The Dive From Clausen's Pier: Summary and book reviews of The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, plus links to an excerpt from The Dive From Clausen's Pier and a biography of Ann Packer.

A riveting novel about loyalty and self-knowledge, and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves. Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend, Mike, now her fiancé, for as long as anyone can remember. It's with real surprise she finds that, at age twenty-three, her life has begun to feel suffocating. She longs for a change, an upheaval, for a chance to begin again. That chance is granted to her, terribly, when Mike is injured in an accident. Now Carrie has to question everything she thought she knew about herself and the meaning of home. She must ask: How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or of weakness to walk away from someone in need? The Dive from Clausen's Pier reminds us how precarious our lives are and how quickly they can be divided into before and after, whether by random accident or by the force of our own desires. It begins with a disaster that could happen, out of the blue, in anybody's life, and it forces us to ask how we would bear up in the face of tragedy and what we know, or think we know, about our deepest allegiances. Elegantly written and ferociously paced, emotionally nuanced and morally complex, The Dive from Clausen's Pier marks the emergence of a prodigiously gifted new novelist.

BookBrowse

Halfway through this reviewer was raving about A Dive from Clausen's Pier to friends, but at the end she came away feeling disappointed in the lead character and somewhat dissatisfied with the conclusion that seemed to be out of character. Putting this aside, A Dive from Clausen's Pier is a thought provoking first novel recommended to many women.  

Media Reviews

The New Yorker [A] quietly engrossing début novel .... Packer fleshes it out with a naturalist's vigilance for detail, so that her characters seem observed rather than invented, and capable of mistakes that the author may never have intended. The result is genuine suspense..   Boston Globe - Gail Caldwell The novels it calls most to mind. . . . are Allegra Goodman's 'Kaaterskill Falls' and Sue Miller's 'The Good Mother'. . . .its most admirable trait -- and surely the one that will define Packer's future work -- is its moral authenticity.   Publishers Weekly This is the sort of book one reads dying to know what happens to the characters, but loves for its wisdom it sees the world with more clarity than you do.   Kirkus Reviews A reflective and probing first novel...there's not a false note in the story's tentative resolution, which thwarts our initial expectations in order to satisfy more complex demands...Very fine fiction indeed.   Booklist - Carrie Bissey Starred Review. There are no easy answers for Carrie, but her struggle to do what's right and her revelations about the life she wants for herself will keep readers turning page after eloquently written page. Give this to the same young female audience that loved Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing Madison Smartt Bell Ann Packer's first novel has all the weight of reality, tooled with a jeweler's precision. The Dive from Clausen's Pier is a poignant and painstakingly rendered account of a woman in flight from catastrophe, in search of herself. Scott Turow The Dive from Clausen's Pier is one of those small miracles that reinforce our faith in fiction. It does what the best novels so often do, making the largest things visible by its perfect rendering of life on the smaller scale. It is witty, tragic and touching, and beguiling from the first page.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Lindsay
This was a great novel and I am so happy it found its way into my life. I recommend it for all people in need of a good book.

Rated of 5 by Lorrie
I enjoyed the book; however it was not great literature. I felt Carrie did mature during the course of the book although everyone wanted something from her, and she had very little to give after the accident. Kilroy was a character who...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Stefanie
I am a high school student and I read this book in preparation for a book report I have to do. It was a great book and I would recommend it to people of all ages. Many people who have reviewed this book online said they don't like it, but I...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Julie
I was disappointed. I expected a more mature novel (sex doesn't make it mature, either). It reads like a trumped-up teen pot-boiler. I'll forget having read this in a few days. Also, as a Wisconsinite, I'm disappointed. The author seems to know...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Louseey
We unanimously voted on this book for our book club pick--from reviews and the subject matter--thought it would be thought provoking and a great read. However, no one in our group liked this book--some couldn't even get through it. We found none of...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Brownstone
I read this book, not knowing what to expect. I didn't read any of the reviews online until after I finished it. It seems that most people do not like this book.

I have read complaints that the Carrie's character didn't change, didn't...   Read More

...2 More Reader Reviews

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