Book: The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph MonningerGenre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun
From: The Library
Short Synopsis: A husband and wife are dealing with the aftermath of their adult son's death. In fact, it has torn them apart. In order to deal with it, the husband goes on a wild trip to Alaska to find where the son's plane crashed and make peace there. The wife goes to a secluded beach house in Maine to start up her painting again. This book is composed of the letters they write to each other. Through them, we learn the whole story about the son, their background and how they met, their love for each other and how they are dealing with their issues. We also learn that they are actually still committed to each other.
My Response: I'm really curious about how an author can tell a story through letters. Ang from Eastern Sunset Reads knows this and suggested this book. Thanks Ang! I really enjoyed it and found it a wonderful way to tell the story of these two people. You really CAN get a good feel for what's going on in the lives of the letter writers. I love how you can portray each of their voices too. I bet with a collaboration such as this one, it was especially fun. (I'm assuming each author took one of the characters. I mean, how fun would that be! Anyone want to try this with me?) Anyway, I'm planning for my upcoming NaNoWriMo story to be such a book. We'll see how it goes!
Bottom Line: I love so called epistolary books and this one was awesome!
Let's Talk About: Your feelings on epistolary books... ie. books written in letter form. Love 'em or hate 'em? If you love them, what are some of your favorites? If you hate them... I'd love to know why! Spill!
Other Reviews:
Honestly this is one of those books I wish I had a book club to share it with and discuss! From Eastern Sunset Reads
I get feel this book is so realistic. It feels that it could be non-fiction. From A Blog on Books
An epistolary novel is interesting to read; there is no omniscience. All the information the reader receives comes straight from either Hadley or Sam and is limited by what they want to tell one another. From S. Krishna's Books
I am glad you enjoyed this one and I hope it was good inspiration for you Nano novel! I can't wait to see what you are going to write!
ReplyDeleteI love them! I like unusual formats in general and I feel like they can read to some really creative story telling. Epistolary novels that avoid exposition and slowly show you pieces of what's going on are some of my favorite :)
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