Sounds like a cliche but I did not feel
581702
Starts out ok but lags in the middle and end. Sounds like a cliche but I did not feel it
2799279
I feel awful giving two stars but this is just not the type of story that I enjoy  - I thought it would be.  It's a little too intense for me, the writing is hovering around 'arty' whereas I am more of a 'commercial' reader.
3965874
This book is, I don't know it gives me mixed feelings. Some parts of me just really enjoys the book and other parts of me is like meh. The story is very interesting and well written. But it feels like something is missing but I cant really say what it is.

The cover is beautiful and do represent the story in some aspect but not in others. This story is a bit different, but that is in a good way. I enjoyed it but I think that due to everything going on around me made me not really appriciate this book as much as I had hoped. The book was a quick easy read. I wish I could tell what I feel is missing but when I don't know myself its hard. I just know I got the feeling that something was missing.

I would recommend for others to read this book because it isn't a bad book or a badly written story, it is just not a book that cought me which is strange due to my love of dogs and animals. The book is worth reading.
1484990
I wish it was longer so i don't feel like everything had been rush for me. I felt as if the two character had not really connection.
3877045
Even though there is a supernatural feel to the  plot, it didn't really move me. Not suspenseful or scary in the lest
4340516
I felt like it was ok. It didn't change my life, so perhaps the book would have been much better.
3538904
This is a gorgeous book but I didn't feel that there was anything I would make so I returned it.
4336387
My impression of the book did not change from what I sensed at the beginning. I would describe this in two words: detached and ambling. The tone of the book is the main character, a male who seems detached and distant all his life in his various relationships. Even when he gets back together with his long lost love there is no shift and there is still a detachment or a very low key emotional connection. When Delbanco writes of the women's lives there was also a blah or deadpan feeling. I never felt really attached for any of the characters, the pace never picked up for me.

The book I would describe as ambling as it just ambles along at a slow pace and goes on and on and on. I never felt any momentum.

The best part about the book, and this is the first I have read of Delbanco's so I'm not sure if this is one of his traits is the way he writes with intellect and cultural awareness. He drops references to places in other countries and fine artists and other things that educated people who are aware of such things will instantly understand. The characters are all college eduated and some have multiple degrees or are specialists in their fields. I appreciated that as too often with novels I feel they are too dumbed down and shallow.

I was interested in this for two main reasons: that the characters span decades showing phases of life and how a person's life has a trajectory and also the Cape Cod, specifically The Outer Cape. I know those places and even recognize some names thrown around as locals from the Truro and Eastham area.

I rate this 3 stars (and was wavering on whether to call it 4 stars). It's okay, it just was not emotionally charged enough for me and the pace was slow going for over 360 pages. It went on and on and on.
1919432
THE TRUE I DIDN'T FEEL DIFFERENT AFTER USE IT

I DONT NOW ABOUT OTHER BUT THAT WAS MY EXPERMENT WITH IT

THANKS.
326719
So this book really didn't do anything for me at all. I like a good memoir every once in a while, and I've read some really great ones, so I was actually really looking forward to reading this book when I finally got it on my kindle. So this book follows Kelly in two different and very distinct periods of her life, when she was a young adult kind of finding her way, and then the second part is when she herself is a mother and takes on a much more serious feel to it.

I really thought I would enjoy this book because I love looking at family dynamics, and it was kind of clear to me early on in this book that it was going to really look at family dynamics and more specifically the relationship Kelly had with her mother. I myself am super close with my mother now that I am an adult, but as a kid/teenager we couldn't have been more different or more combative, so I did kind of relate to some of the scenes in the book, especially the younger years ones.

My problem with the book was mainly that I didn't really ever feel bonded to Kelly, I wanted to, I really did. But the first part of the book nothing happened, if anything I found Kelly to be a bit on the shallow side, and just hard to be likable at all. There were glimpses of profound thought in the first part, but it never really came together for me. It set the tone for the entire book and for me that tone just didn't work. I would have much rather have had the entire book be part two, and just and expanded version of that. Part two was significantly better than the first, and I did find Kelly to be a whole lot more likable when she was older, but I still never really had that moment of clicking with her.

I could easily see how this book would find a wide range of audiences, so if you are looking for a memoir, especially one that has an emphasis on mothers and daughters, I would without a doubt say this might be the book you are looking for.
1760481
Well, actually I realize I was in a happy enough state of being BEFORE I considered reading this book.  It has not offered me anything of substance or invention, critcal thinking or questioning, and for the most part I find the writer fairly mundane and self absorbed. Sorry, but this was not for me, and I'm happy to say that:-)
2305835
It's fair. It didn't have the pressure I expected so I was disappointed.  I don't think I would do it again.
3829873
It's okay. there was just something that didn't click with me.  Hope others enjoy it more than I did
3693872
I read other reviews about these books and I can't figure out what they saw and I may have missedThis whole set of books left a little to be desired for me. I didn't care for the way the story was written. I did like the characters but sometimes I felt like I may have missed something. I went back a few times to be sure I didn't skip over anything but the details just weren't there to begin with. I don't like a book that gives too much detail but at least give me enough to feel like I'm connecting with the story. I don't believe I'll be reading anymore by this author.
3171337
it's ok to have it, but I do not feel any "magic" effect of it.
221995
I tried but don't think I was sufficiently reached. Felt mildly resentful but also felt a great deal of compassion for the black community. I feel it just barely missed the mark for me. Something missing but interesting at the same time.
4506302
I found it interesting but there were parts of it I felt uneasy about and I really cant put into words as to why I felt as I did just too facile