As with many anthologies of individual experiences, Here Lies My Heart relies on common themes--coping with the routine of a relationship, straying vs. staying, self vs. couple's identity. Overall it hit a negative note. It also overlooked a growing segment of the population--those who have never married and managed to find a degree of contentment. This book wasn't about why people don't marry--it was about how people work through staying in or leaving a marriage.

I've been reading a lot of books about love and relationships in connection with a book I'm working on, and this collections of essays was so superior to the others in the quality of the writing and the honesty and charm of the personal accounts (with a few notable exceptions, including Edward Hoagland's essay) that I made a special effort to post a comment here. This would be an excellent book to give a friend who has a perfectly wonderful marriage that he or she is thinking of walking out on, or to someone who's just experiencing a case of the marriage blahs.

The stories in this book are lovely. They are sad, moving, deeply thought-out vignettes of various aspects of marriage, married life and/or relationships. The stories probably won't change your life but the reader is afforded an intimate glimpse into the private, often painful and loving world of relationships. I found the writing in many of the stories to be breathtaking.

In "Normal", Bloom chronicles her journey into understanding female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual male crossdressers, and the intersexed. Intersexuality is the more preferred term than hermaphroditism. Intersexed babies are those born with genitals that are not as easily identifiable as either male or female, so doctors and surgeons perform often unnecessary and traumatizing surgery to force the baby to conform to what society and the medical community believe the standards to be. Bloom ultimately finds that our notions of what is normal are very constrained, and are much more variegated than the general population believes. By getting beyond the medical and technical jargon and interviewing the people in these categories, she discovers that even in minority groups like these, there are differences between the individuals, so she must dispel her own expectationss about commonalities within minorities. "Normal" is a wonderful introduction into understanding the human varieties on the margins, as well as understanding what is normal.

this book is not for those who have any real experience/knowledge of gender issues, but this is a great introduction to three basic gender 'differences': transsexualism, crossdressing, and the intersexed.

bloom doesn't come off as sensation or polemical or academic - which seem to be the general choices with writings about gender.

she does not by any means manage an exhaustive report, of course: the world of the transgendered is far too complex to manage that, but she does a fair job. these read like the long magazine articles they are, & i would have appreciated a little more in the way of her 'afterword' - that is, more of her thoughts, definitions, a little more of the civil rights issues at stake, etc.

but for what it is, a decent-enough read.

This lucid book surprised me twice: first, when it exposed me to valuable information I'd never seen before despite a lifetime of study of sexual deviance and, second, when it entertained me with a quality of writing rarely seen. Amy Bloom is, without doubt, an extraordinary writer capable of graceful prose.

Her inquiry into the three subjects of transexualism, transvestism and intersexuality mirrors that of an investigative journalist or probing sociologist: Bloom went into the field, conducted extensive first- and secondhand research and brought home interesting and unexpected insights. No matter how familiar you are with any of these subjects, you will learn something new and useful from this book.

And the pleasure of reading it makes the book doubly enjoyable.

I love reading stories in which the characters seem like they could be just a phone call away. It wasn't one story or another that touched me, it was the small and beautiful details that Bloom weaved through each one that made this collectin a pleasure to read. Sometimes connecting with other humans is hard, but the characters Bloom has created bring out such a realness and vulnerablity that we can miss in our daily lives.

Amy Bloom surpasses the majority of modern and postmodern writers in her ability to walk us along the thin line between bliss and sorrow, hope and despair, often tempting us to jump or fall, but ultimately maintaining her course and bringing us to the end where the line dissolves. Her language is sensual decadence for the reader, but her control and neutrality towards beauty enable her to escape the pitfall of sentimentality.
_Love Invents Us_, a novel which she developed out of one of the stories found here ("Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines"), is certainly worth the read, particularly for fans of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single story as varied as they were, the author does not judge the characters and the different psychological aspects of each personality added alot of dimension to what could have been ordinary stories of love, passion and loss instead they are fascinating stories of LIFE! I also recommend Elizabeth Berg to readers who like Bloom. Thank you for introducing me to this author whom I could not even find at our large local book store. I will order her novel next "Love Invents Us"...

Amy Bloom is such a talented writer that I have a hard time understanding why she so often sinks to writing about weirdness to make her stories fly. Every one of these stories involves a main character who's not just isolated by health or circumstance, but just too odd to relate to. Of course Bloom can use these physical conditions to point to a shared humanity (okay, I get it, we're all freaks), but these stories highlight their weirdness in a way that evokes pity and spectatorship rather than understanding, sympathy, or respect.

Many of the excellent stories in "Come to Me" touch on this treatment, but the outcome is a glimpse at or understanding of a human emotion, condition, a "how this kind of thing could happen in anyone's life" feeling-- not the feeling you've just viewed a circus-train wreck.

I loved most of the stories in "Come to Me" but felt disappointed by both "A Blind Man..." and "Love Invents Us" for this same reason. All the ideas she evokes could be illustrated without the extreme examples. I'm left with a great respect for a writer who can write a couple of the most beautiful short stories I've read ("Silver Water" and "Love is Not a Pie" are brilliant), but wondering if she's appealing to something less noble in readers-- our slithering undersides, gawking at the strange and the carnival-- rather than the parts of us that make us better people. Is that the point?

Bloom's second collection of short stories is another intimate glance into the intricacies of relationships. As in Come to Me, Bloom writes without judgement, simply sharing pain, hope, fear and love felt by ordinary people. Her language is exquisite and her stories memorable. My favorites of the collection include:

Stars at Elbow and Feet - After the loss of a child a woman, not feeling worthy of life, finds a new reason to live.

Hold Tight - The story of father and daughter reconnecting after cancer takes the family's wife and mother.

The Gates are Closing - A man asks his lover, not his wife, to help him end his battle with Parkinson's disease.

Despite the grim circumstances these characters are under, Bloom has a way through her luminescent prose of bringing hope and peace to both the characters and the reader. If you pick this up, which I highly recommend, make sure you read Come to Me first. Two of Bloom's most compelling characters in Come to Me, Lionel and Julia, make a repeat performance in this second collection and provide closure to their long-held secret.

Author Amy Bloom continues to display mastery of the short story form. The collection of eight compelling stories is inhabited by real people, flawed and admirable, struggling to overcome obstacles confronted throughout life; the characters are revealed slowly and surely by an author who displays rare insight and compassion. The richly subtle photograph on the book jacket is a visual poem that speaks of both vulnerability and hope -- an image that reflects the insights of the psychotherapist/author.

Though not as well known as the novels that established the author's name (Pride and Prejudice, Emma), Persuasion is certainly worth your time. It's extremely well-written with superb characterization. The plot isn't too original by today's standards, but is interesting nonetheless. Anne Elliot, the smartest and most pleasant by far of three upper class sisters, is 28 and still single. At 19 she fell in love with and almost married a dashing naval officer named Frederick Wentworth. However, great pressure from her family and relations "persuaded" her to reject Frederick due to his lower station in society. Frederick was greatly hurt and promptly went off to engage his energies in naval action.

Eight and a half years later, Anne still hasn't met another guy she likes as much as Frederick and remains single. But now Frederick returns from war, retired, extremely wealthy from privateering with mercenaries, and more mature. He's ready to settle down and a chance family connection puts him back in the same neighborhood as Anne! He's still upset with Anne. And this time, other women are catching his eye too...

While not up to the standards of Anne Bronte's outstanding The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Persuasion is a good classical romance novel. I think it beats out Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd on plot and characterization, though Hardy's prose is generally more powerful. Nevertheless, Austen can be quite poignant when she wants to be: Wentworth's shocking letter to Anne at the end of the book moved even me, a generally left-brained emotionless creature!

A highlight of the novel is the illuminating social commentary that Austen subtly inserts into the prose. Clearly, she felt that the class system entrenched in British society at the time had its shortcomings. The endnotes in the Penguin edition do a good job of explaining the finer points of Austen's many jabs at class-conscious folks including Anne's self-absorbed father Walter and hopeless sister Elizabeth. Anne's other sister Mary is rendered superbly by Austen as a basically good-natured woman unfortunately marred by a touch of vanity. I personally know a Mary or two.

Recommended to all adult readers!

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel because of Jane Austen's lyrical prose, her timeless subjects of family relationships, love (and/or the search for it), her heartwarmingly drawn characters that I think any reader anywhere and at any time can relate to easily, and her usual witty and critical social commentary. I find it amazing to think that she wrote this novel nearly 200 years ago! I can think of several people in my own family and among friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who match her descriptions of Anne Elliot, her father and sisters Walter and Elizabeth Elliot and Mary Musgrove, Lady Russell, Captain Wentworth, etc. Times and mores may have changed in 200 years, but human nature has not changed! Reading her descriptions of these characters and well imagining Anne's reaction to them, whether it is with resignation, amusement, or exasperation mirror my own thoughts on them.
Austen has created a wonderful character in Anne Elliot. I found that I liked her more and more as I read the novel, and, had she been real, would liked to have had her as a sister, friend, or relative. She is such a wonderful character because readers have a chance to see how she has grown up, has changed, and is willing to go for what she wants now that she is older and wiser (much like anyone else).
The story is not like Austen's other novels (Pride and Prejudice, Emma) because it deals with the issue of a true rarity in life--a second chance at love. Anne Elliot met and fell in love with Captain Frederick Wentworth, a naval officer, when she was 19 years old. Against her better judgment, she is "persuaded" by family in the form of family disapproval of her choice. Her mother is dead, her father and her elder sister Elizabeth (who have a very strange, almost-marriage-like relationship themselves) are social snobs and do not consider a mere captain in the British navy good enough to marry into their family because they are ranked above him socially. Anne's feelings, Frederick's feelings, and the possibility that he could earn a great deal of money by capturing privateers and enemy ships, or be rewarded with a title for distinguishing himself in battle does not occur to them. Anne is also strongly influenced by Lady Russell, a close family friend and a particularly close friend to Anne. Lady Russell, since the death of Anne's mother, has become a mother-figure/friend to Anne (since Anne is ignored by her father and sister Elizabeth). Lady Russell also disapproved of Anne marrying Captain Wentworth, and Anne, because she was young and easily influenced by those around her at age 19, breaks off her engagement to Captain Wentworth. She has regretted it ever since, and has not met anyone (her father and sister went out in Society, but did not take Anne with them; her younger sister Mary is married, but spends her time complaining about non-existent ailments and about all the wrongs and hurts she has suffered at the hands of family and friends to take any interest in introducing Anne to eligible young men) she would consider as a husband. Eight years pass, and, by chance, Captain Wentworth (now considerably wealthier though not titled) re-enters her life due to the temporary lull in the Napoleonic Wars. He too was very hurt by Anne's breaking off of their engagement, but, like Anne, he has not met any other women who compare to her. Both are wary of eachother--and Austen handles both their introspection and their gradual establishment of a stronger, more mature love for eachother with sensitivity and passion. I loved this story because it clearly shows an older (though still young) heroine who is offered the rarest of all things--a second chance at love with the love of her life. She is wise enough to reject the opinions of her family and Lady Russell this time, accepts the love offered, and offers her own love in return! Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne at the end of the novel is the kind of love letter every woman would cherish. Wow! What a beautiful letter! It warms your heart, touches your soul, and nourishes your spirit. The story is all the more poignant because Anne and Captain Wentworth appreciate eachother and their relationship because they know what they have and what they could have missed had they followed social conventions.
For the die-hard Austen fans, there is plenty of social commentary, and I thought that Austen illustrated the snobbishness of the upper classes very well in her characterizations of Anne's father and sisters. The criteria they use to accept or reject a person are based on such things as whether the man owns property and how much, how many servants he has, title, family background, connections, and, in her father's case, physical appearance is very important. None of these things have any intrinsic value compared to whether Anne is loved and respected by Captain Wentworth, how he treats people, his ethics, morality, etc. Austen's subtle humor and way of poking fun at these values contribute to the tone of this novel.
Give this novel a try. I do not think that you will be disappointed. I highly recommend it.

"Persuasion" is a great literary work, and, to my mind, Jane Austen's finest book. This was her final completed novel before her death, and was published posthumously. As is often the case with Ms. Austen's fiction, "Persuasion" deals with the social issues of the times and paints a fascinating portrait of Regency England, especially when dealing with the class system. Rigid social barriers existed - and everyone wanted to marry "up" to a higher station - and, of course, into wealth. This is also a very poignant and passionate story of love, disappointment, loss and redemption. The point Austen makes here, is that one should not ever be persuaded to abandon core values and beliefs, especially for ignoble goals. There are consequences, always.

Sir Walter Elliot, Lord of Kellynch Hall, is an extravagant, self-aggrandizing snob, and a bit of a dandy to boot. He has been a widower for many years and spends money beyond his means to increase his social stature. His eldest daughter, who he dotes on, is as conceited and spoiled as he is. The youngest daughter, Anne, is an intelligent, sensitive, capable and unassuming woman in her late twenties when the story opens. She had been quite pretty at one time, but life's disappointments have taken their toll and her looks are fading. She and her sister are both spinsters. Anne had once been very much in love with a young, and as yet untried, navel officer. A woman who had been a close friend to Anne's mother, persuaded Anne to "break the connection," convincing her that she could make a much better match. After much consideration, Anne did not follow her heart or her better instincts, and she and her young officer, Frederick Wentworth, separated. She has never again found the mutual love or companionship that she had with him. Anne's older sister never married either, because she hadn't found anyone good enough! She still hopes, however, for an earl or a viscount.

The Elliot family is forced to financially retrench because of their extravagance. They lease Kellynch Hall to...of all people...Wentworth's sister and her husband. Elliot, his oldest daughter and her companion, move to a smaller lodging in Bath for the season, leaving Anne to pack up their belongings before joining them. She gets the Cinderella treatment throughout the book. Anne decides to first visit with her middle sister, an abominably spoiled, whiny hypochondriac, Mrs. Musgrove. She has made a good, but not brilliant match to a local squire. Her husband, Charles Muskgrove, his parents, and their two younger, eligible daughters, Louisa and Henrietta, are delightful. They all tolerate Mrs. Muskgrove, barely, and adore Anne. It is at the Muskgrove estate that Anne meets Frederick Wentworth again, after his absence of seven years. He is in the neighborhood, because his sister is now in the area, residing at Kellynch, of course. Wentworth is now a Captain in the Royal Navy and quite wealthy. When their eyes meet for the first time, you can absolutely feel Anne's longing and remorse. He is aloof with Anne, although civil. The man was hurtfully rejected once before and it appears that he still feels her snub. Now Wentworth is on the marriage market and Louisa sets her cap for him. Accidents and various adventures ensue, from the resorts of Lyme and Bath to the Muskgrove estate, bringing Anne and Wentworth closer together. The passion between the two is sooo palpable, although Very understated, (this is Regency England after all). I think this is Ms. Austen at her most passionate. Some scholars say that she modeled Anne Elliot after herself.

This remarkable novel, and the issues it tackles, is just as germane today as it was when written. And the romance...well, no one does romance better than Jane Austen.

The four winds may change direction, and histories may shift at any given moment, but Amy Tan's, 'The Joy Luck Club' remains a captivating tale about four mothers and their four daughters.
The Chinese game Mah-jong works to join the mother's together as they form the club and share the secrets and tragedies of their lives as well as their hopes and dreams for their daughters. The women in this novel struggle to bestow their daughters with the virtues of Chinese traditions and at points seem to go too far-pitting their daughters against each other and sadly living their lives through them.
Tan writes both honestly and sensitively examining the generation gap between mothers and their daughters as well as the struggles migrants face when joining other countries. 'The Joy Luck Club' belongs to a genre which can only be described as realistic with characters which are both three dimensional and relatable.
The story is written through defined chapters-each dedicated to either a mother or a daughter; as they weave their histories and spin their stories.
The novel, through this chapter fragmentation allows each character to develop, with an emphasis on the main narrative- the death of one of the members of the club. The death of Suyuan Woo results in the incorporation of her daughter Jung Mei 'June' Woo into the group. June realises her mother- who died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm - had unfinished business which leads June to face one of the biggest tragedies in her mother's life. 'The Joy Luck Club' is an inspiring novel which is moving both moving and courageous-a definite pleasure to read.

The four winds may change direction, and histories may shift at any given moment, but Amy Tan's, 'The Joy Luck Club' remains a captivating tale about four mothers and their four daughters.
The Chinese game Mah-jong works to join the mother's together as they form the club and share the secrets and tragedies of their lives as well as their hopes and dreams for their daughters. The women in this novel struggle to bestow their daughters with the virtues of Chinese traditions and at points seem to go too far-pitting their daughters against each other and sadly living their lives through them.
Tan writes both honestly and sensitively examining the generation gap between mothers and their daughters as well as the struggles migrants face when joining other countries. 'The Joy Luck Club' belongs to a genre which can only be described as realistic with characters which are both three dimensional and relatable.
The story is written through defined chapters-each dedicated to either a mother or a daughter; as they weave their histories and spin their stories.
The novel, through this chapter fragmentation, allows each character to develop, with an emphasis on the main narrative- the death of one of the members of the club. The death of Suyuan Woo results in the incorporation of her daughter Jung Mei 'June' Woo into the group. June realises her mother- who died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm - had unfinished business which leads June to face one of the biggest tragedies in her mother's life. 'The Joy Luck Club' is an inspiring novel which is both moving and courageous-a definite pleasure to read.

This novel by Amy Tan wonderfully combines a mother-daughter struggle to understand each other's worlds with the conflict that comes in an American-born child trying to understand her Chinese-born mother. The novel effectively combines the Chinese culture and the American state of mind in a series of short stories on the lives of 4 mothers and 4 daughters. The Chinese proverbs and morals are strong throughout the book. Tan also manages to put little characteristics of herself and her mother in each of the mother-daughter pairs. The mixture of stories, such as a child's mother committing suicide, a 12-year-old girl's arranged marriage, a woman losing everything and still going strong, and a young child getting a wish granted by the Moon Lady, is sure to leave any reader wanting to know more of the Chinese culture. The main difficulty in this book is remembering which of the 8 characters is the main character in each story. The struggle between one mother and daughter is repeatedly compared to a game of chess that the mother always seems to be winning. This book can get tedious towards the middle, because each of the daughters' struggles with their mothers are very similar and appear to be repeating, but the mothers' stories of their lives in China break up the monotony at the end of the book. Anyone interested in a taste of a different culture, or anyone liking a mixture of short stories is sure to like this book.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the joy an author takes in their subject. Certainly Henry James had but one: The innocence and naiveity of young America getting seduced, transformed and all-together changed by its confrontation with an old world Europe that is more brutal and desperate than all the regularly criticized American vulgarities. Now James was a consummate stylist--a brilliant writer of carefully diagrammed and constructed sentences and an, at times, of needless and excessively subtle growing menace. This can make for an often turgid, frequently dull narrative--the work of a man far more interested in style than in the substance of anything actually going on in his shrouded characters' lives.

Fortunately The Wings of the Dove is a better example of James at work: a plot that is outlined from the very beginning and a consistant approach to his theme that hardly ever bogs down with over-explanation. It is a good book, an at times even brilliant book, with a story that is clearly inevitable but with enough emphasis on its character's individual humanity to allow for disclosure of independant diversions.

I had little interest in this book when I started, my experience with James ruined in the past by the pretention of college professors and a sodden girth of contrary critical study, each promoting a specific agenda more concerned with condemning one view than with promoting another. This book is no doubt open to just as furious a debate as, say, Portrait of a Lady or The Bostonians (although with such a tame story, as with all, that I have considerable doubt that enough of today's readers can be inspired to even care--), but it remains more focused on telling its story than in confusing the reader by expressing the confused frame of its characters' perceptions.

Better than average stuff from that still school of dialectitions who seem somehow so nervous and rigid when relating all those dark urges they know are buried underneath.

This is a story with an evocative London and Venetian setting that features two young women; Kate, a rare English Rose, and Millie, an American heiress. Their 'instant sisterhood,'with its questionable roots and rapid development is dramatically loving on a surface that hides a whirlpool of darker motives. The English girl has the manor and the man; while the American has the wealth and the tragic curses that often accompany it. Beautiful Kate, is in love with Merton Densher, a journalist with an education and a job, but with very little money. Though they wish to marry, Kate's aunt, who is her benefactress, opposes it and threatens to cut her neice off, should she procede against her wishes. Kate also comes from a cursed family. Her mother is dead, from worry, generated from her rogue yet romantic father. His gambling and generally shameful behavior is only underscored by the fact that he rejects Kate's offer to give up her aunt's protection and come to him as his hostess. That he refuses and urges her back to the manor and the manipulation, that he is reinforced by her two elder sisters who also see dollar signs throughout; may serve as some justification for Kate's calculated and extreme betrayal and exploitation of the American, Millie.
James provides opulent settings and rare, ravishing beauty with an almost addictive love angle. Yet, the story is somewhat too narrow for the length of the book. The characters are believable and compelling, but they merely tease the reader into thinking that they are changing creating some confusion and sense of plodding. This book however, is a major moral statement about the nature of love and the fine line of sin that often intersects it. The decisions that Kate made and Merton reluctantly agreed to carry out, with regard to Millie; ultimately, like a devil's pact, lead to the desired end which is no longer either desirable or emotionally palatable to the victors. Beyond that, Kate too, cold and quick, is herself a victim; of a family, a culture and of a paradoxical passion which she cannot for all of her skepticism, eliminate.
Not the best James by a long shot, but an interesting peak into his later life insistence on retribution as dealt to those guilty of ravaging betrayal.

The title of this book should be "Sex Invents Us", since Amy Bloom has fallen into the trap of many modern authors, focusing almost solely on the sexual experiences of her characters in telling their life stories. Are all the defining moments in Elizbeth's troubled childhood sexual? What about the social ostracism she experienced, and the effects of cold, distant parents? Only the sexual abuse is spelled out in excruciating detail. Why did an adult man fall for Elizabeth? What was Max thinking? In Lolita, the reader was privy to Humbert's deluded rationalization of sexula desire for a child. In this book, the reader is never given a glimpse of how Max justified his actions to himself. I repeatedly found myself asking the question - why?

The reader also knows that Huddie and Elizabeth had great sex together from the start. Is that what makes them life-long soulmates? How did these characters relate as people outside the sexual arena. Once again, I was left wondering why the connection between these characters is so strong.

This book was a major disappointment. Next time, Ms.Bloom, give me a story - not a sexual dossier. I know you've got it in you!

Amy Bloom's Love Invents Us can sometimes be a very beautiful book with a challenging character at its centre and it can sometimes be a very frustrating book with a challenging charater at its centre. Ultimately, it is a satisfying read but the journey is not always pleasant as Elizabeth grows up and grows older. The male characters are not always drawn as finely but it is, of course, not their story but Elizabeth's. The need for love creates and sustains this story and gives the novel its razor sharp painfulness. I wished I enjoyed the character of Elizabeth more as then it would be her personality that took me through this novel instead of being propelled by the wonderful prose of Amy Bloom over the slow spots. In the end, a good book if not always a pleasure.

Amy Bloom's stunning writing made what might have been a depressing story a terrific read. I found her characters not only believable, but sympathetic and fraught with the complicated baggage that makes real people interesting--and at times intolerable, as these characters were.

Elizabeth Taube's quest for love begins with the strange fur salesman Mr. Klein and continues through a series of longer-lasting relationships, none of which completely satisfies her--although all of them do, as the title says, invent her. From Mrs. Hill, who teaches her how love through service, to Mr. Stone, her obsessed English teacher, to her parents' disconnected affection, Elizabeth learns about love in the complex forms in which it presents itself to us, and Amy Bloom shows us how Elizabeth learns in elegant prose.