Half Crazy: A Novel

By Joanie McDonell

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316555606
• ISBN13: 9780316555609
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Great first Novel

This is one of those books that I read at one of those moments in life where I just starting to understand myself. And this booked helped. I hold it very close to my heart, and I hope that you will too. Even though I agree with some of the other reviews (about underdeveloped characters) I find that a minor flaw in such an awesome first novel for Ms. J. M.

Interesting, but not captivating

J.M. McDonell does a wonderful job in exploring what it means to be a friend and to love someone. David is constantly struggling with the choices that Miranda makes in her relationships with others. I wouldn't say that he is jealous of Miranda's lovers in a sexual sense, but he is so awestruck by her charisma and beauty that he doesn't want to see her get hurt. He has to come to terms with his feelings for her - Is she the one who is going to change everything about his way of life? Does he love her? It seems as though J.M. McDonell did a marvelous job in developing David, Miranda, and few other characters, but there were other characters that didn't seem to be important to the plot (like the veterarian, and Ben). I think that she could have made each of the characters more developed and meaningful to the story. She could have made a stronger connection between some of the characters. I felt as though there were many wasted pages in her novel on which she would introduce these meaningless characters, never intending to incorporate them into the plot. Despite the underdeveloped characters, I enjoyed reading Half Crazy. I think that McDonell could have made the book more captivating by not taking up space with names and descriptions that weren't integral to the plot.

In Search of Holly Golightly...

Though interesting and enjoyable (read on a plane-trip), at times I felt as though the ghosts of Holly Golightly and Dunne's Grenville women were lurking in the mist. Miranda did exhibit a vunerable fragility that made her character believable; David was a 2 dimensional Truman Capote wanna-be? Or so it seemed to me. All in all, an entertaining romp, though more like late-night snack at Van Cleef's rather than Breakfast at Tiffany's!

This book is simply marvelous.

I don't know why I pulled "Half Crazy" from the shelf that day several years ago, but once I'd read the first few sentences, I knew I had to check it out and devour it en toto. I've read it five or six times, all told, and I never get tired of reading about Miranda, delving into her story.