Title: Shout
Her Lovely Name
Author: Natalie Serber
Review: I
have to be honest, I tried to finish this book but I just couldn't do it. This
book, albeit interesting and extremely real, dropped the F-word way too many
times for me. I tried to ignore it, but after ignoring it over and over again,
the F-word was paired up with taking the Lord's name in vain. I shut the book
and was done. I honestly don't understand the need to include vulgarities such
as this. It does nothing to further the story. I would love to finish this book
sans the F-word. I was taken in by the honesty of the book, the reality of her
stating people’s deepest thoughts out loud. These thoughts that we would never
want to admit to having. It is truly fascinating.
Thank you Heather for this review.
**As a response to a
question from the publisher about my review of Shout Her Lovely Name, I decided
I needed to clarify my post and why I rated it only One Star.
I should note that I read about a third of
the book. The first story had language that bothered me a little bit. I thought
that the stories themselves were very interesting and I honestly think I would
have enjoyed them if it weren't for the language.
I rate the first story
two stars. It was a fascinating look into a mother's perspective of her child's
struggle with anorexia. It gave us a glimpse of her thoughts of this hardship
and how she blamed herself for the hardships anorexia put the family in.
I give the second
story three stars. I enjoyed the second story about Ruby and her struggle to
accept an unwanted pregnancy. She smokes, drinks and basically tries to have a
"natural miscarriage." We follow her intimate thoughts about whether
she will keep the baby, stay with her absent boyfriend, or make her way on her
own. It is a good story. I realize that this story is continued in the book,
but I have not read the rest of it.
The third story I rate
one star. Having suffered from post postpartum depression myself, I related to
the woman in the third story about her thoughts as she boards an airplane with
her newborn son. She thinks about dropping the baby over the banister and how
she honestly doesn't care about what is going on around because all she can
think about is her annoying sucking child and her hurting nipples. She thinks
about these types of things, but doesn't voice them for fear of her husband
overreacting. This is why I was so disappointed to have to put the book down. I
felt connected to the women and wanted to get to know her more, but I could not
ignore the vulgarity. I do not use or even think that kind of language, and I
do not want to hear or read it.
As a general note
about the book, while I appreciated the stories I read, I had a difficult time
discerning when one story started and another ended. I would rather have had a
more clear cut ending and start to the stories. I found myself flipping back to
find out who the character was I was reading about only to realize I had
started a different tale. It is possible that if I finished the book all the
stories would come together nicely but with the difficulty I had from this as
well as the vulgar language, I couldn't finish the book and I can only give the
book (the 1/3 I read of it) one star.
-Heather
Publisher: Published June 26th 2012 by HoughtonMifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547634524
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 240
Quick Review: 1 stars (out of 5)
Why I Read It:
Sent by the publisher for review.
Synopsis: Mothers— both reluctant and euphoric —
ride the familial tide of joy, pride, regret, guilt, and love in these stories
of resilient and flawed women. In a battle between a teenage daughter and her
mother, wheat bread and plain yogurt become weapons. An aimless college
student, married to her much older professor, sneaks cigarettes while caring
for their newborn son. On the eve of her husband’s fiftieth birthday, a
pilfered fifth of vodka, an unexpected tattoo, and rogue teenagers leave a
woman questioning her place. And in a suite of stories, we follow capricious,
ambitious single mother Ruby and her cautious, steadfast daughter Nora through
their tumultuous life—stray men, stray cats, and psychedelic drugs—in 1970s
California.
Gimlet-eyed and
emotionally generous, achingly real and beautifully written, these
unforgettable stories cut to the heart of the connection and conflict in
families. Shout Her Lovely Name heralds the arrival of a stunning new writer.
Author Biography: I
grew up in Santa Cruz, California, an only child of a single mother, I spent my
youth riding my bike and reading incessantly. My college days were spent at
University of California at Irvine where I studied English with a writing
emphasis and then I studied at UC Santa Cruz taking a degree in education. I
imagined I would be a teacher like my mother, or maybe I would write for
magazines. When I had my children, I loved being a stay-at-home parent. I
gardened, cooked, volunteered at their schools. When my youngest entered
preschool, I took a writing class and then I took another. Soon I gave up
gardening and took up early rising to write at my desk. With my kids in
elementary school I wrote in coffeehouses and at the library, in the parking
lot where I waited for them after school. I published in small journals, The
Bellingham Review, Inkwell Magazine, Third Coast, Fourth Genre, Hunger Mountain
to name a few, and those publications sustained me, they allowed me to continue
believing in my work. I was lucky enough to win some prizes, John Steinbeck
Award, Tobias Wolff Award, H.E. Francis Award, I was short listed in Best
American Short Stories. All of this led me to Warren Wilson College for
graduate school where I received my MFA in fiction. Through the raising of my
family I continued writing. Now as my youngest enters college and I teeter on
the cusp of an empty nest and a new decade of my life, my book, SHOUT HER
LOVELY NAME is forthcoming with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. There’s a lovely
symmetry to my timeline and if I wrote it in a story, no one would believe it.
Other Reviews:
FYI:
Sounds like a catch-all of characters saying the F word. Sorry it put you off.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being on the tour.
ReplyDeleteI had about the same reaction with the language in this book as you did. I am glad to know it was not just me that was turned off by it.
ReplyDelete