I first read Laurie Colwin's _Family Happiness_, years ago, and it just gets better.Polly Solo-Miller Demarest is an outwardly conventional upper-middle class Manhattan wife and mother.She has looks, brains, social graces, money, and a secret life.She unexpectedly fell in love with the dashing Lincoln Bennett, a semi-monastic, and very good artist.Her inner conflicts drive this beautifully written, engaging book.This is similar, in theme, to Anne Tyler's _Back When We Were Grownups_, but Colwin's characters are far more interesting and personally appealing, and there is more resolution.This book is for anyone who has a complicated, hard to define inner life.

This is a wonderful book. I'm always sad to go the Laurie Colwin section in my library and know there will be nothing new, but knowing this book is usually there makes me feel a little better.

Polly's conflict is age old. In the middle of a seemingly wonderful life, the ache she feels is really touching. I think the search for her real self and the chaos it creates to the people around her is so funny and sad at the same time. It askes the question: Who am I really?

I love Polly's family and the way she relates to each member. As just their Polly, she is ultimate diplomat. The toll this task takes, I think, I something many women can relate to. I know I can. And while I'm not sure an affair is the answer, it fills the emptiness and helps her to realize that she is a person with needs too.

I love all of Laurie Colwin's books. This one, though, is my favorite.

Laurie Colwin died of a heart attack, not cancer, which I think about whenever I prepare on of her butter-loaded recipes from the Home Cooking books. But I make them anyway, and read her books over and over again. She clearly had the wisdom, open-mindedness, and generosity of spirit it takes to be a great cook as well as a great writer. There's no one else like her.

Laurie Colwin was a talented writer and had a real feel for the essential qualities of great food. Though not a chef or professional cook, she used her writing skills to delve into the mysteries of what makes good food great. And she did that with some of the funniest, sharpest, best writing since M.F.K. Fisher.

Alas, Laurie died in 1992, much too young, so you have to savor every scrap of writing she left us, in essays for Gourmet Magazine, and these, in her Home Cooking volumes. Colwin wrote some novels as well, but really, her food writing is what I appreciate the most.as

Colwin's writing is opinionated and passionate: she goes into raptures over things most 7 year olds (and quite a few adults) would gag over; succotash, beets, goat's milk yogurt. Yet her sense of what makes food essentially wonderful will have even the most confirmed vegetable-a-phobe at least thinking about trying her succotash recipe or maybe even looking at a raw beetroot with calm impartiality. In case you are certain you will still shun beets and lima beans, at least read her description of how to roast a duck. It's splendid.

Whether you enjoy cooking good home food for your family, or if you simply enjoy a great book to read, Laurie Colwin is your author. I'm no chef, but I loved this book. I felt as though Laurie and I had become friends, and I was deeply saddened to learn that she passed away in 1992. She tells great stories, gives good advice, and never overwhelms you with instructions or information (quite the opposite, in fact!). Her relaxed and conversational style of writing, and her reassurance that she wouldn't do it either if it weren't easy, encourages you to feel you too can make a delicious meal, bake your own bread, and still have a life! Unlike Martha Stewart, who often makes me feel overwhelmed, inadequate, or ill-equipped... Laurie makes you feel like she's dishing with you right in your own kitchen, and is very candid about her shortcuts and lack of kitchen tools. I wish I could have been friends with Laurie Colwin... but the next best thing is to read this book. ENJOY!

I think I've read every book Laurie Colwin has written, and I miss her. I refer to both her food books frequently-- both for recipes and for her down-home wisdom about what's good (if not necessarily good for you. Her strong opinions are not necessarily mine-- I still haven't acquired a taste for paprika, and she uses way too much butter, but her gingerbread recipe is the one comfort food I turn to on snowy days, and her essays on roasting chicken are a treasure. Having this book (both of them, actually) is like having a really good friend who loves to cook and eat as much as you do.

It is a joy to see all of Laurie Colwin's books reissued to delight her previous fans and engage new readers. My hardcover copy of "The Lone Pilgrim" from 1981 has my then-name written on the flyleaf. I devoured the stories, carried the book carefully across the country, and it sits with the following volume "Family Happiness" and her other books, including a British edition of "Passion and Affect" that I tracked down used, pre-Internet, pre-Amazon.com.

Laurie Colwin's works hold up amazingly well, at least in my opinion. It would be easy to despise her well-heeled, comfortable characters if they had been wrought by less skillful hands. She truly is America's own Jane Austen.

I am a long-time Laurie Colwin fan and I was glad to see that this book of short stories - which I wasn't familiar with - was re-released. It was interesing to find many of the same themes from other Colwin books (extra-marital affairs, a sometimes obsessive focus on domestic comfort) re-appear in these stories and to find some new themes as well. Colwin had a unique gift for writing mainly happy, funny stories about quirky, attractive people with interesting jobs. Many of the stories have a fable-like quality. They could be precious but they're not. Narrators usually lead charmed lives and you could resent them, but instead you root for them.

These stories seem to have been written in the early part of Colwin's career. The final story "Family Happiness" appears to be the first chapter of the novel of the same name. What's interesting about this collection is that it includes a few stories that are a bit darker or more experimental in feeling than much of Colwin's other work. One story is about a famous poet's unwelcome attention to a young serious-minded girl in a college town. (He watches her as she grows up, writes poems about her, and is generally obsessed with the girl.) The narrator of another hilarious story is a young wife keeping a secret from her college professor husband. The secret is that she is a pothead who has been continuously stoned from the moment thay met - an unusual heroine for Colwin, but she pulls it off!

My favorite Colwin book is still "Happy All The Time" but these stories were a pleasure to read. The enjoyment I get from reading her stuff is similar to the enjoyment I get from Jane Austen. If that's the kind of thing you like, I highly recommend "The Lone Pilgrim."

If the current population in Washington isn't doing much to make you feel good, harken back to the days of yore with this audiotape made at a benefit for the homeless at Symphony Space in 1989. The Symphony Space (un Upper Westside institution, for those of you unfamiliar with Manhattan) is an auditorium where readings and other artistic events supplemented the theater of the streets of the Upper West Side before no one could afford to live in this neighborhood anymore unless they were over 70 or had made a pact with the devil.

Tom Wolfe, Calvin Trillin and Garrison Keilor all read very pithy stuff but Calvin Trillin's deadpan annecdote, based on a fait divers about Ronald Reagan's address in Bel Air, is priceless. Maya Angelou is fascinating and compelling, but it is Laurie Colwin's performance for which I bought this tape because I wanted to hear if she sounds as wonderful as she reads.

Colwin died only three years after this recording was made, quite suddenly. Although her name was known to me, I only began to avidly read--and appreciate her books over the past year, surprisingly as a result of having read her food essays--a genre I seldom touch. They were so great they inspired me to read the novels and short stories.

Finding this tape was like winning a treasure hunt--it far exceeded my minimal expectations and has become my favorite driving excuse.

Laurie Colwin reads an excerpt from "Goodbye without Leaving" that almost had me wetting my pants in the car without leaving--it was that funny--and her delivery was as good as the text.

For Laurie Colwin fans this tape is a collector's item. The more I read her work and read about her, the more I miss her--I never saw or met this woman but I intensely love her. If you can still get a copy--grab it!!

There's something so great about the way Laurie Colwin writes--she is an avid observer, and her language is always right on. This book is no exception. I enjoyed it very much.

LAURIE COLWIN'S WONDERFUL COOKBOOK IS FULL OF WONDERFUL RECIPES AS WELL AS HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS TO THE NOVICE OR EXPERIENCED COOK. BUT THIS IS A BOOK WHICH IS SO MUCH MORE--PART RECIPES, FAMILY EXERIENCES, JOYFUL AS WELL AS HUMEROUS MOMENTS ALL IN THE NAME OF GOOD EATING. LAURIE COLWIN WAS A GIFTED STORYTELLER AND THE TALES SHE SHARES HERE ARE AN INSIGHT INTO HER HOME LIFE AMIDST HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THE RECIPES THEMSELVES ARE ENJOYABLE IN THE READING AND IN THE EATING. HER CAREFREE APPROACH TO COOKING AND HER OBVIOUS ENJOYMENT OF PREPARING FOOD AS WELL AS EATING IT ARE EVIDENT THROUGHOUT. YOU CAN USE THIS AS A COOKBOOK, BUT YOU WILL RELISH IT AS A DELIGHTFUL FORAY INTO THE COOKING EXPERIENCE. LAURIE'S WRITING IS TERRIFIC. THIS IS A FUN READ WHICH SOMETIMES CAUSES YOU TO LAUGH OUT LOUD. READ THIS WITH A GLASS OF WINE WHILE YOUR OWN MEAN SIMMERS, OR IN BED AT NIGHT AS YOU WOULD A GOOD NOVEL.

I discovered Laurie Colwin by accident (luck!), and have fallen in love with her writing. I read "Home Cooking" in two days, and then went on to devour "More Home Cooking." Reading this book makes you feel like you are in Laurie's kitchen with her, just chatting and creating some delicious food. Her musings are interesting, inspiring, and down to earth. In many ways, she is the anti-Martha Stewart, as she openly admits short cuts she takes (cutting up canned tomatoes while they're still in the can!), and discourages purchasing lots of kitchen paraphenalia. Throughout all of her writing and her cooking, the biggest ingredient is love. I felt warm all over reading this book, and whether you're into cooking or just having a great read, I'm sure that you will too!

Laurie Colwin's columns in "Gourmet" were a reason to subscribe to that publication. Unfortunately, heart problems claimed her life when she was 48. Her writings have been compiled in this book, Home Cooking, and a sequel (unpublished columns she left after her untimely death in More Home Cooking.)

Ms. Colwin was always opinionated, so you may find her obsessions with such things as yogurt, beets and boiled beef not to your food tastes. But even if you never make a single recipe in this book, the writing is some of the sharpest and best there is.

The book does have a set of gingerbread recipes that make it entirely worthwhile. Colwin spent some time trying to find the Holy Grail of gingerbread. This homey treat is often overlooked, but greeted with glad cries at the end of a simple meal of soup, especially if served with a lump of good vanilla ice cream, or even home-made applesauce. This book will save you a search for a better recipe than ones typically found in standard cooking books. Her roast chicken advice is also not to be despised. All in all, one of my favorite books just to read on a dreary day.

This selection of short stories provides a cozy, warm read. These are perfect for reading in the middle of winter, under a blanket, while drinking a great cup of tea. Colwin's stories revolve around love and domesticity, but they also focus on tensions within that realm. A good read.

I do not know why I waited so long to read Laurie Colwin's fiction. This was wonderful! You will see brilliant flashes of observation and insight, humor, and wisdom-- along with characters that are a lot like the most interesting people you know, crossing each other's paths for good and ill. It is difficult to write short stories that are this concentrated and perfect. If you're a Danielle Steel groupie, this is not for you-- Laurie Colwin was intelligent, subtle, and brilliant.

This book was recommended to me by the proprietress of a doomed bookstore which sold only "quality" books, and Colwin was one of her favorites. The stories are gems - as the other reviewers have said, the characters are people you know (only a little more charming and witty). I believe Colwin was one of the only really great short story writers who believed in happy endings.

Note: if you already like Laurie Colwin, don't miss Lee Smith. Even though Colwin was a Philadelphian who moved to NY and Lee Smith's work is of and about the South, they both manage to be charming, funny and meaningful at the same time - no easy feat.

In my trips through Contemporary American Literature I have not found anyone with better sense for character development than Laurie Colwin. What a shame she died so young! I have read a few of her other novels, but nowhere is this skill better shown than in this work. In this story, a young woman (Olly) becomes a widow after her husband (the 'bright and dangerous' of the title) dies in a boating accident. She and her brother in law grieve together, and almost as a consequence they fall in love. This story, explain so succinctly, sounds like it came from a pulp romance. In fact, it is slightly corny in its premise. However, Laurie Colwin depicts the pain, the anguish, the disbelief, and the whole array of emotions that the main characters go through. She does it in such a detailed, intimate way, that I would recommend this book to anyone that is going through a grieving process.

But! I could not give it five start because of Part III. Part I deals mostly with the blow, the sadness and the moving on, and Part II with Olly's new life as a widow in NYC. But Part III focuses on her trip to music camp, and what develops there. Without giving too much of the story away, I do not understand how Olly, now happily in love, could justify her behavior. It is all explained in there, I have to admit that. But my shortcomings as a reader get in the way, and I was disappointed about the ending. In any case, this is a great book, and a prime example of the exquisite skill that Laurie Colwin left us with.

I think this is her best novel, though Happy All The Time is probably my favorite. Shine On.... is the story of Ollie Bax, widowed at 27 by her daredevil husband. The language is beautiful,and Colwin's portrait of Ollie's grief is full of surprises and, oddly enough, comedy. Her language is astonshing in the evocativeness of the detail, which is intimate but never overwhelms her prose. Her descriptions "He smelled like cooked sugar" -- they made me feel like I recognized a place I'd never been to.

The late Laurie Colwin was masterful at creating stories about relationships. Never sentimental but always deeply moving, "Shine On.." is the story of a young widow and her brother-in-law. You'll never forget this story or Olive and Patrick. A beautifully romantic story.

Laurie Colwin was one of my favorite writers of the 1980's (my tastes seem to change as the decades do). I read (and proudly own) all her novels and short story collections, and her two books of essays on cooking. "Happy all the Time" happens to have been my introduction to Ms. Colwin's work, and it spurred me to read all her books. ("Happy" turned out to be my absolute favorite, though a couple of others were close seconds.)

Read this book. Read her other books. And join me in feeling very sad that this wondrous writer, whose humanity shines through in all of her work, left us all too soon.

I've lost count of how many times I've read this book. And I don't even know why I love it. I know intellectually that it's harder to write "happy" than sad, but what difference does it make? It's charming, it was written in the seventies, people are drinking and smoking and it still holds up. It is so close to flawless, and I love them all; Holly, Guido, Vincent and Misty. I love them and I don't care at all when an occasional cynic says, "It's not realistic, Holly is too perfect." Read it, and give it to someone who has never loved to read. Colwin's untimely death has always upset me. But I am so grateful for this book--and it's by far her best novel. (Some of her short stories are wonderful...)What talent!

In the last 15 or so years, I've read this book perhaps 25 or 30 times. Each time I'm drawn into the story of four people. Laurie Colwin, who died much, much too young, had the most wonderful ability to create vivid and real characters you care about. Her warmth, wit and humor are sorely missed. There's no one who writes like she did.

Although it has a few gems, this book desperately needs an editor. With all the character's pedestrian musings on life, marriage, sex, children, and the meaning of true happiness, no conclusion is reached, no epiphany occurs, nothing *happens*. Character and scene development rely on descriptions that are repeated in each chapter with no new information; the main character feels the same emotions again and again with no new insight. The result, to me, is a dissipated, meaningless manuscript containing some glaring mistakes (Germany is 6 hours ahead of the east coast in the winter, not 15; no woman drops to her original weight a few weeks after having a baby). I feel an editor is needed to make this into a novel I would enjoy and recommend.

Although I enjoyed the book, I did not find it a "gripping" read. I thought some of the characters were rather flat - Mokie's family, and those rich, blonde women with their three children that Jane Louise often envied. The only people who possessed any kind of depth were the narrator and her close circle of friends.

I think that this was a very good book. It kept me wanting to read. I also like how some of Colwins characters were unsure about themselves. That way if you are not sure about your self you could read the book and do what the characters do. i recommend this book to anyperson looking for a great read