The Reserve

Did not finish this book. Started listening to it as a book on CD, but found it wasn't to my liking.
Very descriptive writing, which was not what I was looking for at the moment. Though I don't know for certain because I didn't finish it, I felt I could see the storyline unfolding - married with kids man encounters willowy rich woman on the lakeshore, feels she's "dangerous" and someone to watch out for...but all indications were that he was going to fall for her. Just not my cup of tea.

Maybe I’d better start reading reviews again. I thought I’d picked up a Russell Banks book. Instead, I get Danielle Steele on steroids. Or should I say, HGH. Well, this is not to say that this was a drag to read. It fairly leapt along from start to finish. Thing is, there were no surprises along the way, and in reading, one didn’t expect any. What you read is what you get.

I suppose movie rights are in the offing. Certainly, it’s ‘cinematic’ from page one, and I’d submit, opaquely so. Funny, I’m thinking that this is not a book I would have bought from the local B&N for example, based on the cover art. Since I borrowed this from the library, it’s not a book I picked up and perused before a purchase.

The characters are show more strong (too strong?) and well-drawn. But maybe they’re over-sized. They fit best, really, up there on the silver screen. With music a-crescendoing.

Jordan Groves is rich, he’s an artist, he flies his own plane, he’s a free-thinker, and handsome. Hey. Chicks dig him. His wife Alicia is a Nordic Goddess. He’s got two great kids. Vanessa Cole is his female counterpart in many ways, though damaged in some core way. Beautiful, rich and damaged. Hey. That’s sexy! Then there’s Hubert St. Germain who seems to have been raised by wolves in the wilds of the Adirondacks - hunter, trail guide, trapper, and that wool plaid standby - Woodsman. Eh….maybe a little stupid, Socially inept, at least. The strong, silent type, yeah?

Ah, enough. It ain’t that bad. It rips right along just fine, even if the denouement is a bit fey. It’s just a funny book for me to have been reading. I’ll even go so far as to say that if’n you ain’t me, you just might just love it! show less

This is a book about bad choices made by less than perfect people. In other words, about your life and mine. The basic difference is that almost all of these people are rich, but trust me, their wealth does not improve their decision-making prowess.

Banks gives us period detail, romance, beautiful scenery, tragedy, social commentary and the shadow of war; the images of air, water and earth pervade the novel with the brittleness of the people who walk through it for a brief time. Yet it never really comes together, or comes alive; the characters are over described and inert and the narrative too programmatic. Disappointing.

I'm still not sure what to say about this book. I wasn't expecting it to be so much of a soap opera, but ... well, that's what it is. What's really making it difficult to evaluate, however, is that it feels so incomplete. The flash forwards tell the eventual fates of two of the characters, but leaves two others shrouded in mystery. But even in the case of the characters whose lives are given a final punctuation, I felt as though a lot was left unexplored.

I can't help but wonder if Banks decided he wanted to write a trashy novel, but in the end couldn't commit to it.

I got three quarters of the way through this book and gave it up. The story just didn't pull me in, nor did I particularly care for even one of the characters. I did like the descriptions of upstate New York/Adirondacks and the glimpse into the arts world of the time, but it wasn't enough to make me slog on. I really wanted to like it, and had been looking forward to reading the book ever since I got it. Oh well. Maybe I'll finish it sometime in the future. Or not.

Set in the 1930s, this is a story of multiple deceptions, class distinctions, madness, possible pedophilia, and two very strong personalities. It would make a good movie, but the book itself isn't as engrossing as the subject matter would indicate. The descriptive passages of the reserve were, for me, too long and too intricate.