Goldengrove

I LOVED this book! This is truly a beautiful story that shows the mourning side of death. What happens when someone close to you passes on? What happens to the families, boyfriend/girlfriend & friends?? The author paints a beautiful picture with her words. The descriptions are laced with an artistic aura that makes you truly understand what the characters are feeling. This story is about 13 year old Nico and the close relationship that she had with her older sister, Margaret. We are given a short chapter that truly shows the beautiful bond of sisterhood and then sadly Margaret passes before her time. She leaves behind, Nico, her parents and an artistic boyfriend "with a screw loose". It weaves in and out as each member tries to come to terms with her death. The father retreats into his bookstore, the mother into abusing prescription medications, the boyfriend wants to bring back Margaret through Nico and finally Nico is trying to figure out how she will get through the Summer without her sister/best friend; yet alone the rest of her life. She goes quickly from an immature 13 year old to a young woman with pain and desires. Nico comes to the realization that everything is crumbling around her and that her parents are weak. The part that intrigued me at first was the relationship that slowly build between Nico & Margarets' boyfriend. I wanted the romance; instead I was given a long hard look into the reality of a man trying to bring back his dead girlfriend through her younger sister. It pained me to see that Nico was feeling desires and the reality was this man doesn't love her for herself. The author finally shows us why the boyfriend "had a screw loose" in a climactic end when Nico put an end to the perverse games that he was playing. I loved the references to many old movies and actors. The characters' were a breath of fresh air. They weren't the cookie cutter, pretty popular girl, jock guy etc etc; they had depth which I appreciated so much. I am now going to seek out more works by this lovely and talented author. Highly recommend this read, but I will say now that it is rather depressing.

The poignant theme of a child's sudden death or disappearance has long been an inspiration for many novels and films, better (like Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend") or worse (Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones"). The theme carries such an emotional load, that it takes some courage to tackle it and a lot of literary skill to carry it off with originality, to achieve something that would not only be a tearful melodrama, but also would impress the readers and get a place in their memory. I think Francine Prose managed to weave an intriguing story - her new novel "Goldengrove" kept me transfixed and I could not stop thinking about it for a long time (well, I still cannot). It was probably the best novel of this kind I have read. One day Margaret, a promising, beautiful high school senior on her way to study voice in Oberlin College, drowns in the Mirror Lake when she takes a dive from a rowboat. Her death the beginning of this novel, told from the perspective of Margaret's younger sister Nico, thirteen at the time of the tragedy. Nico narrates the events of the summer after Margaret's death, remembering them as an adult, but (maybe because of her scientific mind) she gets back into the mindset of the frightened, grieving girl, who just lost her beloved role model of an older sister. She idolizes Margaret and seems to think everyone else did too. She describes the grief of her parents, who get through it in their own ways - the mother, Daisy, withdraws into tranquilizer-induced stupor and the father, Henry, immerses himself in his writing project - a book about how different cultures envision the end of the world. Nico is left to her own devices and deals with her overwhelming grief in a very slow and painful process. She gets into a bizarre relationship with her sister's boyfriend, Aaron... Finally, she manages to get back to normal life, but her sister's death marks the end of her childhood and makes her realize many things much faster than she probably would otherwise. I loved the way, how Francine Prose incorporates different works of art - music, films, paintings, poetry (after all, a poem is at the center of this novel) and uses them to show the impact of our humanity and civilization on the life of individuals. On the other hand, it reminded me again, how we perceive and interpret art through the lens of our own experience and moods, so that the moment in our life, when we encounter a particular oeuvre, has a lot of impact on our memories of it. Because "Goldengrove" is so firmly rooted in culture, it becomes a unique study of grief and shows how being human among other humans and feeling it, but understanding the individual self, can help regain sanity after a personal loss. It is a very sad book, which weighed on me as I read on and there were moments I wanted to put it aside, because I felt so sad - but I could not stop reading. The ending brought me relief... I feel like I am richer, somehow, because I read "Goldengrove" - it was a valua

I almost entitled this review with the quote from the book "hopeless love triangle with the dead" and though that does describe a major theme there is much more to the story than that. The book is set in present day upstate New York and the narrator of the book is Nico who is apparently writing from the future as she describes the summer she was thirteen and her beloved sister Margaret drowned due to an undetected heart ailment shortly before her high school graduation. Margaret was a "star" in their small town, a beautiful girl and talented singer with her own unique style. Nico, at the time of the tragedy, was a bookish and chubby thirteen, curiously watching and wondering about her glamorous sister's relationship with Aaron, a budding artist, who is disapproved of by her parents probably because of some bipolar tendencies that are shown as the book progresses. After Margaret's death Aaron took an interest in transforming Nico into a replica of her sister and I am very grateful the author did not take that relationship any farther than she did. GOLDENGROVE is an exquisitely written, insightful, short novel with many well drawn and sympathetic characters including Nico and Margaret's aging hippie parents, Elaine a single mom of a handicapped child and her son Tycho a quite realistically drawn person with autism. Prose references many things from history and pop culture such as the 19th century cult the Millerites, the 60's pop singer Nico, and Hitchcock's movie VERTIGO all of which sent me scrambling to the internet to find out more about them. This is a good choice for both adults and teens who want a story with strong and ultimately life affirming themes.

Francine Prose writes with poignancy with her book, GOLDENGROVE: A NOVEL. It is a story that centers on loss and love by the main character, Nico, who at the age of thirteen, learns to mature quickly as a result of the death of her sister, Margaret. Readers will see how Nico lives in the shadow of her big sister, and Margaret's death is a constant reminder for Nico to determine her own identity. Although the book moves slowly in the beginning, with each chapter, one will become enticed with Nico's growth as a young woman as she experiences several encounters with Margaret's boyfriend, Aaron, who appears to have Nico wrapped around his finger. Indeed, it is these passages in the book where the reader may resist putting the book down. But Nico also observes the somewhat strained relationship between her parents, and her father's indiscretion with a colleague, Elaine, who works at the family bookstore. It is these observations that help Nico to grow-up quickly. GOLDENGROVE may be destined to be a classic on several bookshelves because of its timeless quality. The novel is intriguing, and will probably be read over and over.