Great read, TOO much F---- word | The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel |...

good book to laugh, cry and think | The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel | Elisabeth Robinson

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	• The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel Elisabeth Robinson Back Bay Books, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 114 reviews view larger image
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Great Light Reading

I call this great LIGHT reading because the format makes it very easy to read for only a couple minutes here & there. (I read it all during 20-30 min lunch breaks.)

It was sad and funny, and I appreciated that the main character (Olivia, the letter writer) wasn't perfect. We see everything from her point of view, but she's not a great hero. She's just a regular woman, like you or me, who makes mistakes and mis-prioritizes.

It wasn't really heart-breaking until the very end. I just now finished the last few pages with tears streaming down my cheeks, and a book hasn't done this to me in a long time.

If you have a sister, if you enjoy writing/receiving letters, if you have experienced the pain of cancer in your family, if you enjoy Hollywood/celebrity life, it's a worthwhile read.

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Great read, TOO much F---- word

This book is slow starting and the hooks you. The story is sad, funny, heartwarming and really really good. BUT the totally unnecessary and very frequent use of the f--- word add NOTHING to the story or the book. Disappointing. I hope she thinks before using it so much in her next book.

good book to laugh, cry and think

I read this book on recommendation of a friend. I am usually not a fan of books written in the letter/fax/email style.
Also the beginning just didn't strike me as something I would like from the "Hollywood" girly girl.
But I was wrong, her delving into her sisters life and taking on responsibility and seeing things change, yet not completely loosing herself is well done. Everyone should be so lucky to have a sister like that.

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A-

I chose this looking for a light, easy read - I never would have guessed that the writing would be addictive, gripping, and so expertly well-written at the same time. Robinson weaves multiple extended metaphors throughout the seamlessly written narrative. She makes them work within the plot with a stunning ease. Written in the epistolary style, the letters never come off as forced or corny, as many novels of that genre can be. I was quite pleasantly surprised, and it is rare for me to give a book such a high grade. (But just to be fair, there were a few small quirks I had with the book: some sentences became agonizingly long-winded and needed to be re-read to comprehend - in fact, one sentence actually lasted an entire page!) Nevertheless, I read this book really fast. I would put it down and then pick it up two minutes later, eager to get back to it - another rarity for me. The conclusion was equal parts melancholy and uplifting, just like life is. That is what struck me the most about the narrative: there is never just one emotion at play, and the author puts them together without much flaw, giving us a poignant, very honest look at modern life and coming to terms with pain.

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The best letters are the ones that tell you everything. Not just the big, important stuff, but the little details of life. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters is a one-sided epistolary novel. We get to read all the letters written by Olivia Hunt, erstwhile film producer, over the year she learns her sister Maddie has cancer. Olivia scuttles between her hometown in Ohio, where Maddie still lives, and Los Angeles, where she's trying to get a film version of Don Quixote off the ground. Along the way, she writes newsy letters to her best friend Tina, crabby mash notes to her ex-boyfriend Michael, worried missives to her parents, breezy memos to (real-life) entertainment honchos, and cheery entertainments to Maddie herself. These epistles are crammed full of the asides and rambling descriptions that make for good letters, and good books. She writes, for instance, "I went down to the cafeteria. Judy, the cashier, told me her daughter passed the Bar exam, so that was nice to hear. She said I looked tired. I ate some iceberg lettuce with orange dressing in the empty cafeteria. And two chocolate chip cookies." It's not poetry, but the orange dressing and the chatty cashier go a long way toward capturing hospital life. It also helps that first-time author Elisabeth Robinson is a producer and screenwriter who worked on Braveheart (among others); she's just as detailed and knowing when she describes the seemingly Herculean task of producing a film. She includes gentle send-ups of Robin Williams and John Cleese, who star in the fictional picture, and terrifying glimpses of executive tantrums. (A Hollywood background has its downsides: the book occasionally strays into formula.) In the end, Robinson's hard work with all those details ultimately results in a believable, lovable heroine. --Claire Dederer

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