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highly recommended |
Mixed feelings... 
I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book. On the one hand I thought the author did a great job in describing Angie and her illness. I got real sense of what mental illness is like for many people in the way that Angie was portrayed. I found her to be a totally believable and sympathetic character and would have loved to have more written about her.
On the other hand, I could find very little, if anything, interesting about Pieter, Jordana and Luke. I found these characters to be written quite flatly. In fact I thought Pieter seemed very much like a periphery character at times. From the beginning of the story, it appeared to me as if there were serious issues going on in this family before Angie's illness was diagnosed, yet the author never gives any indication as to why, other than Angie's problems exacerbated them. Yes, we're told about the history of Pieter and Jordana's relationship, but there's really nothing to indicate just how and why their problems began. And, while I liked the character of Wendy, I'm not sure I really needed to know so much about her. We catch a small glance at her own family life when she and Luke go to Iowa for her sister's wedding and then nothing.
There's a couple of other things that somewhat bothered me as well. First, I found some of the sex as written was really unnecessary. Others may disagree, but for me, it added nothing. Also, there are a lot of drug references in the book, both legal and illegal. And again, while others may disagree, I found the part in which Pieter snorts cocaine to be eye-rolling laughable. I thought it was an unnecessary attempt by the author to be "cool."
It's obvious that this author has talent, and I would be willing to read any other works she has. This is a good book, but somewhat lacking.
Too Timid an Ending 
First of all, I loved the novel. However, I wish that Ms. Noel either had conceived a different ending or (if she did) had possessed the courage to allow it to play out. The only love demonstrated anywhere in the novel was between Angie and Luke -- brother and sister. As i neared the end of this wonderful book, I hoped that the author would overcome her own personal temerity and/or prejudices and allow the love between Angie and Luke to play out into the taboo of incest. I visualized the two of them in the rental truck heading back to California to begin a life together based on their intense love for each other. In Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides certainly had the literary courage to tackle a non-mainstream topic and did so quite successfully. Perhaps Ms. Noel is simply a traditional thinker and a trip into a taboo topic never occurred to her. If the thought did occur to her and she chose to ignore it she violated a basic rule of a great novelist -- create characters and then get out of their way.
Began Powerfully, But Lost Focus 
I expected this novel to focus more on the life of a person with bi-polar disorder, and/or the effect of the illness on her family. It began that way, and was effective in communicating the wide range of symptoms and ineffective drugs and treatments. Some of the moments were very sharp, and it did show how members of her family responded differently to things, but,in the end, it was a lot of pages with little emotional content. For more of my reviews, check Amazon or read my blog at allthepage.today.com
Can Relate To This Book
I enjoy reading books about mental health issues, as I am a long-time sufferer of depression. This was very believable, but I did have trouble keeping track of the characters. Also, at times it the story did seem to drag a bit.
Beautifully written but missing something
It is very apparent that Katherine Noel is a wonderfully gifted story writer. Readers who enjoy works by Jodi Picoult (as I do) will surely enjoy Ms. Noel's style of writing. I am anxious to see and read what she comes out with next. However, although the book was very well written with rich imagery, it left me wanting more. I finished the book and was left asking myself, "But what was the point?" With each chapter, I would feel renewed faith that surely something big was about to happen, but that moment never came. It seemed to me like there weren't many moments that made you surprised, or shocked, or sad or anything.
There are large gaps of time missing between some of the chapters, which makes you wonder what exactly happened. This is particularly true when something happens between Jordana and Pieter (I won't say what). I am also unclear as to just how much time was supposed to have passed from the beginning to the end of the story.
I gave the book 4 stars because it shows so much promise, but I can't say that it's an absolutely must-read.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Met with overwhelming critical praise on its initial hardcover release- including raves from The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly- this remarkable debut novel by Katharine Noel illuminates the fault lines in one family-s relationships, as well as the complex
emotional ties that bind them together.
One day, Angie Voorster-diligent student, all-star swimmer and Ivy League- bound high school senior-dives to the bottom of a pool and stays there. In that moment, everything the Voorster family believes they know about each other changes.
Set in a small town in New Hampshire, Halfway House is the story of Angie-s psychotic break and her family-s subsequent turmoil. Angie is a charismatic young woman-brilliant, witty, and passionate-until she swings to manic highs and dangerous lows. Each of her family members responds differently to the ongoing crisis: Her father Pieter, a Dutch-born professional cellist, retreats further into his career. Her mother begins a destabilizing affair with a younger man. Her little brother, Luke, first distances himself as much as possible from his sister, then later drops out of college to be closer to her. And Luke-s college girlfriend, Wendy, who comes from a farming town in Iowa, provides an outsider-s perspective on the
family-s teeter toward collapse. The Voorsters manage for a time to maintain a semblance of the normalcy they had -before,- when they were the ideal New England family; it is not until Angie is finally able to fend for herself that the family is able to truly fall apart and then regather itself in a new, fundamentally changed way.
With grace and precision rarely seen in a first novel, Noel guides the reader through a world where love is imperfect, and where longing for an imagined ideal can both destroy one family-s happiness and offer it redemption. Halfway House introduces a powerful, eloquent new literary voice.
halfway house, halfway, house
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