Ellen Sussman (1) (1954–)

I am listening to a gamelan orchestra with metal clanging and bell like tones because that part of the setting is real to me. I studied that music in college and it bridged a path to the setting in Bali where the story is set.

Jamie is an adventure guide. She is returning to Bali after a year for a ceremony of the people who died in the bombings of two night clubs. We learn about her broken family and her childhood when she developed a love for hiking. Then, we are abrupty in Bali, the year before, a handsome adventure guide, named Miguel is fiercely in love with her and proposed marriage. He wanted to have children but she says no, she had never had a long term relationship and what she felf for him was lust, no love that meant marriage and children. Miguel runs from her crying and there is bombing of two nightclubs, confusion, screaming people, flames of burning and collapsing buildings.

An ex-pat, Gabe sees her in all the noisy and blinding confusion and he saves her life. There is much more about him, how his four year son died and his inability to share his grief. He quits his journalist job, his falls apart and he goes to Bali, ending up as an elementary school teacher.

This story is richly textured like the gamelon music, notes of beauty, grief, unlikely friendships and the terrible memories of people dying everywhere in the bombings. There are many layers to this story and the setting works perfectly.… (altro)

A Wedding In Provence tells the story of a late-in-life wedding in the French countryside. A divorced mother of two grown daughters falls madly in love with a widowed cowboy, and they decide to marry at her friend's inn in Provence. Although the story opens in Provence, after Olivia and Brody have met, fallen in love, and decided to marry, we see their romance unfold in memories and references, and quickly learn that even a happy relationship is not without complications.

rel="nofollow" target="_top">Read the whole review.… (altro)

"The Paradise Guest House" by Ellen Sussman was an okay read.

I have been to Bali before and I was interested on Sussman's take on an American woman who survived the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002.

The story revolves around two people. Jamie, an American adventure guide, and Gabe, an American ex-pat who comes to live and teach in Bali after dealing with a loss.

Jamie goes back to Bali a year later at an anniversary recognizing the victims and survivors of the nightclub bombing. She stays at the Paradise Guest House and befriends the owner Nyoman who lost his wife in the bombings. Along the way Jamie meets a street kid named Bambang who she finds herself becoming reluctantly attached to. However, Jamie's main reason to be there is to find Gabe who saved her during the bombing.

I do think that Ms. Sussman can write. Her description of the people and food in Bali was written very well. I think all of the characters were very fleshed out. I really did love Nyoman's character and his explanation of Bali, the culture, and traditions.

However, I only rated this novel three stars because though the story should have been engaging, it was not.

I think it could have been that I knew the way the novel would end after we find out why Jaime has returned to Bali and I just wasn't in the mood to read about Jaime and Gabe. Jamie's back story took forever to be told and when we get to her and Gabe I found myself hurrying to get to the end.

Additionally, I found myself more interested in Nyoman and Bambang's stories not Jaime and Gabe's. Also I felt as if Jaime had more of an emotional connection with Nyoman and not Gabe.

Last, splitting up the novel into parts so that we get to read about Jamie, then Gabe, then back to Jaime took me out of the novel and I had a hard time switching mid-stream so to speak.

I would recommend to fans of Ellen Sussman.

I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program.… (altro)