I didn't think it was as good as the first one - Ellen Foster. ( )

Book on CD read by the author.

Nearly twenty years after the publication of Ellen Foster, Gibbons returns to her subject to catch us up on what’s happened in the life of this extraordinary character. Ellen is now fifteen and thriving. She’s exhausted the resources of her local school district, and is on an independent course of study. While she realizes it’s unusual, she has decided to apply for early admission to college, and may as well set her sights high. The novel opens with her letter to the President of Harvard University requesting special consideration of her accomplishments and suitability for matriculation.

I love Ellen Foster. The original novel packed an emotional wallop that is still with me some 18 years after I first read it. I admit I was concerned about whether Gibbons would be able to replicate that emotional connection in this sequel. Well, I still love Ellen. She’s resilient, vulnerable, both naïve and wise beyond her years, intelligent, loving and brave.

I also dearly love Kaye Gibbons. I’ve read just about everything she has written, some more than once. But I did not love this book; it didn’t quite meet expectations. Perhaps this is the fault of the audio experience. Gibbons reads her own novel and while I think her voice is a good one for Ellen, after a couple of tracks I grew really tired of her lack of inflection. There is no effort to differentiate the various characters and as a result the entire experience is lacking emotional depth. I did also look at the text version, but I’m not sure I would have rated this much higher if I had read it rather than listened. I suspect that Gibbons was purposely holding the reader at arm’s length because she believes that Ellen would do so. And perhaps she’s right. Whatever the cause, I was disappointed.
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I found this book a bit disappointing. During the first half of the book, I had only a remote idea what in the world Ellen was going on about at least the time. The narrator was so herky-jerky and rambling that I wondered if I was missing something. There were some very funny bits of dialogue. The ending was too much of an improbable deus ex machina to fit, like that handkerchief and Oliver sort of thing. I didn'tlove it and I didn't hate it. An okay book to kill some time with,if I had time to kill. ( )

I found this book a bit disappointing. During the first half of the book, I had only a remote idea what in the world Ellen was going on about at least the time. The narrator was so herky-jerky and rambling that I wondered if I was missing something. There were some very funny bits of dialogue. The ending was too much of an improbable deus ex machina to fit, like that handkerchief and Oliver sort of thing. I didn'tlove it and I didn't hate it. An okay book to kill some time with,if I had time to kill. ( )

I found this book a bit disappointing. During the first half of the book, I had only a remote idea what in the world Ellen was going on about at least the time. The narrator was so herky-jerky and rambling that I wondered if I was missing something. There were some very funny bits of dialogue. The ending was too much of an improbable deus ex machina to fit, like that handkerchief and Oliver sort of thing. I didn'tlove it and I didn't hate it. An okay book to kill some time with,if I had time to kill. ( )