Gail Godwin Books

I give a heartfelt thumb's up to Gail's book "Heart". This is not just another New Age book of fluff. Gail shares her heart with the reader. It is well researched and well written. That she realizes that the breath of God speaks to the heart through many voices is evidence of a mature wisdom. Gail is a lady in the truest sense. Gracious and comforting. To look into her heart in Heart is to see a person in love with life. Her soothing voice is refreshing and inspiring, a salve for the broken hearted and a tonic for those traveling on life's road. I have not read another contemporary book with so much heart. She introduces the reader to a Who's Who list of people of heart. People the reader can turn to for further reading and meditation about heart matters. Read Heart. It will do your heart good.

When I last visited a local book store, I had in mind to pick up another book but I saw HEARTS by Gail Godwin and after glancing through it, I decided it was worth buying and reading. Not only is it worth it, but it is one of the best books I have read all year! It is wonderful and so inspiring! Trust me - get this book - read it and share with your loved one and your friends. I hope this books takes off in popularity in February - Valentine's Day. It deserves it!

Where do people go when they drift off, a glazed far-away look in their eyes? They've slipped into invisible dimensions, the solitary worlds people inhabit within themselves, their unshareable places. What makes Gail Godwin's short story collection such an astounding delight is the way she finds, not only to follow her characters to their secret places, but to also open the door so we can follow, too.

Justin Stokes would never forget the summer she turned fourteen, nor the woman who transformed her bleak adolescent life into a wondrous place of brilliant color. In the little pond side hut also known as the "finishing school," eccentric, free-spirited Ursula DeVane opened up a world full of magical possibilities for Justin, teaching her valuable lessons of love and loyalty, and encouraging her to change, to learn, to grow. But the lessons of the finishing school have their dark side as well, as Justin learns how deep friendship can be shattered by shocking, unforgivable betrayal.

I found "Fifth Business" on Amazon through one of the "if you like that, then you might like this" links and was impressed by the overwhelmingly favorable reviews from other Amazon customers. I had never heard of Robertson Davies before but on the strength of the positive reviews, thought that I would give his work a try. I purchased only the first volume in the trilogy ("Fifth Business") on the logic that if the first book wasn't good, I would not bother with the other two. About 1/3 of the way into "Fifth Business," I rushed to order the second and third volumes ("Manticore" and "World of Wonders"). I am extremely glad that I took the plunge and trusted other Amazon readers. Robertson Davies' work is very accessible and you feel as though you are reading quickly. That said, his books are very well written and are by no means simple. The story is complex as are the characters - a number of whom feel like old friends by the end of the third book, you get to know them that well. I was also very impressed by Davies' wide and detailed knowledge of topics ranging from the theatrical world, to psychoanalytical theory, to religion. Most impressive, however, was his ability to embody in words the most common (and often the most powerful) human emotions and feelings - love, hope, anger, etc. Take the plunge and order the first volume in this trilogy - I very much doubt you will regret it! Enjoy!

I read this book in about a week. I really really really liked it. I don't know why most people have never heard of this author, but I am making it my personal quest in life to tell everybody about him. Read this book. It will suck you in.

If I was to live alone on a desert island and could take the works of one author, it would be Robertson Davies. He writes literature that captures human nature - we can soar like angels and crawl, sadistic murderers - Davies knows and shows us humanity at it's best and worst and often, everyman, muddling through mediocrity.
His books are literary page turners written with a unique dry humor that will make you laugh out loud often, gasp in awe or surprise and feel broken hearted at others. He shows us the human condition with compassion and humor.
Something I love the most about Davies is that his books and trilogies, (Deptford, Salterton, Cornish), are interconnected in a complex web that never fails to surprise me.

Fifth Business, a theatrical term actually invented by Davies for the novel, is meant to indicate the fifth of the main operatic players. The four main players' lives are entwined and influenced by the "Fifth Business" character, in a sort of subconscious synchronicity.

The main character in this first of Davies' Deptford trilogy, Dunstan Ramsay, is such a fifth business character. Without intent or effort, he shapes and defines the lives of those around him. In a beautifully woven and uniquely Canadian style that Davies made his own, Ramsay, Paul Dempster, Boy Staunton and the rest of the wonderfully believable characters capture the attention and the imagination of the reader.

This mainstay of high school English classes across Canada is well worth the read, even if you don't need to write a four-page essay on the major themes of the novel. Davies writes with humour and wit, with passion and pain. I guess I got lucky - I had to take it in grade 12 English, and then again in grade 13. Although it's a fairly short novel (under 300 pages), it's not a quick, unsatisfying read. It has substance without being too bulky, and I highly recommend it as the first introduction to Robertson Davies. It will definitely make you want to read more.

In my very humble and very personal opinion, it is not for nothing that Robertson Davies has earned "international recognition"... I was hooked into Deptford before the book even began! The magic operates from the exergue in fact, where it is told what exactly is a fifth business, "Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about Recognition or the dénouement". After this "appetite whetter", the book opens on Dunstan Ramsay's memoirs, a rambling tale of many lives, where the detours are almost more interesting than the main story.

Davies' writing is fluid; to follow it is like strolling along a (sparkling) river, until the river inevitably joins the sea (ie, it all come together in the end!) And of course, with great writing comes great portraits - bewildered Mary Dempster, truculent Padre Blazon, bigger-than-life Boy Staunton, Liesl (...that one doesn't need any adjective) - along with thoughtful insights and quiet laughs.

I definitely give my thanks to the owner of the used books store who recommended this book! "The Manticore" - book #2 in the Deptford Trilogy - here I come!

I can't quite put my finger on why I was so disappointed in this book. The characters were well-drawn, and fairly sympathetic, each in their own way. The plot moved along relatively briskly. I just don't know. Maybe it was Godwin's habit of "foreshadowing" an event in the past. Several times we hear about a life-changing event in a characters life before we are taken back to find out what happened. Just tell us already and stop playing games! Perhaps it was that certain parts of it seemed contrived, not plot-wise, just writing-wise, as though Godwin said to herself "Ah, there's a clever thought, I must find a way to write it into my next book." And then she did, in the guise of writing about writers and thinkers. It became very annoying to have these things we were obviously supposed to regard as "gems" littering an otherwise good scene.

I have loved every book I have read by Gail Godwin. She has such great insight into people and is perceptive, all while writing with a compassionate heart. She has an amazing ability to create characters that you can care about, dream along with, and feel for. The 4 main characters truly grow and are made stronger by their sufferings. I loved Francis and his simple joys in life. I loved his true devotion to Magda. He is truly a good husband. Come along on the journey with these characters. This book made me love and appreciate my life more...my family, my marriage and my own good husband.

It's set in an upstate New York liberal arts college and centers on two married couples. Brilliant Martha is married to saintly Francis and dies of cancer. Perfect Alice, traumatized by the death of her parents and perfect brother, is married to flawed Hugo and suffers a stillbirth. The cancer death, the mourning for the brother, and the stillbirth are described in excellently written, detailed and realistic passages which, being a shallow superficial person, I found depressing.
I'm probably not nice enough or clever enough to properly appreciate this. I feel rather like I do listening to Bach when I'd just as soon listen to the top 20 on my car radio..
Some of the writing is ingenious post-modern stuff, such as the scene where Hugo, a creative writing teacher, who has written an autobiographical novel, is listening to a dimwitted creative writing student who has written an autobiographical short story and fantasizing that he (Hugo) is describing an autobiographical story to a creative writing teacher,
This is great literature, full of profound insights and deep poetic understanding. I gave it five stars. Now I'll go back to Elmore Leonard and Janet Evanovich.

"What next?" This common theme in Gail Godwin's The Good Husband seems to be fitting when you finish reading this articulate story of life, love, death, and everything that is encompassed within these complex experiences. The story focuses upon the lives of two professor/novelists (or should it be novelist/professors) and their spouses. The intricacy of every interaction, of how life and death can change one's mindset and of how love can be wrong, fade, or at least become skewed throughout a person's lifetime, with the interactions and cross-interactions of Magda Danvers, her husband Francis Lake, Hugo and Alice Henry make this novel go.

Magda Danvers and Francis Lake make an interesting pair; she is a pure academic whose mind never stops wondering or questioning, while he is a caretaker who emphasizes the physical, often overlooking the intellectual. During her dying months, Francis tends to all of Magda's needs, except the one that she really wants him to - her mind. Magda has no qualms about taking her frustration out on him about this, even though he always keeps the composure of a man of God, which he was once studying to be. At the beginning, you get the sense that the good husband is just a description of Francis; however, Magda makes a reference to her good husband as death. But, of course, this allusion is over Francis' head, just like all of her others.

At the same point that Magda Danvers is on her last leg, Hugo and Alice Henry lose their child during birth. The significance here lies in the fact that with this loss of child, so goes the loss of their relationship. However the question must be asked if they would have had a healthy birth of their child, could that have saved their marriage? Alice begins visiting with Francis regularly during Magda's illness, grows a strange attraction toward him. He is very different from Henry, but is that the reason for her attraction, or is he simply a better fit for her personality? Love can be a confusing thing, and this strange love square, it offers no solution to this quandary.

When I began reading this book, I became bored and uninterested. The overuse of unneeded repetition throughout the beginning chapters, the all-to-simple metaphor of their front yard's demise corresponding with Magda's, the sometimes jumpy narrative style, and the storyline that seems to be going nowhere left me pained during reading. However, Gail Godwin comes back strong from these annoyances with a story that is more about the reader's self reflection than anything that she could possibly put down on paper. This idea of one's death as a final examination left me pondering my own life for hours after I had laid the book down. The way that she shows love in all its intricacy (and delicacy) through the point of view of omnipotent narrator allows the reader to see perspectives that might have never been able to come from one single person.

After reading this book, I have some new ideas concerning love and its role in my life. I am trying to sort through the parts of my life that are what matters and what's ... garbage. I also have contemplated how I want my final exam to look ... even with the possibility that we might all get the same grade.

As far as I'm concerned, you can't possibly care about a book unless you care about the characters. The fabricated inhabitant of a novel's pages are the catalyst for the entire tale. Gail Godwin's The Good Husband is no exception, and is, in fact, a wonderful example of this premise. Godwin manages to create fully textured and sympathy evoking characters in a plot that, while wrought with tragedy, remains genuine.

The story circles around the slow death of Magda Danvers, a brilliant college professor suffering from cancer. Magda is a lively, feisty spirit who, even in her deterioration, is difficult not to like. Her sarcastic yet somehow warm ways draw us in as we watch her prepare for what she refers to as her "Final Examination." We find ourselves wishing that we could have known Magda before her illness. It would be very easy to let the demise of such a person become overly dramatic, sappy, soppy. However, like Magda herself, Godwin handles the death of Magda Danvers's with all the grace and dignity that can be mustered.

In fact, I find myself hurting more for poor, gentle Francis than the tough and tenacious Magda, who must care for his wife during the process of her death, an ordeal that is remarkably painful for them both. Looking in retrospect at the novel, I find that I would normally have been irritated by Francis's tireless, unending, persistence to the point of obsessed devotion, coupled with his repeated disintegration into tears in nearly every chapter. Instead, curiously enough, it only endears him to me. I feel sympathy for Francis to the point of being angry at the dying Magda for being so cross with the struggling man (I mean, sure she's dying, but does she have to yell at the poor man?). Francis's enduring goodness under any circumstances cannot help but win over my affections, because in his submission to Magda, he actually displays tremendous strength that comes from the deepest love. Somehow, Godwin was able to make this point without making the reader gag.

Similarly, she manages to write the character of Alice Henry with surprising realism despite Alice's ludicrously tragic history. At seventeen, she lost her mother, father and brother (who she adored to the point of incest), and had to move in with her aunt, who later related that her beloved brother was not actually her brother, but adopted, and soon after died herself. As if that wasn't enough, the story opens soon after Alice and her husband lose her baby, and have to cope with their deteriorating marriage as Alice struggles with feelings towards the humble and meek Francis. If that's not trashy soap opera, I don't know what is. Yet, Alice manages to keep such a seemingly calm, even tone about her that you seem forced to take her seriously. She doesn't mope or whine over her deplorable situation, and one has to respect that. She truly possesses the attitude of one who's gone through so much, that they've learned long ago messy scenes bring no solace. Throughout the novel, I found myself hoping desperately that Alice would finally be able to somehow gain that solace.

Living with Hugo, certainly, would not bring this to her. Hugo Henry, a writer-in-residence at Aurelia College (where Magda taught), although probably my least favorite character, seems to me to be most realistic. His flaws are so intricately worked into his character--his homophobia, misogyny, and deep insecurity--that you almost don't notice them until they are pointed out, a very impressive feat of writing. You have to pity Hugo, especially when you look at his desire to make everyone around him happy. The tragedy is we know Hugo can't make anyone happy, because he himself will never be happy.

Overall, Gail Godwin has conjured up an amazing cast of characters and masterfully woven them together. She is able to instantly create a bond between the reader and her little cast that completely sucks the reader into The Good Husband. By the end of the first chapter, you feel as though you know these people, and have known them for the longest time. And by the conclusion, you feel as though you've experienced everything with them and only want for their happiness. This, to me, is what makes a novel worthwhile; this is what reading is all about.

When teenager Justin Stokes goes for a bike ride one summer day, she doesn't expect to meet a woman who will change her life. With a flair for the dramatic and a tragic past, Ursula De Vane doesn't enter Justin's life so much as she explodes into it. Justin, longing to free the constraints of her conventional aunt, inquisitive baby brother and recently widowed mother, finds in Ursula the kindred desire not to live an ordinary life. But when past secrets threaten to undermine their relationship, can she find it in her to accept that Ursula is human and flawed after all. Told from the perspective of the adult Justin, now an actress, still haunted by that summer.

I had a bit of trouble getting through the middle of the book: I lost interest but towards the end it picks up again.

Justin Stokes, a precocious, despondent 14 year old adolescent, feels trapped in a rural "one-horse" town to which her family was forced to move for monetary reasons. Justin's only respite is her fleeting relationship with Ursula DeVane, a vibrant educated woman in her forties, who lives with her highly sensitive, classical pianist brother. For one summer, Justin goes out of her way to develop a relationship with Ursula, as basically everyone else that she has contact with, including her family members, bores her. As one might expect though, Ursula and her brother have a past which eventually catches up with them, and which profoundly affects Justin, even into her adulthood. Although Gail Godwin virtually promises to "shock" her audience, a reader of contemporary novels will hardly be shocked.

Godwin is one of our best contemporary writers. Her description of detail (for instance, how she describes a garden, or a pond in the forest) rivals the best 19th century British authors. I love, for example, how Justin practices her pronunciation of the name "Ursula" in attempt to impress her older friend.

My criticism of the novel is there is not enough of a story to justify 300+ pages. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it were 100 pages shorter, or even written as a novella. On the other hand, Godwin is such a remarkable writer, that I always enjoy reading her, even if the book is somewhat slow-going.

If you are interested in reading Gail Godwin, I would recommend starting with "A Southern Family," which is longer, but more compelling, and easier to get through.

When this book was first released in the 1980's, I was an avid fan of Godwin's and couldn't wait to buy it. I devoured it in two sittings, loving every minute with teenage Justin and the wiser, more enigmatic Ursula. I'm pleased to see the story hasn't become dated, and that it's every bit as enjoyable now that I'm closer in age to Ursula than to Justin. Although this is on the surface a coming-of-age story, it also explores the necessity and dangers of mentorship, of friendship, of implicit trust. The characters are heartfelt and true, and Justin, with all her emotional needs and confusion, is one of the best female teenage characters in American literature.

This book remains one of Godwin's best. If you haven't read Godwin before, start here.

I am amazed that Gail Godwin is not a household name because her novels are excellent. In my opinion she is the best American novelist writing today and rivals British Kazuo Ishiguro for the best overall. Godwin probably wouldn't like this comparison but she is sort of like a modern day Jane Austen.

The Finishing School is probably my favorite of her novels and her concept of "congealing" was very impacting. She masters verbalizing the difficult-to-verbalize and the characters are completely engaging.

The title makes it sound a little girly, which I guess it is, but I am a guy who highly recommends it.

Gail Godwin's latest book is as much about the struggle of a female in her mid-twenties to find her life's work, as it is about writing. As her story unfolds over a two-year period, the reader can sense the author's growth, both as a person and as a writer. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to be a writer.

Bestselling author Gail Godwin, a three-time National Book Award nominee, keeps a journal that her friend Joyce Carol Oates suggested she edit and share with readers. In this first installment, we eavesdrop on Godwin's life as she emerges as a writer during her travels to Europe as a young woman.

The journals open as Godwin is waitressing at a resort in North Carolina, saving money for her grand excursion. She is soon on a ship headed to Denmark --- and adventure. Humorous character sketches of her fellow passengers draw the reader in as we follow her to her destination.

Godwin struggles with self-doubt as a writer and her relationship with the man she loves in Denmark, as well as her perennial lack of money. She considers going home, but when she's offered a job in London, she takes it. First, though, she visits the Canary Islands for a blissful month. Afterward, she is torn between staying with a local love and going on to London. When she finally decides, her leave-taking is wrenching.

In London, her roller-coaster writer's life continues with the highs of doing good work and completing projects in which she takes pride. The lows are rejections and periods of writing inertia. She similarly experiences a roller-coaster relationship with 38-year-old never-married, "probably hopeless" James. She connects with other men and travels back to North Carolina to meet up with an old lover.

Back in London, Godwin struggles with co-workers, office politics, changing apartments, and writing or not writing. She yearns for a true relationship with a man, all the while despising herself for caring so much. At the same time, she celebrates her freedom.

Godwin constantly thinks about her writing. Even as she battles self-doubt she concocts rules to write by, such as: Don't be false. Trust in the story. Eliminate the dull parts. Forget second-best plots. Don't anticipate the reader's reaction. Start somewhere, anywhere. Let the ending be found in the beginning.

The reader of THE MAKING OF A WRITER is privileged to watch as Godwin composes a story, talking herself through each part and using her life experiences --- a fascinating process. She also includes advice on keeping a journal and the reflection that her journal entries seed writing that may come decades later. The book is also liberally peppered with footnotes; at the outset I found these distracting but soon came to relish them.

I've been a Gail Godwin fan for decades. After reading her journal, I feel that I now know her as a struggling author and as a person of moods and vulnerabilities. I constantly looked forward to my time reading it and discovering more about the author. It is particularly fascinating to read Godwin's latest novel, QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD, which was partially based on the author's experience as a young reporter in Miami, in order to discover echoes between the two books: a suicide, waitressing jobs, significant names, and more. An excellent read; highly recommended.


--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

I first read Gail Godwin's work in the mid-seventies, when in the midst of the women's movement, I was trying to find my way through the dilemma of being an independent woman who loved men. Godwin had been there before me, and I was attracted to her early novels--The Perfectionist, The Odd Woman and Violet Clay.

Now, reading her journal, I see that she was addressing of this dilemma nine years before she published her first novel in 1970. She's been one step ahead of me ever since. At first, this journal seems to be rather typically about a woman with a wealth of male lovers and friends who can't decide who's Mr. Right. Remember, this is pre-Second Wave feminism, on the early edge of the Sexual Revolution. She's so circumspect about her sexuality that you must read carefully to figure out who she's sleeping with, and who she's not. Although Britain must have been more open that North Carolina where she grew up, Gail scandalizes the people who run the boarding house where she lives by staying out all night. She struggles with developing her own moral compass just as diligently as she struggles with her affection for a variety of men.

She also forms one of her rare female friendships with an American woman of color, something that was uncommon for Southern white women as the Civil Rights movement gained momentum.

Meanwhile, she flogs herself about her writing and re-writing of various fictions, none of which makes it to publication during the course of this journal. She takes her vocation as a writer seriously, above anything else. Amazingly, she's only twenty-four when this journal begins, but she's already married and discarded one husband and one career as a journalist.

Beyond her determination to be a writer, two things intrigued me about these musings: the attraction she must have held for men and the absence of mention of her parents. I found explanations for both that satisfied me before I finished. The poet Sylvia Plath was about the same age as Godwin and lived in London at the same time. There is no indication that they encountered each other, but it's interesting to compare how the two women addressed very similar personal and vocational issues.

Now I want to return to the novels and see if they have the same power I felt when I first read them. Godwin was brave to publish this journal, because by spilling her guts on some very raw material, she reveals how her persistence led to a rich literary career.

On the face of it, this book seems to be pitched to aspiring writers, but I think that it holds greater value as a reflection of the early 1960's, and as a testimony to the human spirit.

In "The Making of a Writer" Gail Godwin describes her life in terms that echo the words of a heroine in her fictional work, "The Odd Woman". In that book, the character of Jane says, "Sometimes I think those persons raised in the interstices of Zeitgeists are the ones most punished."

At the beginning of the 1960's, America was not a country given over to self-examination. A resurgence of feminism was nothing more than a vague rumor that may have swirled in the air. Women in the early 60's were not well positioned for success. This was a generation in peril of falling through the cracks. The truest echo of this time may be Sylvia Plath's classic, "The Bell Jar".

For Gail Godwin, the 60's began with an abortive attempt at marraige and a short stint as a journalist with the Miami Herald which also ended disastrously. Focusing her indomitable will on her desire to become a writer, Godwin embarked on a personal odyssey, traveling to Denmark, Spain, and the Canary Islands before taking a job with the Travel Service and extended residence in London.

In her journals she depicts both the struggle to become a published fiction writer, and a deeper quest to understand herself and other human beings. As she records impressions of her life and the characters who populate it, she also strives to find the modern writers that most speak to her sensibilities and to discover the essences she most wants to inform her own stories.

As a "twenty- something'', Godwin is possessed of a very acute intelligence--but the reader will also find hints of youthful callowness. To her credit, Godwin has not expurgated her journals. Their scrupulous honesty is part of their appeal.

As the book progresses, Godwin seems to shift her aims away from overly idealized characterizations and toward a new concern with "displaced persons". As this volume ends, she is beginning to investigate Carl Jung's psychological theories, something which seems to bode well for a young writer who views much of the world in black and white.

One thing that I didn't find endearing about this book was its use of an "explicator", in the form of editor Rob Neufeld. His italicized introductions and interjections often seem to be leading the reader like a rather stuffy tour guide through the Musee d' Godwin. I didn't really appreciate his presence, and I wish Godwin had done the honors (of "explication") herself.

Not every reader who comes to this book is going to buy into the idea, as Neufeld does, that Godwin is a writer of greatness deserving to join Faulkner, Steinbeck, or even Salinger in the firmament. The excerpts from the fiction Godwin was writing at the time of these memoirs reveal only a talented beginner---one who seems intimidated by the contemporary Beat writers ( her story about a Village girl seems lifeless ) and unsure about how to fully animate fiction drawing on her own backround.

It could be that in the future, nonetheless, these diaries (of which this volume is the first) may be regarded as Godwin's best work. I am not ready to compare her to Anais Nin or Lou Salome, but these journals do reveal an estimable intelligence possessed of great determination. In finally stepping out from behind the veil of fiction, it is here that Godwin may make her lasting mark.

Godwin's writing is elegant and nuanced, and the theology in Father Melancholy's Daughter is incarnational -- not about prettifying reality or escaping from it, but compassionately, lovingly living with it. I'm starting Evensong tonight.

I read this book with a highlighter in one hand. There are so many thought-provoking places in this beautiful and well-written story. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, "Evensong."

Here are two great quotes:

"Not until we accept our shortcomings can we do God's will in the world. Each person has a specific shortcoming to accept and endure and try to work on. It's that person's task, it is my task. And however painful or shameful or just plain aggravating it is to me, or to you, that very shortcoming is a part of my destiny; it may even be inseparable from why I will have been valuable to the human community. Because, by bearing it, learning it from the roots up, letting it speak its message to me, offering it in my mind and my body in which to work itself out, I may be doing my part to heal what is split in the world."

"And now it is our turn to follow Him by seeking to know our own redemptive roles, seeking to find out what is my part, what is your part, your unique part, in the human drama we find ourselves enmeshed in. Don't let yourself be unduly put down by the jeers, but don't be taken in unduly by the laurels and waving of palm branches, either. Just ride your little donkey as best you can, focus daily on those places in your existence where intensity blazes up...and let God do the rest."

Ms Godwin did an excellent job with this book and her characters.
As a Christian I enjoyed reading the theology, it was thought provoking and meaningful.
There were parts of this book that were fairly predictable, where as other parts were surprising.
If you enjoy a well written book, you should enjoy this one.

Together with its sequeal, Evensong, this was one of my favorite reads. It had a depth and realism rarely found in fiction with a religious theme. The interplay between spiritual and psychological was fascinating to me.

Having read all of Gail Godwin's novels, I would rank this and Evensong as her best effort in capturing the essence of a half dozen characters - characters we come to care about and identify with, flawed though they may be. The novel is a celebration of brokenness and of nurture within the community of Christian believers in Godwin's ficticious town. Unlike one's experience with formula fiction (and Christian formula fiction in particular) the reader is surprised by who ends up wearing the white hats at book's end. Godwin's message (thesis) is inclusive and moving in its reality: we are all fellow strugglers in a world most often ruled by random events.

First off, the drawings reminded me strongly of the illustrator of the "Al" children's books. Since I loved those books, I was already well disposed toward "Evenings at Five." But this book though it expressed the stages of grief beautifully just did not go deep enough. I may have been spoiled by Godwin's previous books which are meaty and filled to bursting with provocative ideas and fascinating characters. Perhaps if I were reading it through the lens of grieving, I would have come away more impressed.

I love Gail Godwin's clean, specific prose, and her thinly disguised (according to what I've read elsewhere) story of loss touched me. Her literate examination of (always imperfect) love is a joy, and I was surprised by how much I also embraced the collection of "Christina" stories in the latter half of this collection.

I can't say much more about this book. This book is probably way over my head but the point of the story touches me deeply. I mean we all have to face our loved ones leaving this world without us and to be with someone for many years and then to have that empty space is a bit harsh.

However Christina does, it just takes time. She goes over everything she can remember and I think she is feels a bit guilty about leaving him on the night he went, but perhaps it was better this way. I am not sure what way I would want it.

Great book, great author. Have plans to check out her other books. But pick up this book! It is a quick read, but really means a whole lot.

As I began this read I was intriqued by the two characters that were being presented to me. Two artists, one gifted with music and one gifted with words, merging together as one. Within the creases of the words that I read, I could feel the unity and the respect these two souls had one for another.
As I continued on, I could feel the absence as the one soul is taken on to their eternal destiny leaving the other to exist alone, or is she?

"Evenings At Five" is a look at continuing love after death. It is the heart of a soul that clings to not just the memory but the lingering essence of a love that will never die.
It is a reminder to cherish the moments we have with those we love and to know within ourselves that despite the physical absence the joining of hearts can never be separated. A deep meaningful read, well worth your time.

Shirley Johnson/Senior Reviewer
MidWest Book Review
Denise's Pieces

Gail Godwin, one of my all-time favorite authors, lost her long-time companion, composer Robert Starer, before writing this book as a tribute to him and their relationship. It is, in a word: Perfect.

For anyone who has ever felt unbearable grief, or for anyone who has felt the same measure of real love, this book is a tribute to the best of the human spirit. I was lucky enough to have listened to the Audio version, which is read by the author herself, and her lightly southern-tinged pleasant voice adds a measure of poignancy she may or may not have intended.

The fictional characters, Rudi and Christine, an author and a composer, live a life rich in every way, from their afternoon cocktail hour (preceded by a phone call from "Cope Paul," Rudi's fictional pontiff who urges them to have a drink) to their wide and wonderful collection of shared jokes, memories, people and most of all words...rich tapestries of words. Rudi is multi-lingual, and Christine is her willing foil.

It sounds like it was the perfect relationship we all want and need, and its loss it made all the more so by the way Christine's reaction to her unspeakable loss.

A truly beautiful book; I only wish I had seen the drawings that accompany the text, and will make sure I buy the book as well as the recording.

HEART is fascinating. Not a novel, but a meditation on all the meanings human beings have given the heart. Godwin uses an ancient myth of Ianna, who challenges herself by a descent into the underworld, to illustrate how we can expand our capacity for loving and understanding others. She writes vividly and fluently of famous theologians, authors, and epics, to make you think about illuminating your relationship to others. For example, the Buddha is he of the cool mind and warm heart. A life enhancing read.

I found this journey into the meanings and aspects of the human heart uplifting, inspirational and thoroughly enlightening. Especially intriguing to me was the story of St. Augustine's search for God "from a period of violent floundering into joyful conversion." Godwin writes with a kind of intimacy that invites you to pick this book up to enjoy again and again.

Disappointing. Though I'm a big Gail Godwin fan, and reread her later novels with delight at least once a year, this one will get put out at my next garage sale. Imagine a monster movie in which the Paralyzingly Tedious High Church Anglican Sermon meets the Deadly First Draft Graduate Thesis. I wish that Godwin had condensed her best heart insights and research into a sermon for a character like her Reverend Margaret Gower, from Evensong, to preach; or a lecture for a character like Magda Danvers, from The Good Husband, to deliver. The book's structure fails. Godwin hops unpredictably between historic characters or events to which she arbitrarily assigns a relationship with the theme of the heart. The treatments of complex historic traditions and world religions are distressingly superficial. Godwin has no command of comparative religion. The conclusions that she draws from one poorly-planned visit to a Buddhist meditation session are shallow. She gallops through Taoism, Shintoism and Confucianism, sweeping up a few easy generalizations about these complex traditions. In the best sections, Godwin writes about what she has obviously pondered longest: the Christian tradition and family relationships. She treats these subjects so well through the medium of fiction, and so clumsily in essays. I look forward to her next novel.

Heart is a marvelous piece of writing! Every chapter has opened my mind a little more. I am very thankful to Mrs. Godwin for that interesting book. I have learned so many new facts about the different religions of the world. I recommend the reading of "Heart" to everybody curious enough to learn a little more about the persons around us thinking that the heart is important in life. Mrs. Godwin is my favorite author! Thank you for writing "Heart"! Doris VeilletteHamel, Canada

Godwin, best known for her fiction (Father Melancholy's Daughter and Evensong), gives us a change of pace with her book, Heart. She begins by looking at "a painting of a wooly mammoth on a cave wall in Spain [circa 10,000 BCE], showing a red, heart-shaped spot where the beast's heart would naturally be" and ends with Paul Klee's "most striking pictorial representations of the heart." In between, we meet the Buddha--"cool mind and a warm heart" as well as Japan's unique form of poetry, haiku--images that "arise naturally out of the...heart-mind." We come across teaching concerning the heart through Jesus, Mohammad, Confucius, as well as the Upanishads. We learn about the rift that "fractured seventeenth-century thought" as James Hillman reflects, "Thought lost its heart, heart its thought."

Interspersed throughout Heart are anecdotes that give us intimate access into the author's "heart journeys." Godwin's description of her brother's death is telling. "Though the official cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head, I believe my brother Tommy died of a broken heart."

Particularly instructive to me was the section entitled "Absence of Heart/Heartlessness." Gilbert Osmond, a character in Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, illustrates the behavior of somebody "without heart." Gilbert lacks empathy--he is not able to "feel what it's like to want to give someone else something without getting something for it yourself." He appreciates Isabel Archer's efforts to promote his welfare, but doesn't understnad it.

All this and more await the reader in Godwin's ambitious heart-felt work. Her proclivity toward wordiness works better in her fiction, nonetheless, this volume is well worth your investment of time.