All the Numbers: A Novel

by Judy Merrill Larsen

Book Overview

Dust jacket shows minimal signs of shelf wear, but all pages are clean and bright in tight binding. SHIPS NEXT BUSINESS DAY! This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034548536X
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.7" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

So Good!!

All the Numbers is a "what if" book. What if one of my children was killed? What if I was faced with the choice to donate my child's organs so that another child might live? What if it was up to me to make my child's killer pay, especially if the murderer was not much more than a child himself? Judy Larsen artfully and accurately conveys the stages of grief no parent ever wants to experience. All the Numbers will make you think, cry and laugh. It's been a long time since a book has brought me to tears, but this one did. When a child is killed, a parent may eventually forgive, but will never forget.

Beautiful. touching first novel!

I started this book at about eight o'clock at night and stayed up until three in the morning to finish it. What I liked most about the main character was that the author made her real and human. Grief, especially over the loss of a child, is an overwhelming emotion, but people are still people and Larsen kept her realistic instead of some caricature of the grieving mother. I thought it was wonderful, and I'll definitely look for more by this author.

An engrossing story and good read

Be sure to block out a serious chuck of time when you sit down with Judy Merrill Larsen's debut novel, All The Numbers, because you won't want to put it down. And it wouldn't hurt to have a box of tissues nearby either. I called in sick at work so I could finish this story of grief and forgiving love. It's the start of summer vacation for high school English teacher Ellen Banks and her two sons, eleven-year-old James and thirteen-year-old Daniel. It looks to be a rather normal summer: a visit to her see her parents in Missouri, the boys off to Detroit to spend a week with their dad, and the with the much-anticipated August week at Lake Augusta in southern Wisconsin, the final, lazy week before getting ready for back-to-school and the dreaded trip to buy James a new pair of school shoes. Ellen loves these summers to reconnect with her boys. Life is pretty much well going along as planned until the Banks get to the lake house, owned by Ellen's dearest friend Anna and her husband, Sam. While the boys are frolicking in the lake with Anna and Sam's three girls, a Jet Ski roars into the shallow water and clips James on the head. From that moment on, Ellen's world is turned upside down. There's the decision to take him off life support, the decision about organ donation (and no, says Ellen, it doesn't make you feel any better), and the decision about who is to blame for James' death. The book is well-paced, giving readers the perfect amount of information to learn about Ellen and her family before tragedy strikes. There are enough twists to give an old tale new life. The prologue was a bit melodramatic and was unnecessary, but on the other hand, it prepares readers for the Ellen's journey through the worst period of her life. Armchair Interviews says: Grab a tissue and get set for a great read.

Every Parent Should Read This Book

This was a wonderful novel. It captured me right from the beginning until the end. It is a bittersweet novel of one woman's journey through the ultimate loss that once can experience...that of a child. I am a parent of a young son and often I tried to put myself in the character's shoes and could feel some of those emotions. I also had lost my mother 2 years ago and I could relate to some of the grief related feelings that we all go through when experiencing the loss of a loved one. The author of this book has written this book in such a way where you really are drawn into the character and all her emotions. I highly recommend this book. I hope the author writes more novels as her writing style is simply wonderful.

This Book Should Come With a Warning

Reader, beware. All the Numbers, a well-written novel by author Judy Merrill Larsen, should be read with a note of caution. The author evokes such a sense of pure grief that one cannot help but experience the death of an 11-year old boy named James. I truly felt his mother's pain. I bought this book after reading a review in the Lakeland Times newspaper, a twice weekly paper serving northern Wisconsin, where local lakes are enjoyed by vacationers, including swimmers and jet-skiers. Because my two young children swim in front of our dock (in shallow water) on a daily basis, I believed this story would hold some relevance. It certainly did. This novel is many things, but for me, it's primarily a cautionary tale. All the Numbers is indeed well written and a very quick read, even though much of the plot is driven by the mundane day-to-day musings of Ellen Banks, the mother. Every excruciating detail of each character's actions and each of her thoughts is laid bare. If you've ever wondered what it feels like to lose a child, or want to try to understand the anger and sadness of a mother going through such a loss, the all-encompassing grief expressed in these pages captures these emotions. I felt much of the story was predictable and at times, a bit like a steady "heart line" monitor that Ellen, a high school writing teacher, ironically uses as a metaphor about creating fiction without rising action; however, I cried real tears on the last page. The story will stay with me for a long time. Well done. Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.