Helpful Score: 5
This was not my favorite Anita Shreve book. It was a story of a life. Nothing super big or exciting happens. It's a good story, but nothing to really hold my attention. I'm grateful for PBS so I can get something new!
Helpful Score: 2
I have been a Shreve fan for many years and hers are the only new hardcovers I buy as soon as they come out. But after reading this book and her last few that practice will stop. I didn't enjoy this book at all. Boring main character, no interesting story. I just didn't like it. Unfortunately I have felt that way about the last few books she has written.
Helpful Score: 2
I thought this was a very good book. The story was sad at times but true to life, I think. Anita Shreve showed the issues the characters were dealing with in a way that didn't make it mundane and tiresome. It just made you feel for them and find ways to relate it to your own life experiences. Very good book.
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book very depressing....
Helpful Score: 1
I literally ran through this book. Very compelling read! The story is so true to life...graphic at times. It's the story of a (now single) dad, who works as an EMT and his teenage daughter. She is acting out as a result of learning about her mother who abandoned them when the girl was two. A terrible accident will bring them all back together.
Helpful Score: 1
This was my first Anita Shreve novel, as well as my first book in this genre of adult fiction. While there was tension, it was a more subtle emotional tension, but it kept my interest because I cared about the characters and wondered how they would resolve their issues.
I always enjoy Anita Shreve's books....this one I thought was not her best but still a good read and one that kept me interested right thru to the end!
I just love Anita Shreve. Her books aren't any thought-provoking, profound literary masterpieces, but they are great reads; interesting plots with believable characters. I'm never disappointed.
In "Rescue," Ms Shreve offers up a cautionary tale, writing a moral story and a reminder to us that sometimes those who are our best equipped, and most professional "rescuers," are not always the ones capable of saving their own families in crisis.
Anita Shreve is the consummate storyteller. She never fails to provide the well-written, well-constructed, relavent novel to which her thousands of readers can relate. Her books are timeless. They are filled with grains of truth that surely 90% of her readers will understand on a profoundly personal level. I found this book no exception, although it was lighter than some of her previous books.
Characterization is strong and believable throughout, with people we love to champion, as well as those who will challenge our sense of right and wrong, and fairness. The characters are so well developed that the line between fantasy and reality come close to fading.
Ms Shreve's book extolls the benefits and warns of the consequences of rash decisions made in youth. It's this flipside of the coin that contributes to the story and the meanings of "rescue." These questions of consequence, family problems and moral obligations should make this book hit home for nearly everyone.
I highly recommend "Rescue," not only to fans of Anita Shreve, but also to those who want a contemporary novel with timeless, thought-provoking qualities...and, of course, beautiful writing.
Deborah/TheBookishDame
Anita Shreve is the consummate storyteller. She never fails to provide the well-written, well-constructed, relavent novel to which her thousands of readers can relate. Her books are timeless. They are filled with grains of truth that surely 90% of her readers will understand on a profoundly personal level. I found this book no exception, although it was lighter than some of her previous books.
Characterization is strong and believable throughout, with people we love to champion, as well as those who will challenge our sense of right and wrong, and fairness. The characters are so well developed that the line between fantasy and reality come close to fading.
Ms Shreve's book extolls the benefits and warns of the consequences of rash decisions made in youth. It's this flipside of the coin that contributes to the story and the meanings of "rescue." These questions of consequence, family problems and moral obligations should make this book hit home for nearly everyone.
I highly recommend "Rescue," not only to fans of Anita Shreve, but also to those who want a contemporary novel with timeless, thought-provoking qualities...and, of course, beautiful writing.
Deborah/TheBookishDame
So glad I used a 60% off coupon and free shipping to get this book from Borders.com....lets just say it went NO WHERE really fast. Its a quick read and a nice story if you are just looking for somthing to pass the day. But if you want a book that is going to catch you up in its words and make you want to stay put until its done....pick another book.
Lots of "downers' that just go on and on ....never really getting resolved or climaxing. Most of the story is very predictable. Brief glimpses at the EMT job but definitely not related to his job at all. In fact, a little more EASY research on basic first aid would have made this book more realistic as there were soooo many WRONG moves made by the EMT. Easily noted if you have ever taken a first aid class of any level.
On a whole I found the book to be a sad love-ish story that just never quite gets to the point. Totally worth waiting on the wish list for as opposed to running out and buying it new!
Lots of "downers' that just go on and on ....never really getting resolved or climaxing. Most of the story is very predictable. Brief glimpses at the EMT job but definitely not related to his job at all. In fact, a little more EASY research on basic first aid would have made this book more realistic as there were soooo many WRONG moves made by the EMT. Easily noted if you have ever taken a first aid class of any level.
On a whole I found the book to be a sad love-ish story that just never quite gets to the point. Totally worth waiting on the wish list for as opposed to running out and buying it new!
Peter Webster is a rookie paramedic when he pulls a young woman out of a totaled car - a wreck that should have killed her. It's Peter's first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma - streetwise and tough talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely.
Sheila haunts his thoughts, and despite his misgivings Peter is soon embroiled in an intense love affair - and in Sheila's troubled world. He and Sheila are married and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.
But can you ever truly save another person? Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. Rowan has been veering dangerously off track, and for the first time in their quiet, orderly life together Peter fears for his daughter's future. His work shows him daily how dangerous the world is; how wrong everything can go within the space of a single second.
All the love a father can give a daughter is suddenly not enough. So, Peter seeks out the only person who may be able to help Rowan, although Sheila's return is sure to unleash all the questions he has been carefully keeping at bay. Questions such as: Why did a mother leave her family? What tore a young family apart? Is there worse damage ahead? How did the marriage of two people so deeply in love unravel? Yes, Sheila's sudden return certainly may be a godsend - or it may be exactly the wrong moment for a lifetime of questions, anger and longing to surface anew.
I'll say it again: I love Anita Shreve as an author! Despite this book being incredibly sad; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give Rescue: A Novel an A+! - which, as I translated to Mareena, can also be marked as an A+++! This book is a definite keeper for me.
Sheila haunts his thoughts, and despite his misgivings Peter is soon embroiled in an intense love affair - and in Sheila's troubled world. He and Sheila are married and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.
But can you ever truly save another person? Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. Rowan has been veering dangerously off track, and for the first time in their quiet, orderly life together Peter fears for his daughter's future. His work shows him daily how dangerous the world is; how wrong everything can go within the space of a single second.
All the love a father can give a daughter is suddenly not enough. So, Peter seeks out the only person who may be able to help Rowan, although Sheila's return is sure to unleash all the questions he has been carefully keeping at bay. Questions such as: Why did a mother leave her family? What tore a young family apart? Is there worse damage ahead? How did the marriage of two people so deeply in love unravel? Yes, Sheila's sudden return certainly may be a godsend - or it may be exactly the wrong moment for a lifetime of questions, anger and longing to surface anew.
I'll say it again: I love Anita Shreve as an author! Despite this book being incredibly sad; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give Rescue: A Novel an A+! - which, as I translated to Mareena, can also be marked as an A+++! This book is a definite keeper for me.
Ah...Anita Shreve always satisfies me. This is a great story about marriage and children and the mistakes we make that are not always mistakes- but just are. I loved it!
This one is hard to review for me. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, but in no way as good as THE PILOT'S WIFE. Shreve seems so inconsistent. Some of her books are just great while othes leave me cold. that being said, she is certainly a gifted writer.
I read right through this one, like I do all of Anita Shreve's books. I have to be in a certain mood to read her stories, they always seem a bit dark- but they grip me and I want to know what happens.
A good book to read while on vacation. The story doesn't require much thought. Shreve has a nice, clear writing style. But the characters are not well-developed and the plot is light.
Read this for enjoyment at your leisure, not for anything literary.
Read this for enjoyment at your leisure, not for anything literary.
