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Judi S. (Boyes Hot Springs, CA)
The Forgetting Tree
While I liked the tone and gradual build up of tension in this book, I was very frustrated by the inconsistency of some of the characters, Claire in particular. In the first half of the story we hear the history of the Baumsarg ranch and Claire's single-minded focus on making the business profitable and keeping the ranch in the family. Even after tragedy strikes she still chooses to value the land more than her family and winds up alone rather then leave the ranch with her daughters and husband.
The second half of the book is completely out of character for the Claire we have come to know. She allows Minna (a
…more virtual stranger) to jeopardize the ranch (after we've been led to believe that she will sacrifice EVERYTHING in her life to protect it).
It just didn't feel as though Soli knew who she wanted Claire to be and the result for me was that I neither found her or her actions the least bit believable.
This would possibly make a good book-club disscussion though. I know my group would dig right into the debate over loyalty to place vs. loyalty to people. (less)After reading this book I can't decide whether or not it's a story that is really believable. Although the author does a very crafted job making the reader think the events of this book could indeed happen. She attributes the decisions and events that occur to the main character, Claire, to "chemo brain" and the need to love and be loved for who she really is. But could a strong independent woman give up her lifetime's work, her home and her own daughters for the relationship with a young woman, Minna, a Haitian drifter who is hired to care for her and ultimately almost destroys her? I just didn't like the women
…more in this book and was left with an unfinished feeling after reading it. I would like to have learned more about the demise of Claire's marriage to Forster and been more convinced that her two daughters could have been so clueless as to what was happening to their mother by only visiting her once during her treatments. There were just too many far-fetched details in this story for me to give it a better review. (less)In The Forgetting Tree the motives of the two main women characters were difficult to relate to. While it was easy to feel sympathy for their circumstances, their continued bizarre behaviors became uncomfortable and disappointing. They weren't characters I thought about for one minute after the relief of finishing the book.
Rebecca K., Illinois
Lyrical but sometimes over-written
"The Forgetting Tree" is a lyrical novel about a woman named Claire, who is living with cancer, and her family and caretaker. While the setting was lovely, the different parts of the book don't always tie together well; Part 3 seemed almost entirely unnecessary and had little to do with the story. That said, I still wanted to find out what became of the main characters in the end. However, I wasn't totally satisfied with the climax because it seemed out of character for Claire. I'm glad I stuck with it, but it took some work.
Judith G. (Ewa Beach, HI)
Deja vu
I grew up in Southern California so really enjoyed the setting among orange trees, etc. I don't like fantasy novels and found this to include (to me at least) some of that genre. Voodoo....maybe if I were from Haiti it would make more sense...but I'm not. Wondered why Claire could be so gullible when she began as a strong woman. Admittedly my usual reading habit of page turners was interrupted by the Olympics on TV. Still, I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the previous novel, "The Lotus Eaters."
Vicki O. (Boston, MA)
On The Fence
The Forgetting Tree has a bit of a saga quality as it follows the journey of Claire, the head of a California ranch family, through tragedy, divorce, cancer and survival. It’s a lot to tackle and it succeeded on several levels, but failed on others. It was very well written and the characters were multidimensional though not always credible. It moved along with a lot of intensity for the first two parts of the book. The third part dragged and lost me. I finished feeling a bit frustrated, but decided that I should try her first book because she is such a superb storyteller
Vivian H. (Winchester, VA)
Slow Moving Modern Gothic
This book was difficult for me to read. I found the story slow going, disjointed and the characters unappealing. While I liked the concept of the novel – damaged people dealing with tragedy, critical illness and loss, a dysfunctional family, and fighting for a lost cause – the actions of the main characters, Claire and Minna, did not ring true. I further could not fathom Forster’s failure to investigate the goings on at the farm when he became concerned about the deterioration.
I did like some parts of the book immensely – including the prologue and all of Part One, the exchanges between Claire and her daughters,
…more and a spur of the moment junket to Mexico. The story lost me about ½ way through Part Two and I ended up skimming through pages
The book has a bit of a gothic feel to it with numerous references to the novelist Jean Rhys and her most famous work "The Wide Sargasso Sea", which imagined the first wife of Jane Eyre's Mr. Rochester before she emigrated to England and ended up mad in the attic. Since I love the Brontes and thoroughly enjoyed discovering Jean Rhys, the references did conjure up my feelings associated with those works.
But after pushing through the second half of Part Two and Part Three hoping for some reward for my perseverance, I as disappointed in the conclusion. (less)Parts of the book were well written. I never found the book tedious to read, but often annoying. I was left wondering if the author was trying to make a statement about the way people view themselves, or just inconsistent with who her characters were. Was this meant to be about the dichotomy of strength and weakness within ourselves? The "thread" of the characters and story was sometimes misremembered by the author. It put me in mind of Chris Bohjalian's Double Bind. If you enjoyed that book or others that are somehow just a bit off, you may enjoy this one. Otherwise I’d say give it a miss.
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