Helpful Score: 4
Expect the usual from Ursula Hegi: excellent writing and an intriguing story. Ostensibly about the aspirations and longings of those hardworking, visionary immigrants that were/are so integral to The American Dream, oddly enough, it reminded me of Sex & the City. Just as the fifth star of SATC was New York City, here, it's the Wasserburg that dominates the story: a once-grand, turn-of-the-century apartment complex made from brick and dark timber with touches like marble, peacock-hued carpet runners and stained glass. But the house casts a dark shadow over the narrative and four generations of the Blau family: does it carry a curse? The amazing subtlety of Hegi's observations and descriptions are fabulous and make this a must-read.
Helpful Score: 3
I loved Stones from the River, so I had high expectations of this book, and it didn't disappoint. Ursula Hegi is a brilliant writer!
Helpful Score: 2
History, romance and intrigue dished up with wit and intelligence.
This is the second book I have read (or listened to) written by Ursula Hegi. The first was "Stones from the River". This was good but not as good as her first book.
I must be the only person who did not like this book. There was sex and death on every page, and the ending was depressing. I admit Hegi writes well and creates interesting characters, but there was nothing in this book to make me want to read anything else of hers.
I picked this book up because I loved Stones in the River by Ursula Hegi. This book is great too!
Read by the author, which I usually like but it took a while for me to appreciate her voice. I didn't realize the story overlapped with her other book, Stones From a River. I just kept waiting for who Emma Blau was. It was more about a building than a person. I think this book has turned me off of Ursula Hegi and her unhappy stories.
Historic novel about the power of desire/love. A girls family emigrates from Germany to America. Great epic re:immigrants, their struggles&cultural dilimmas. OK
Post war Germany setting. Also authored Stones from The River
This book was well-written, with interesting characters. However, I found myself wishing it would end sooner than it did. It covers multiple generations and is fairly long, 400+ pages. Most of it is pretty melancholy. One thing that struck me is the effect that words spoken without much thought can have on forming a young person's life. "You'll be the death of him", for example, becomes a child's guilt when her grandpa dies. There were some interesting lessons and I mostly learned how NOT to live my life if I want joy in it. If you like this author (and I really do), you'll like this book.
I did not like this book. There was sex and death on every page, and the ending was depressing. I admit Hegi writes well and creates interesting characters, but there was nothing in this book to make me want to read anything else of hers.
I must be the only person who did not like this book. There was sex and death on every page, and the ending was depressing. I admit Hegi writes well and creates interesting characters, but there was nothing in this book to make me want to read anything else of hers.
I did not like this book. There was sex and death on every page, and the ending was depressing. I admit Hegi writes well and creates interesting characters, but there was nothing in this book to make me want to read anything else of hers.
I did not like this book. There was sex and death on every page, and the ending was depressing. I admit Hegi writes well and creates interesting characters, but there was nothing in this book to make me want to read anything else of hers.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Stefan Blau, whom readers will remember from Stones from the River, flees a small town in Germany and comes to America in search of the vision he has dreamed of every night. The novel closes nearly a century later with Stefan's granddaughter, Emma, and the legacy of his dream, the Wasserburg, a once-grand apartment house filled with the hidden truths of its inhabitants both past and present.
This book is based in the early 1900's and tells the story of a man who left Germany before WWI and established a fabulous hotel. He envisioned the hotel before he built is and he also had a vision of his neice, Emma, who is a dwarf. Her story is told in Stones From The River.
Good Book!
