Almost

by Elizabeth Benedict

Book Overview

The hilarious opening of Almost does little to prepare either the reader or the narrator, Sophy Chase, for the drama of what is to come. Almost divorced, Sophy is in bed with her new lover -- an art... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618143327
• ISBN13: 9780618143320
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Love and life and eternal questions

I read this book on the heels of "Martin Sloane," which coincidentally is about the nature of love--and of life--as well. It was refreshing to pick up two books that weren't about family dysfunction, but about honest questing, about finding our way through this maze of living a life. We do encounter troubles; we do find ourselves with unanswered questions, with doubts, with wonderings; we do become entangled, for many reasons, some of them good ones, some of them bad. Children are important. Remaining true to ourselves is crucial. And in the end, love rules. I enjoyed this book very much. It's funny, rueful, thoughtful. It doesn't try to spell out answers, but it does suggest them. Nothing hard and fast, but the soft sort of answer that somehow brings peace. I highly recommend "Almost."

Serendipity

Picked this up because of the beautiful cover and was further intrigued by the Martha's Vineyard setting. So glad I did: what a delightful read! "Almost" concerns a nearly-divorced woman who must unexpectedly face her "husband's" death just as she thinks her new life is in place. Sophy's physical and emotional journey to Martha's Vineyard is manages to be both incredibly moving and often quite funny. And the secondary characters (a sleazy divorce lawyer, his mistress, some Vietnamese orphans)make "Almost" layered and lively. A must for Vineyard lovers!

Literarily intriguing

Almost is Benedict's most intriguing novel. On its surface, it's a mystery narrative of a woman's search to find the answer(s) for her almost-ex-husband's sudden death. Beneath the surface, the novel is a a rich mixture of tragedy, comedy and suspense as Sophy Chase searches for the truth of her own emotional life, which (of course) lies deeper than her pleasure at finding a lover with prodigious ability. She grapples with fulfilling her maternal instincts and succeeds, almost, at the book's end. This novel is a wonderful read--a humorous yet poignant page-turner--set against the backdrop of a fictional Martha's Vineyard, with a Cape Cod caste of secondary characters who are drawn in fine detail from the celebrity lawyer to the alcoholic islander.

This book entranced me

It is rare for me to read a novel that crackles with intensity and insight, and pulls me complusively along from page to page - Almost did that completely. The book is wickedly funny and smart, but the best part is the strength of the emotions and the precision of the descriptions of them. I laughed out loud many times, and if I weren't a man, I would have cried a few too.