The View from Mount Joy: A Novel

I liked this book and thought about it long after I was done reading it...quirky, but interesting. A quirky book that I found myself thinking about long after I finished reading.

This was a nice, light hearted book to read. The characters are well developed and you find yourself wishing you were there with them. It will also remind you of people you knew from high school and people you know now. Good "week-end in front of the fire" book.

ok. Nothing special...

This novel attempts to chronicle the nuances of small-town daily life a la Richard Russo in “Empire Falls” but never really comes close. Lorna Landvik is a decent writer but most of the time she fails to capture what made Russo’s characters both interesting and endearing, despite all of their human failings. “The View From Mount Joy” got off to a promising start, with the...more

This novel attempts to chronicle the nuances of small-town daily life a la Richard Russo in “Empire Falls” but never really comes close. Lorna Landvik is a decent writer but most of the time she fails to capture what made Russo’s characters both interesting and endearing, despite all of their human failings. “The View From Mount Joy” got off to a promising start, with the protagonist, Joe Andreson, moving to another town in Minnesota for his senior year of high school. Since I love high school book settings I got into the story right away. But the novel then turns into a saga spanning three decades of Joe’s life – something that I don’t think Landvik has the literary muscle to carry off. The novel might have been better served by limiting the time span of the story to a decade, going into more intimate detail about what motivated the characters. Landvik spends a lot of time describing the relationship between Joe and Kristi Casey, the “libidinous cheerleader” hawked in the book promo. But we never get a real sense of who Kristi is. I think we’re supposed to feel some sort of sympathy for her, but I just thought she was a big beeyotch. Although the book was quite funny in parts and touching in others, for the most part Landvik’s style of writing was pretty corny. Overuse of bad metaphor was hard for me to ignore. And the book needed a much better editor. Some readers can overlook this, but misspellings (“raisens” instead of “raisins”) and poor grammar (“Ed met Kirk and I at the store”) distracted me from the story. To make matters worse, the author’s first draft of the book must have named one of the main characters “Kyle” and then subsequently changed it to “Kirk”. There is a portion of the novel where she refers to Kyle – heretofore unknown in the novel – and then it became clear to me mid-page that it was Kirk. If you like books of this genre, read Russo’s “Empire Falls” and “Straight Man” instead. They’re infinitely better.   hide

I just finished this book and can't wait to read more of Landvik's books. The characters are full and rich. It's an easy read but it did make me think about choices people make in life.

Definitely doesn't live up to her other works.

Landvik never disappoints me. This was a wonderful read, full of twists and turns, taking a hand full of high school students through their lives until one of them hits 50. There are threads of faith discussions, especially since of the most promiscuous high school girls becomes a radio and then televangelist … and ultimately the vice presidential running mate of her senator husband who is...more

Landvik never disappoints me. This was a wonderful read, full of twists and turns, taking a hand full of high school students through their lives until one of them hits 50. There are threads of faith discussions, especially since of the most promiscuous high school girls becomes a radio and then televangelist … and ultimately the vice presidential running mate of her senator husband who is running for president!   hide

I am a fan of Lorna Landvik, but this book just did not meet up to my expectations. She seems to do much better voicing female characters. This one just didn't draw me in as the others have.

It was OK compared to her other books...which I loved. She writes from the woman's perspective in most of her novels but wrote from a man's point of view in this...I just didn't really buy it.