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Title: Object Lessons
Score:
Author: Anna Quindlen
Rating: Not available
Hits: 110

Review of Object Lessons

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Comments for Object Lessons

• Posted on 2006-08-12
  Coming to terms..
  
  I really enjoyed this book even though it wasn't my typical read.
  Maggie, almost 13, is finding herself amidst all the turmoil around her. Her mother is also finding herself.
  I was really drawn into the characters' struggles.
  It may have been stereotyped for some, but for me, it was an eye-opening experience getting inside others lives this way. Monica, Maggie's cousin, I came to almost hate and really pity someone so shallow and selfish. Connie, her mom, I felt so much sympathy for. She seemed so depressed for the majority of the book. I could understand why she was becoming attracted to Joe, a man from her past. When one feels emotionally dead it is easy to become infatuated with someone who shows attention and appreciates you. Tommy, Maggie's dad, just seemed so detached.
  I could go on and on about this book..yes, it's stereotyped, but in a different way.
  On a different note, since I am a Christian and VERY picky about what I read or watch, I have to say that there are quite a few GD words that was offensive to me. I continued to read because I knew that that was how this family lived.
  
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• Posted on 2006-03-16
  Object Lessons
  
  Object Lessons was very entertaining. Ann Quindlen has a knack for story telling and she is wonderful at setting the scenes. i especially enjoyed the book because it took me back to when I was the main character's age and I distinctly remember feeling many of those same feelings she did. It was an easy read, enjoyable and made for lively discussion with my book group.
  
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• Posted on 2006-01-04
  Good Point, Bad Quality
  
  Anna Quindlen is a well-known author; her novels can be described as touching and to the point; "Object Lessons" is no exception. Though the delivery is not subtle in any way, this is a true coming of age story. We meet Maggie when she is looking back on the summer her life changed. The dysfunctional world she knows is rocked, starting with the building of a new housing development being placed behind her house. Maggie meets many challenges that children face as they grow up, like losing your best friend and dealing with boys. But then there are the out of place things that happened to her that summer, like dealing with your mother learning to drive. All in all, this novel showcases the imperfections and flaws in a person's life, and shows that it is perfectly fine for things to be down right bizarre.
  
  I mentioned that this book is touching and to the point. I said that because I'm growing up, and I feel like my life is out of place a lot of the time. My family is not "normal." The people I know are there one minute, gone the next, and back a few minutes later. "Object Lessons" reminded me that there is really no such thing as normal. No one has a perfect life; everyone has problems and dysfunction with family and friends. But what really struck me about this book, is that it showed that everyone has to grow up, no matter what age they are.
  
  While I think this is, indeed, a sweet book that shows the ups and downs in life, it just isn't a good book. The plot is unclear aside from the fact that the story takes place during the summer that changes Maggie's life. There is no subtlety, no figuring out things for yourself. The delivery is direct, abrupt, and sometimes rough. I would recommend it for it's point, not for it's quality.
  
  
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• Posted on 2005-07-23
  Sort of a Feminist Tom Sawyer -- Only Really, Really Boring
  
  Anna Quindlen has many gifts, but subtlety is not one of them. Nor is originality. Just about every character and plot device in this novel has been used before -- many, many times before. Oddly, for a hell-on-wheels nagging feminista, Anna Quindlen seems unduly influenced by male authors (and cliches.) She steals much, but understands little.
  
  Let's see, a family saga about a wealthy immigrant clan ruled by a shady, all-powerful patriarch. GODFATHER, anyone? Just as John Scanlan is clearly Don Vito, so is uber-achiever teen girl Maggie Scanlan clearly in the Michael Corleone position. She's all but anointed as his successor -- at thirteen! The only problem is, all the tough moral questions Michael Corleone has to face are carefully airbrushed away for Maggie. The old man is a brute, a bully, and all the usual feminist crybaby stuff -- but it's perfectly all right for Maggie dearest to inherit all that yummy money.
  
  On the other hand, this book also owes a surprising debt to TOM SAWYER. Tom Sawyer and Maggie Scanlan are both the smartest, liveliest, most charismatic kids in the neighborhood. Both are surrounded by dumb, weak-willed sidekicks who exist only to make them look good. Maggie has the blandly obnoxious Debbie Malone, and Tom has Ben Rogers, Joe Harper, and -- dare I say it -- future hero Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer and Maggie Scanlan are both expected to have brilliant futures, if they don't drown, burn, or blow themselves up in the process of having their amazing but never truly subversive teen adventures.
  
  The most interesting TOM SAYWER parallel is in the use of the hero's nemesis or arch-enemy. Tom has Injun Joe, and Maggie has her cousin Monica Scanlan. At first glance a vicious murdering half-breed and a luscious Grace Kelly lookalike might not seem to have much in common. But it seems that compassionate feminista Anna Quindlen hates blondes even worse than Mark Twain hated Indians -- she's just less honest about what she feels!
  
  Look at all the amazing similarities. Injun Joe and Monica both torture the hero in secret, when no one can see them. Both are masters of disguise. Both meet horrible fates that the heroes don't create but -- oh, so sorry! -- don't manage to prevent on time. There's a certain have it both ways hypocrisy in both novels. Twain claims to present America as a land of innocence and hope -- only the Indians have got to go. Anna claims that Maggie and her luscious college girl mentor Helen are going to build "A New World" for all women -- but first the blondes have got to go the way of the Indians. Ah, Sisterhood!
  
  This tiresome business of bashing beautiful women goes back a long, long way in feminist literature. Poor Monica Scanlan is in good company, along with Hetty Sorrel, Rosamund Vincy, and Lucy Deane. (You can look up these fascinating ladies in the novels of George Eliot -- better yet, don't bother.) It's good to know that, like the nobility of the Bourbon restoration, the feminists of today have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
  
  Did I mention that the budding romance between Maggie and her shy boyfriend Bruce is handled with unusual skill and sensitivity? It's the best part of the book by far. Anna Quindlen has missed her calling -- she should be writing YA romance!
  
  But of course, that sort of novel would be beneath a Barnard graduate.
  
  
  
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• Posted on 2004-07-23
  horrible, girl book, depressing, romantic, no plot, ........
  
  i was inexperienced enough to waste my pocket money on this dam book. i went into the bookstore and the only thing attractive about this book is its cover. i automatically bought this book and made one of my biggest mistakes this year.
  the book is slow, and all, ALL, the ONLY thing the book talked about is who married who and had kids, and four uncles married and three of them divorced, married again, some romance that i bet many people find depressing.
  my mom made me read this last night, and i just could not keep up, i have seen many reviews, whether positive or negative, cannot hide the fact that the book is hard-to-keep-up, complicated, and confusing. Mrs. Quidlen is a newspaper reporter, and she definitely need to cut out a load of useless scenes and details when writing a novel.
  I anounce to every reviewers of this book, to the people who read this book only cuz their school made them to, to not lie and betray your inner feelings about this book, to the boys i suggest they let out their inner anger and frustration inside when writing a report and not let some sexy paragraphs in the book make you feel that the book is "good." To the girls, i dont know what to say to the girls, i have many reviews of this book, and the girls had always gave the book a high score. maybe girls enjoyed flat family and friends relationships more than guys do. and i accept that.
  here is this basic profile of this book i have made up, i tried to make them as truthful as to anybody any sex as possible.
  
  |plot- no plot, confusing
  |humor- very rare, about 20 pages any funny moments appear.
  |age- teen to adult
  |dialog/narration- huge continous chunks of narration that sometimes seemed never-ending, then huge chunks of continous dialogs.
  |mood- sad, with occasional depressive humor.
  |sex- definitely a girl's book.
  |details- many useless details such as a scar on someone's body without the description of where the scar is or how did he get that scar, with no details that moves the story forward such as the setting, the main character's age, and personalities, the reader has to figure out the personality of each character by reading their dialogs.
  |style- Anna Quidlen's own unique and strange style.
  
  i will end my review here by stressing the fact that future readers must express their real, deep feeling about this book, regardless of the author's other books, and other people's feelings. write only about what YOU feel and what you feel ONLY.
  
  
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