One of the best books I have read in a while. I just couldn't put it down until I had finished it, and then I was sad that it was over. This book has everything: Humor, compassion, wisdom, insight, and great characters. It makes you think deeply about your own life and your relationships. The slow transformation of the main character Caroline is fascinating as she goes through therapy and takes a critical look at herself and her past. I have bought copies for all my friends to read and they all liked it just as much. If you tend to get depressed during the winter months, read this book as it may not only cheer you up but may also give you a fresh new perspective on your life.

This book is tragic and wonderfully written. Hardy uses words to create a scene for you that creates the visual for you completely. I think that the sadest thing for me was to realize people did live like this, life really was that hard. As a 21st century woman I was outraged at the way that Tess was treated by men and by society. Who is the true bad guy, Alec or Angel? When we read it with our societies mores we perceive it one way, but if we were ken to the morals of that society how would we see it? Are they really dastards, or are they all just victims. I am not a scholar, I liked the story for being a good story.

After reading the book I rented the A&E movie. As I watched it, I realized how well the book translated into video, because I had already seen the exact same scenery in my mind. The only thing that surprised me was the bleakness of the trunip farm and Tesses horrible conditions. I couldn't imagine anything that awful.

There are a lot of words, similar to DH Lawrence, but I wouldn't get rid of a one of them. If you come to this book as a great story and not as a classic novel, you will hold Tess to your heart and never forget her tragedies.

What I have written below is the assignment of my homework. (I'm a 9th grade student)

Tess's life was destroyed by men who loved her. But the right man hesitated, and the wrong man found her first. This was how her life was ruined and how miserable she was. If you want more derails, it is better for you to read the book yourself.

This book is a perfect demonstration that bad things happened to good people. But I have to admitt that it is quite difficult to struggle through the beginning. But after a few chapters, enjoyment continued filling my heart and eventually I could not stop reading untill i have finished it.

Alec d'Urbervill was the man who destroyed Tess's life. Tess met with lots of knotty difficulties in her life. It is fallacious to say that ir was her fault.

Tess is really a complex character. Her life was full of love , hate, depression and misery. Fortunately, she met Angel Clare who filled her heart with happiness.

Good writing do not often go hand in hand. But Hardy did it. THis is a tragic story. Why is the world so unfair?

Hardy used a magical way to write this book. Once you start, you can't stop. As you travel through this book, you will find yourself lost in admiration for the strong, honest woman.

Hardy showed me the true colours of depreesion and hapiness. He did a nice job and i did appreciate it.

It is definitely the most beautifully crafted book i have ever read. This book is truly worth reading and I hope you are not going to miss it.

Truly an excellently written book. From the very beginning, Tess comes alive. Her parents are witless drunks with two many children, and Tess must care for them. When news comes to her idiot of a father that once the Durbeyfields were the D'Ubervilles, a family with a famous past, money and land, her life takes some terrible turns.

One of the best things about this book is that it is not happy-go-lucky. When terrible things happen to her, Tess has no where to go. If you want to see what life for women was like, you can easily find out through Tess.

The end is very unexpected, and absolutely perfect, and very satisfying as well. I didn't need to know what happened next, I wasn't dying to read a sequel, I was content.

For you people who love happy books, that have happy endings, middles, everything- read something by Jane Austen. If you are into reality, check this book out.

Being a Southerner myself and born about the same time as the characters, I could really relate to this very interesting, sometimes quirky, alternately funny and grim story. This book is full of irony, mischief, and a whole lot of truth. I was involved in so many of the "movements" of the 60's. Alther's book often made me squirm. Were we really that self-righteous, hypocritical and plain dumb? I guess at times we were. Highly readable and very informative as well as good fun, that's Original Sins. I am eager to lend it to friends, especially a friend who was in her 40's when she first came to the USA.

I flew through this story about young people growing up in a small town in Tennessee. The characters are interesting -- each one at first glance seems like a quick stereotype of the usual high school suspects -- but there is so much more to learn about them. If you like small town Southern novels, with the extras of civil rights, labor union struggles, and feminism thrown on top -- this is a good read

Ms. Alther's humor has always delighted me, and this book is another worthy achievement of hers. Woman of the world Clea Shawn decides to give up her lovers and travels, and seeks peace in a small town in New Hampshire. She surprisingly does adapt to little Roches Ridge although she is now physically separated from her husband, teenage children, and her female best friend.

While I enjoyed the book I did find the whole thing a bit unsettling. The two plot lines of the novel clashed a bit. The part of the story dealing with the outlandish citizens of Roches Ridge -and believe me there is not a normal person in the whole town- is quite hilarious. The other theme, Clea's relations with her family, and, most importantly, with her best friend Elke provide us with a more serious story. Either plot would have made a decent novel in itself.

It's good Alther, though. Highly recommended.

What can I say? This is a crazy, crazy book. I read through it and thought, "Hmmm, interesting." Ginny goes through lots of phases in life, basically adapting to the people around her. She never speaks up for what she wants and the book never really goes anywhere. I guess that's the 'existentialism' ? side of it. The main message is 'Try everything in the world and be a chameleon and maybe you'll er...uh... end up at square one... a puzzling piece of fiction!

Alther's literary creation is 'feminist' in the most salutory sense of the word, but it doesn't contain the mandatory man-bashing that became so common a few years later. Instead, Alther invokes an avalance of wit and sharp observation that will provoke a healthy nostalgia in the over-40s, a realistic warts-and-all view of that decade in the under-40s, and a pretty darn good look at that pivotal time for young adult readers who pick up the book. (Perhaps you know an older teen who's 'into' the 1960s?) The plot takes our (at least partly autobiographical) heroine from little 'Hullsport' (read: Kingsport) Tennessee Up North to a good college, and gets her into the Sixties just at the point they get hot, hot, hot. Of the many virtues of this novel, two stand out to me: (1) Alther narrates the story in a moderate point-of-view, avoiding the twin perils of getting too immersed in the subject or too distant and 'snooty'; and (2) related to this, her lead character's voice (which reflects her personality) is good, clear and steady, no whining here. Not to mention the fact that the book is witty as all get-out.

As you probably know by now, this kind of witty and zestful Baby Boomer's coming-of-age story is a glut on the literary market but in my opinion "Kinflicks" is *far* above the norm in quality. You probably already have your own favorite coming-of-age-in-the-Sixties novels; try "Kinflicks" and add another to your list.

PS: Oh, Mr. Publisher!! Have you noticed that eight of us or so have gone to the trouble to review "Kinflicks," even though it's difficult to find through normal distribution channels? How about a reprint? I don't think you'd regret doing so.

charless@ync.net

Like many women of her generation (the 50s and 60s), Ginny Babcock is searching for her identity in an age when much is expected of women, but few opportunities and little direction is available. Being a wife and a mother is no longer the expected (and supposedly fulfilling) goal of all women of Ginny's generation, but what to choose instead . . .? Ginny tries a little bit of everything as she seeks for a role that thoroughly expresses her as a woman. Most of Ginny's experiments seem silly from the outside and end up as dissatisfactions and dead-ends, but often that's the only way we find our way through life. Counterposed with this is the lingering death of Ginny's mother and the struggle of the two women to bridge generational gap of two different generations and find some common ground. Ginny longs for some wisdom about life from her mother, but eventually sees that the only lesson available comes from simply living your life. I found this novel completely absorbing and sat up most of a night reading it. The relationship of Ginny and her mother touched a chord and has stayed with me.

Sorry to bring down the average on this book, but I HATED it. It was depressing, and extremely ODD. For those cynics in the crowd, you may want to read it just for a laugh. The book was plagued by death, and lesbianism. Everyone this poor woman loved, died. The book had no redeeming value WHATSOEVER and seemed not to have a point. If you're hoping to find a poignant author, this is not the woman. My advice: stick with Barbara Kingsolver and Fannie Flagg.

I found "Five Minutes In Heaven" to be a compelling and enjoyable read. This novel was intriguing, even if a bit dark. The story was somewhat sophisticated and off the beaten path, which is what I liked about it, though not everyone would relate. This definitely isn't a book that stays within the confines of "mainstream" perspective. Rather, it explores sexuality and a woman's search for love, as well as for her self, from a place that exists outside conventional, conservative dogma. Because of that, I found it refreshing, unique and terrific.

I can see why some readers would be put off by this book. The stress on feminism and lesbianism is insistent (though not nearly as unsubtly so as in some of Alther's other books), and the characters are quite cliched - polite Southerners, aloof Northerners, sensitive gays, sophisticated but tricky Parisians and the like. At the same time, the passion and love that are the book's main subject and the light, understatedly dramatic writing style used to depict them are such that the reader will forget about the cliches and be drawn into the story, which is totally, totally gripping. Like the love it describes, Alther's novel has a haunting, obsessive quality which I have seldom seen surpassed in other works of fiction. A modern classic!