Losing Julia

by Jonathan Hull

Book Overview

Through the eyes of Patrick, both bright as a 19 year old soldier off to the Great War and as an 81 year old, Jonathan Hull explores one man's world of discovery, love and ultimately, regret. From the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385333757
• ISBN13: 9780385333757
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.8" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Too beautiful for words

I have never read a book like this one. I almost didn't pick it up to read again because the going-backs to the past and heading into the future were making me dizzy ... till I got the hang of the story. And I couldn't put it down from then on. If I could, I would rate it a 10! It's that good!!Patrick Delaney was facing the end of his life and began contemplating the past ~~ to revisit the memories of his buddies from World War One, especially Daniel, his best friend who was killed in the war. Daniel was one of the rare men who have found love with Julia and through her letters to Daniel, Patrick fell in love with her. By a chance meeting in Paris ten years after the war, Patrick and Julia meet and fall in love. Patrick was married at the time and had a child and the confusion, longings and desires he had felt were so heartrending that one can't help but feel his pain and sorrow with him. Years later when Patrick's marriage fell apart, he never married again as he was haunted by his love for Julia.Hull writes so convincingly of the days of a man facing death, shut up in a nursing home; traveling down memory lane wishing he had done things differently and trying to find the purpose of his life so he doesn't feel he lived in vain. You are trapped in an old man's body with Patrick and you feel the young man inside bemoaning how fast time travels. One day he was a jaunty soldier on his way to France ~~ his jauntiness hiding his fears and loneliness. Then the next day, he's an old man dying alone.This is the most beautifully written book I have ever read. It sounds depressing on the blurbs but I advise you to ignore that. It is really not depressing ~~ it does have its depressing moments ~~ but it is freeing too. When life slows almost to a stop, one begins to realize that the hustle-bustle of our daily lives really don't mean anything. Only love matters ~~ where you hold your loved ones close; the touch of a lover's hand on your arm as you talk; the love of a child who runs into your arms ... all give meaning to your existence. Hull writes beautifully and movingly of the love we all search for in our dreams and he carries you along with his beautiful vision.This is the most incredible romantic book I have ever read. And it helps that it is also lyrical as you travel through the years with Patrick as he searches for his one love ~~ Julia. And while it sounds sappy, it's not. I highly recommend this book for anyone to read. It's a gem of a book to add to your book collection.

Poignant and Profound

This is an amazing novel, an even more amazing first novel! The writer has captured the soul of a man reviewing and questioning the value of his life, with all its human aspects. Hopes, dreams, loves, loyalties, fears, weaknesses, regrets, questions and insights are all exposed, digested and ultimately accepted. If this isn't enough, the reader/listener is also given the most intimate and revealing of insights into the intricacies of emotion that war and its aftermath bears upon a soldier. This book belongs on everyone's must read list!

Tough Guys Cry To-

I bought Losing Julia after the passenger next to me on my flight to Denver, was crying while reading it. After hearing her review I bought the book. During my trip in the mountains, I could not put the book down! Hull somehow intertwined several time periods around this story of a war veteran who is comming to grips with loved lost and old age closing in on him.The book was amazing to me, as one page would have me laughing out loud, then the next minute I was riveted with the detailed descriptions of war and then a moment later Hull would hit me with a wonderful description of how love can affect us all. Hull has such a unique yet universal way of looking at life. For example, there as not one analogy of love I had ever heard before, yet I felt I had agreed with them all.Ironically, my experience with this book ends on my return flight home from my trip. I somehow arrived at the conclusion of the book during the final minutes of my flight, and then I (and I thought I was stronger than this) started crying. All these time periods come to a dramatic conclusion. I stongly recommend you buy this book and I hope it makes it to the big screen.

Wit, Brilliance & Eloquence at its Best

I have not read a fiction book in years that was as insightful as to the human condition - what we think and feel on a daily basis, but fail to say to others. It made me realize that my own internal ramblings, strange as they may seem, exist in others. This book, a phenomenal achievement, made me laugh throughout, take personal stock of my life and had the power and depth to make me cry at the end. I was moved by all these emotions during the reading of Losing Julia. It is so exciting and rare to find a book that is virtually impossible to put down, once commenced. My only criticism is that I wished it could have lasted longer. I was truly sad to have to let it go. I am eager to follow this gentleman's career and future books.

A Novel to Savor

How many of us find the time to truly take stock of our life at various stages of our stay on this planet? Jonathan Hull's superb novel "Losing Julia" provides the reader the rare opportunity to experience the love and regrets of a good and decent man from his youth through old age. This exceptional story is told through the journal of Patrick Delaney, a story stretching from the trenches of World War I France to the experiences of an old man fighting a terminal disease while living in an assisted care facility. Holding the story together perfectly is Patrick's experiences and descriptions of love at various watersheds in his life; from his love of his fellow soldiers experiencing the agony and utter waste of war, to the experience of finding and then losing a woman who is a perfect spiritual fit to what Patrick needs and what he can give in return, and finally to an old man living out his remaining months trying without success to remain distant from others because they all die too soon and too frequently. Hull's writing is brilliant, conveying Patrick's thoughts and emotions perfectly as he matures. While the major thrust of "Losing Julia" is every person's need to love and be loved, the novel conveys the suffering and misery of war as no mere history could. War is more than casualty counts and property destruction. Hull very effectively conveys the emotional scars that war burns into the souls of its participants...and even its observers. "Losing Julia" is an altogether engrossing read, an emotional and thought provoking experience. Readers will remember and savor this story and these characters for a very long time.