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Winter Garden Special Edition Kristin Hannah 9780312364120 Books

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Winter Garden Special Edition Kristin Hannah 9780312364120 Books

This starts out as a believable story of a dysfunctional, psychologically abusive mother who consciously refuses to love her two daughters, now grown adults. She won't love them, won't talk to them, won't look at them, and won't even tell them her own birthday. They grow up angry at her and then into adults with understandable dysfunction in their relationships. The authors writing really conveys this part well and these characters are wholeheartedly believable.

But then the author drops the ball of believability.
These two sisters/women would have had immense anger and resentment towards their father for allowing their mother to abuse them their whole lives and not stepping in and stopping it or saving them from it. But this author wants us to believe the sisters were never bothered by their fathers refusal to help them, nor his constantly taking his wife's "side" even when it was unjustified, or for keeping them in a situation where he knew his wife would be abusive to his daughters, or for telling his young children, from an early age, that they had to work harder to understand his wife. The author wants us to believe that despite all that, they love their father and never have so much as a bad thought about him, have no anger or rage towards him and fail to see how his dysfunction left them open to years of abuse by their mother. You don't have to have a degree in psychology to know how absurd and unbelievable that is.

But then it got even more unbelievable....Mild spoiler alert...
Then this mother, now an elderly woman probably in her 80's, tells her two unloved daughters, probably in their 40's, a story about another family she had before them, a family where she truly loved her husband and her other two kids. And get this, the daughters are not angry to hear this! Their mother who wouldn't love them sits there and tells them how deeply she loved her other children, and they are not hurt by this?! They find out there was a whole other family that has been kept secret from them their whole lives, by both parents, and again, they are not enraged.

Instead, this sad story miraculously melts away all the anger the sister have towards their mother (how?), while the telling of the story somehow now supposedly lets the mother who has never loved these two children finally feel love for them (again, how?) and hearing this sad story not only heals the relationship between the three woman, but fixes all the other issues in their life like with their husbands and boyfriends.

It was ludicrous and unbelievable.

If the author wants to explore dynamics and write about real relationships, then do so. But keep it real. After decades of pain and dysfunction, a story, no matter how sad, would not produce the immense and instant personal changes the author says these characters had. It might start the process of understanding, which, when combined with years of work, might bring healing...eventually, but only in fairy tales would it happen in an instant. If the author wants to write fairy tales with happy endings go for it, but if she wants to write believable stories, keep them believable.


Tags : Winter Garden: Special Edition [Kristin Hannah] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <B><I>Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn't know her mother? </I></B> <B><I></I></B> <B><I>From the author of the smash-hit bestseller </I>Firefly Lane <I>and </I>True Colors <I>comes a powerful,Kristin Hannah,Winter Garden: Special Edition,St. Martin's Press,0312364121,Domestic fiction.,Mothers and daughters;Fiction.,Russian Americans;Fiction.,060103 St Martin Trade Fict All Prior,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,Contemporary Women,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Women,Family Life,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-General,GENERAL,General Adult,HANNAH, KRISTIN - PROSE & CRITICISM,Mothers and daughters,POPULAR AMERICAN FICTION,Russian Americans,United States

Winter Garden Special Edition Kristin Hannah 9780312364120 Books Reviews

This is one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading. Not only from a storyline point of view, but also from a literary side - the writing is elegant, eloquent and simply a pleasure to feast your eyes and mind on. The descriptive text immediately conjures up the most vivid pictures (I hope this book is never made into a movie as it would destroy the beauty that a well-written book achieves). I am amazed at the way Kristin Hannah is able to jump from one character to the next, seamlessly, and actually get into that character's head so perfectly. It's like she IS those people! I was fascinated by the fact that she had described the Siege of Leningrad so well - I have been to St Petersburg and visited the Siege museum - it's horrific, fascinating and thought-provoking all in one. I have also been to several German and Polish concentration camps and not been as moved (still incredibly moving, I don't want to minimise the effect the latter have as well but differently so). It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for the Russian women in Leningrad under the Reign of Terror that winter; the psychological strain of Stalin's regime, the physical strain of the cold, the war and the famine, and the emotional strain of seeing your loved ones killed or die from starvation, illness and the cold. All these are so well portrayed by the author. In addition, I thought that the way she wove the two stories together through a fairy tale was exquisite - it kept me reading until the end. And the end...so satisfying in every way. This is a book that should be on everyone's MUST READ list!
Just put my down....I hardly know how to start this review. I will never forget this book, nor the strong feelings it engendered inside me. For this reason, it has to be five stars. I hate romances; I never read them, and can barely tolerate a romance tucked inside a thriller or mystery, or time travel science fiction. I must admit, I almost put this down a couple of times during the first 20% or even 30%. In truth, it was so terribly depressing that I argued with myself about whether I should keep reading. Not exactly a description of a five star novel, huh? The problem was that the characters were so well drawn that I almost felt I knew them from another time, another life. I was annoyed that the author just about hit the reader over the head to emphasize the character traits....okay, I get it already! Meredith works herself constantly to keep from feeling anything; Nina runs all over the world to keep from being at home with her own feelings. Any "constant reader" can predict portions of the ending when books start like this. But...but....then I began to realize the depth of the history that I was being taught. The siege of Leningrad....I never thought of it before. Nearly nine hundred days and over one million people dead - more than 700 thousand from starvation - women and children in a world turned upside down. I never realized that this was yet another horror of World War II. I've read the Holocaust stories and thought of the suffering and the losses and bravery of the people of Europe and other countries....but Russia? I'm ashamed to say I knew nothing. This brilliant author had a story to tell and told it in the best context possible - through realistic people whose lives and feelings just about jumped off the pages and into my heart. Thank you, Kristin Hannah, for an amazing read.
This starts out as a believable story of a dysfunctional, psychologically abusive mother who consciously refuses to love her two daughters, now grown adults. She won't love them, won't talk to them, won't look at them, and won't even tell them her own birthday. They grow up angry at her and then into adults with understandable dysfunction in their relationships. The authors writing really conveys this part well and these characters are wholeheartedly believable.

But then the author drops the ball of believability.
These two sisters/women would have had immense anger and resentment towards their father for allowing their mother to abuse them their whole lives and not stepping in and stopping it or saving them from it. But this author wants us to believe the sisters were never bothered by their fathers refusal to help them, nor his constantly taking his wife's "side" even when it was unjustified, or for keeping them in a situation where he knew his wife would be abusive to his daughters, or for telling his young children, from an early age, that they had to work harder to understand his wife. The author wants us to believe that despite all that, they love their father and never have so much as a bad thought about him, have no anger or rage towards him and fail to see how his dysfunction left them open to years of abuse by their mother. You don't have to have a degree in psychology to know how absurd and unbelievable that is.

But then it got even more unbelievable....Mild spoiler alert...
Then this mother, now an elderly woman probably in her 80's, tells her two unloved daughters, probably in their 40's, a story about another family she had before them, a family where she truly loved her husband and her other two kids. And get this, the daughters are not angry to hear this! Their mother who wouldn't love them sits there and tells them how deeply she loved her other children, and they are not hurt by this?! They find out there was a whole other family that has been kept secret from them their whole lives, by both parents, and again, they are not enraged.

Instead, this sad story miraculously melts away all the anger the sister have towards their mother (how?), while the telling of the story somehow now supposedly lets the mother who has never loved these two children finally feel love for them (again, how?) and hearing this sad story not only heals the relationship between the three woman, but fixes all the other issues in their life like with their husbands and boyfriends.

It was ludicrous and unbelievable.

If the author wants to explore dynamics and write about real relationships, then do so. But keep it real. After decades of pain and dysfunction, a story, no matter how sad, would not produce the immense and instant personal changes the author says these characters had. It might start the process of understanding, which, when combined with years of work, might bring healing...eventually, but only in fairy tales would it happen in an instant. If the author wants to write fairy tales with happy endings go for it, but if she wants to write believable stories, keep them believable.