing but a shallow 30-sometihng who sleeps around. Plus the characterization of her family is completely ridiculous; I know of no one whose own family is that insensitive. The whole story was so trite and so predictable. I wish I would have read all of the reviews before I bought this book.


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Tales of Burning Love: A Novel

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In her boldest and most darkly humorous novel yet, award-winning, critically acclaimed and bestselling novelist Louise Erdrich tells the intimate and powerful stories of five Great Plains women whose lives are connected through one man.

Stranded in a North Dakota blizzard, Jack Mauser's former wives huddle for warmth and pass the endless night by remembering the stories of how each came to love, marry and ultimately move beyond Jack. At times painful, at times heartbreaking and often times comic, their tales become the adhesive that holds them together in their love for Jack and in their lives as women.

Erdrich, with her characteristic powers of observation and luminescent prose, brings these women's unforgettable stories to life with astonishing candor and warmth. Filled with keen perceptions about the apparatus for survival, the force of passion and the necessity of hope, Tales of Burning Love is a tour de force from one of the most formidable American writers at work today.
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 "Beautiful writer" 2009-03-15
By betc2 (renton)
It's intersting to read the range of opionions about this book, even among Erdrich fans. I am a big fan. She is one of my favorite writers. Although I have put down a couple of her books, and finished one that I didn't especially like, I think this is right up there among the best.



She is a master of the language and characterization. These characters are believeable, 3-dimensional people. I love the way she lays the words on the page. There are also some very amusing situations.

 "a lot of psychology there - a very good read" 2009-02-13
By Aleksandra Nita-Lazar (MD, USA)
"Tales of Burning Love": what a cunning, deceitful, yet revealing title... I was long waiting to lay my hand on something by Louise Erdrich and this is the first of her novels I have read. I figured out that this is not considered the best one of her works, but I actually liked it quite a lot.



The plot is set in or around Fargo, North Dakota (with occasional changes of setting) - this already made the novel interesting, as my mental image of Fargo is that from the Cohen brothers' "Fargo" (and Erdrich's descriptions fit very well what has already been in my head). The bracket character is Jack Mauser, a part-Native American man, as masculine as a man can be; and as fatally attractive to women. Married five times, Jack has a talent to get involved in risky or suspicious business schemes and when he dies because of one, his four former wives meet at his funeral. On the way back, they get caught in a snowstorm in one car (with the mysterious hitchhiker) and there lies the real essence of this novel, for the women take turns telling the stories of their lives and their relationships with Jack. As the stories unravel, the reader gets to know better all four: Eleanor (my favorite character - I could relate to her best), the meticulous and neurotic scientist, doing research at the nunnery, a daughter of a circus acrobat and of a funeral home owner; Candice, a perfectionist, a dentist, who has everything thought out, but surprises herself with unexpected love; Marlis, a would-be artist with no morals; and Dot, a solid, down-to earth accountant. They reveal a lot of tender feelings and intimate details, and each shows her unique personality. How the women so different can be infatuated with one man... It makes me wonder. From their stories, a complex portrait of Jack emerges.



The snowstorms clasp the whole novel, the first one in which Jack loses his first wife, and the one after the funeral. I liked this, as well as the role of the fire in the story. The novel is full of unexpected turns, and when it seems to slow down, something happens to wake the reader up - at the beginning I though I would not like it, but after the first chapter I really got into it. The spiritual aspect mixes with the physical, the feminine with the masculine, so that the whole range of human endeavors is explored. And be really aware, that the title, although it seems to promise a romance novel (as well as the strange, for me not very appealing, cover), is really tricky and can be understood only while reading.

 "Well-executed" 2009-01-22
By Yolanda S. Bean (Chicago, IL)
This was a pretty good book. I enjoyed the writing - as well as the ridiculous situation that brings four ex-wives of the same man together. The identity of the hitchhiker was even a surprise to me. All in all, it was certainly strange, but I certainly enjoyed reading it. I liked the way the different stories came through each P.O.V

 "Loved it! " 2005-09-26
By JC (Boston, MA)
I think I found this book by Louise Erdrich possibly the most consistently interesting book in the series, all of which I enjoyed. There's never a dull passage, and honestly the characters are easier to understand, if not always relate to, than a memorable but so "strange" (for lack of a better word) character than Fleur Pillager. I didn't like Jack Mauser one bit, though, but maybe I wasn't supposed to like him. And I'm glad I didn't read the Publisher's Weekly review before reading this, either, considering all the spoilers.

 "Another good book to read" 2002-04-08
By Anonymous (Illinois USA)
Excellent book, jumps around a bit, but really wonderful.


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