Janet
10th August 2006, 21:15
State Of The Union by Douglas Kennedy
The ‘Blurb’
America in the Sixties is an era of radical upheaval - of civil rights protests and anti-war marches; of sexual liberation and hallucinogenic drugs. More tellingly, it was a time when you weren't supposed to trust anyone over the age of thirty; when, if you were young, you rebelled against your parents and their conservative values. But not Hannah Buchan. Hannah is a great disappointment to her famous radical father and painter mother. Because instead of mounting the barricades and embracing this age of profound social change, she wants nothing more than to marry her doctor boyfriend and raise a family in a small town. Hannah gets her wish. But once installed as the doctor's wife in a nowhere corner of Maine, boredom sets in ...until an unforeseen moment of personal rebellion changes everything. Especially as Hannah is forced into breaking the law. For decades, this one transgression in an otherwise faultless life remains buried. But then, in the charged atmosphere of America after 9/11, her secret comes out and her life goes into freefall.
It took me quite a while to get into this book. It took me ages to read, because I didn’t feel compelled to read and read and read like I do with some books. However, once I did get into it, I enjoyed it.
The ‘blurb’ says that Hannah’s secret comes out and her life goes into freefall, but there is more to it than that. Something else happens first, and then the secret comes out, and the story is really about those two things.
The story was fairly predictable overall, but that didn’t stop it from being a good read. I think it’s the sort of book to read if you’ve read something with a bit more depth, and you want something light as an antithesis.
The paperback is 608 pages long and is published by Arrow. The ISBN number is 0099468298.
6/10
The ‘Blurb’
America in the Sixties is an era of radical upheaval - of civil rights protests and anti-war marches; of sexual liberation and hallucinogenic drugs. More tellingly, it was a time when you weren't supposed to trust anyone over the age of thirty; when, if you were young, you rebelled against your parents and their conservative values. But not Hannah Buchan. Hannah is a great disappointment to her famous radical father and painter mother. Because instead of mounting the barricades and embracing this age of profound social change, she wants nothing more than to marry her doctor boyfriend and raise a family in a small town. Hannah gets her wish. But once installed as the doctor's wife in a nowhere corner of Maine, boredom sets in ...until an unforeseen moment of personal rebellion changes everything. Especially as Hannah is forced into breaking the law. For decades, this one transgression in an otherwise faultless life remains buried. But then, in the charged atmosphere of America after 9/11, her secret comes out and her life goes into freefall.
It took me quite a while to get into this book. It took me ages to read, because I didn’t feel compelled to read and read and read like I do with some books. However, once I did get into it, I enjoyed it.
The ‘blurb’ says that Hannah’s secret comes out and her life goes into freefall, but there is more to it than that. Something else happens first, and then the secret comes out, and the story is really about those two things.
The story was fairly predictable overall, but that didn’t stop it from being a good read. I think it’s the sort of book to read if you’ve read something with a bit more depth, and you want something light as an antithesis.
The paperback is 608 pages long and is published by Arrow. The ISBN number is 0099468298.
6/10