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US Mall 1 - Testimony: A Novel
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List Price: $25.99
Our Price: $11.00
Your Save: $ 14.99 ( 58% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316059862
ISBN: 0316059862
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-10-21
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release Date: 2008-10-21
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: One Seriously Depressing Book
Comment: I am an Anita Shreve fan. The Weight of Water and The Pilot's Wife are two of my very favorite books. I really enjoy her style of writing and Testimony is no different. It is very well written and the way she tells the story from all the different viewpoints is really interesting. However, there is not one good thing in this whole book! It starts with a horribly uncomfortable chapter and then just goes from bad to worse. It's incredibly depressing - death, adultery, loss of life, loss of jobs, detestable characters - holy cow. I can appreciate a good tragedy as much as the next girl, but this was just down, down, down. I finished it and just felt icky - not a very lofty word, I know, but that's exactly how this book made me feel - icky.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kind of trashy for Shreve...
Comment: I usually love Shreve...mostly her earlier books. I hated how the book started with the graphic descriptions of sex...the writing just wasn't as good as her earlier stuff. Am I the only one who thought that this event wasn't worthy of such shock and impact? I realize that 14 year olds are not supposed to be having sex, but if you read any surveys of late, they are having sex. I just couldn't get all excited about kids getting drunk and having sex.
I did not get attached to any of the characters except for maybe the poor girlfriend who played violin... I was particularly disappointed by the end. I was waiting for this huge revelation about who actually filmed the tape and it was totally flat and not even relevant in any way. Also, if this takes place in 2005 or 2006, who the heck even uses tapes??? No one I know uses tapes to upload files to youTube. (Anita Shreve probably doesn't even know what youTube is).
Kind of a waste of time; I may have to go back and read some of her earlier stuff to remember why I wanted to read this latest of hers so much...this is a good book for adolescents wanting to read racey sex scenes (only there's only one).
Customer Rating:
Summary: If you can stomach the first chapter, it's an excellent book
Comment: I had a tough time getting through the very graphic first chapter. After that I found the book very compelling and I couldn't put it down. I liked the author's use of different voices throughout the book. I think the book should have been named Consequences or Ripple Effects. It really makes you think how a few stupid decisions by a few individuals can alter the lives of so many people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sad Commentary
Comment: While alcohol and sex were central to the story, Testimony is more about choice, accountability and the truth that nothing we do happens within a vacuum. Shreve uses the popular structure of multiple voices and while this is interesting, it might have been more effective if some of the more tangential comments had been eliminated. I found the book to be unsatisfying in its resolution (or lack thereof) and with the exception of Noelle, had no sympathy for or understanding of any of the characters. I believe that this was the author's intent rather than being indicative of flawed writing. As individuals and as a society, we tend not to reflect adequately on our experiences or acknowledge our contribution to a negative outcome. The tragedy of this story is not what happened but what did not.
Customer Rating:
Summary: rotating voices
Comment: A very sexually graphic event starts off this book; three teenage boys have sex with a fourteen year old girl and it is videotaped. As the story opens, the headmaster, at the private school where it has happened, views the tape. The story is then told through the alternating points of view of many characters: the boys and girl involved, their parents, friends, the police chief and the headmaster. What comes to light, eventually, are the reasons why the event occurs and the horrible aftermath, which results in one death, two divorces, one hollow marriage and the tattering of other lives. Shreve does a good job of sustaining the momentum as she quickly switches back and forth between the characters, moving the plot forward. The various voices sound like different people. She writes one point of view, that of Ellen, one of the mothers, all in second person. This has the effect of making Ellen's whole experience seem surreal and not really connected to her even though she knows about it. The result for the reader of all of these different points of view is that you see how many shades of gray there are in any event and with what fragility relationships hang together. One also sees how the decisions of adults, which may seem to have nothing to do with children, can also be devastating. Another theme is the idea that people are both more and less innocent than they seem.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: One Seriously Depressing Book
Comment: I am an Anita Shreve fan. The Weight of Water and The Pilot's Wife are two of my very favorite books. I really enjoy her style of writing and Testimony is no different. It is very well written and the way she tells the story from all the different viewpoints is really interesting. However, there is not one good thing in this whole book! It starts with a horribly uncomfortable chapter and then just goes from bad to worse. It's incredibly depressing - death, adultery, loss of life, loss of jobs, detestable characters - holy cow. I can appreciate a good tragedy as much as the next girl, but this was just down, down, down. I finished it and just felt icky - not a very lofty word, I know, but that's exactly how this book made me feel - icky.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kind of trashy for Shreve...
Comment: I usually love Shreve...mostly her earlier books. I hated how the book started with the graphic descriptions of sex...the writing just wasn't as good as her earlier stuff. Am I the only one who thought that this event wasn't worthy of such shock and impact? I realize that 14 year olds are not supposed to be having sex, but if you read any surveys of late, they are having sex. I just couldn't get all excited about kids getting drunk and having sex.
I did not get attached to any of the characters except for maybe the poor girlfriend who played violin... I was particularly disappointed by the end. I was waiting for this huge revelation about who actually filmed the tape and it was totally flat and not even relevant in any way. Also, if this takes place in 2005 or 2006, who the heck even uses tapes??? No one I know uses tapes to upload files to youTube. (Anita Shreve probably doesn't even know what youTube is).
Kind of a waste of time; I may have to go back and read some of her earlier stuff to remember why I wanted to read this latest of hers so much...this is a good book for adolescents wanting to read racey sex scenes (only there's only one).
Customer Rating:
Summary: If you can stomach the first chapter, it's an excellent book
Comment: I had a tough time getting through the very graphic first chapter. After that I found the book very compelling and I couldn't put it down. I liked the author's use of different voices throughout the book. I think the book should have been named Consequences or Ripple Effects. It really makes you think how a few stupid decisions by a few individuals can alter the lives of so many people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sad Commentary
Comment: While alcohol and sex were central to the story, Testimony is more about choice, accountability and the truth that nothing we do happens within a vacuum. Shreve uses the popular structure of multiple voices and while this is interesting, it might have been more effective if some of the more tangential comments had been eliminated. I found the book to be unsatisfying in its resolution (or lack thereof) and with the exception of Noelle, had no sympathy for or understanding of any of the characters. I believe that this was the author's intent rather than being indicative of flawed writing. As individuals and as a society, we tend not to reflect adequately on our experiences or acknowledge our contribution to a negative outcome. The tragedy of this story is not what happened but what did not.
Customer Rating:
Summary: rotating voices
Comment: A very sexually graphic event starts off this book; three teenage boys have sex with a fourteen year old girl and it is videotaped. As the story opens, the headmaster, at the private school where it has happened, views the tape. The story is then told through the alternating points of view of many characters: the boys and girl involved, their parents, friends, the police chief and the headmaster. What comes to light, eventually, are the reasons why the event occurs and the horrible aftermath, which results in one death, two divorces, one hollow marriage and the tattering of other lives. Shreve does a good job of sustaining the momentum as she quickly switches back and forth between the characters, moving the plot forward. The various voices sound like different people. She writes one point of view, that of Ellen, one of the mothers, all in second person. This has the effect of making Ellen's whole experience seem surreal and not really connected to her even though she knows about it. The result for the reader of all of these different points of view is that you see how many shades of gray there are in any event and with what fragility relationships hang together. One also sees how the decisions of adults, which may seem to have nothing to do with children, can also be devastating. Another theme is the idea that people are both more and less innocent than they seem.
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