Allegra GoodmanResenhas

Having grown up on the edge of the Catskills, having had some experience in my home town with "summer people from the city", and being an avid reader of Chaim Potok, Faye Kellerman and Harry Kemelman, I felt this book about a small Orthodox Jewish community that moves upstate together from NYC every summer was "chosen" for me. I loved it absolutely. Rich story, full of complicated characters, details of life in a traditional society, and insight into the human spirit. Reminds me of the best of my summer reading when I was a kid--getting utterly lost in the lives of the fictional characters, and never wanting the story to end. A reviewer from Newsday called Allegra Goodman a "young Mozart of Jewish fiction". How apt.
Review written in 2007

Thank you Goodreads’ FirstReads for my print ARC.

Sam, 7 years old, lives with her mom, Courtney, and toddler half-brother, Noah. She’s a natural at climbing. She loves spending time with her dad. But, because he’s a traveling artist, she doesn’t get to see him as often as she would like. Jack, Noah’s dad, doesn’t like her. And the feeling is mutual.

It was an ok book for me. I guess, until I read the author’s note, I expected more to happen. This was about a young girl coming of age. Her happiness and heartache. Her hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Her relationships. Like most of us, her life is ordinary and fell into a routine. That was comforting in a way. From the plot to the characters, it was a relatable read.

I'm returning this to the library today. Very clumsy writing, lots of stereotypes, trite images. Yuck.

recommended by AP English listserv

The beginning was a hook, simplistic, and I was drawn into the story. It didn’t take long for the novelty to wear off. This was an uncomfortable book - cringeworthy at times. A mother, who despite wanting better for her daughter, never stops harping or pressing - it gets old quickly. A father who just can’t get his act together and not only disappoints his daughter, but is reckless with her physical and mental stability. Teaching her that she is going to fall, nine times out of ten she is going to fall and this is told to her so she establishes the “mindset”. Maybe good, probably not.

If you are interested in a coming of age story about a girl who takes up climbing, where it becomes her anything and everything, to the exclusion of most other things, this book might be perfect for you. Parts of it were interesting, parts tedious, some noxious and not well thought out, some just thrown in to see if it would stick. A girl who progresses to all “mixed up and calm and bad” and is going to experience a load of hurt. Just not that interesting to me.
Unfortunately I was done with this book long before it was finished.

Thanks to The Dial Press and NetGalley for a copy.

. What happens to a girl’s sense of joy and belonging—to her belief in herself—as she becomes a woman? This unforgettable portrait of coming-of-age offers subtle yet powerful reflections on class, parenthood, addiction, lust, and the irrepressible power of dreams. “Sam” will break your heart, but will also leave you full of hope.

FROM AMAZON: A gripping and beautifully written dystopian page-turner from New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist ALLEGRA GOODMAN.

In the eighteenth glorious year of Enclosure, long after The Flood, a young girl named Honor moves with her parents to Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. Life on the tropical island is peaceful—there is no sadness and no visible violence in this world. Earth Mother and her Corporation have created New Weather. The sky is always blue and it almost never rains. Every family fits into its rightful, orderly, and predictable place…

Except Honor’s. Her family does not follow the rules. They ignore curfew, sing songs, and do not pray to Earth Mother. Honor doesn’t fit in with the other children at the Old Colony School. Then she meets Helix, a boy with a big heart who slowly helps her uncover a terrible secret about the Island: Sooner or later, those who do not fit disappear, and they don’t ever come back.

Honor knows her family could be next, and when the unthinkable happens, she must make the dangerous journey to the Other Side of the Island—before Earth Mother comes for her too…

This unforgettable portrait of coming-of-age offers subtle yet powerful reflections on class, parenthood, addiction, lust, and the irrepressible power of dreams.

Excellent. Heart-breaking. Beautiful.
Goodman's accomplishment here is stunning - writing Sam starting at age 7, then slowly phasing to 19 years old.
A story of a little girl lost who finds her way.
Very highly recommend. Love

“I don’t know anything, and I don’t believe anything, but I keep going anyway.”

Capable enough writing couldn’t save this rather dull contemporary bildungsroman for me. In a limited third-person-POV, present-tense telling, it follows a young girl, Sam, from the age of seven through her teen years and into her early twenties. An inordinate amount of time is dedicated to describing her rock climbing, her sole enthusiasm for most of the book—and an apparent metaphor for her life. We get page after tedious page of Sam’s manoeuvres and holds and grips, early on at the YMCA and a Saturday climbing club, but eventually outdoors.

Sam lives with her younger, increasingly behaviourally disturbed half-brother, Noah, and her single hardworking mother, Courtney, in a small apartment. The three had fled an earlier living arrangement at a house owned by Noah’s paternal grandparents, where Sam’s little family were allowed to stay, rent- (but not stress-) free. Noah’s volatile, dope-smoking father felt entitled to descend upon the house whenever the mood struck him, sometimes staying, almost always arguing, and frequently becoming physically aggressive.

Sam’s father, the metaphor-making Mitchell, initially depicted as an impractical, dreamy creative who tours around New England, performing as a magician and musician, is in Sam’s life for a time. For all his unreliability, he’s a sympathetic character, but his absences become more frequent and mysterious. Sam learns he can’t be counted on, and she detaches from him fully, even before his real problem is revealed. He’s an addict who can’t get clean and he fatally overdoses. Sam doesn’t do well at school. It’s initially unclear if she’s just an active kid, lacks intellectual curiosity, is overly but unconsciously stressed by her home life, or is learning disabled. At one point she’s shown at school, fluently decoding a text, but comprehending nothing she’s read—another metaphor for her life perhaps. She’s also essentially friendless until she meets another girl, Halle, at an after-school YMCA program. The two subsequently join a rock climbing club that Halle’s solidly middle-class older parents drive the girls to every Saturday. Like everything else in Sam’s life, though, the friendship falls by the wayside when Halle leaves home to attend a prestigious boarding school. Another relationship with an oddball boy from school also fades away but not before her mother has taken her to Planned Parenthood for the contraceptives that will hopefully spare her from Courtney’s fate. Now a teenager, Sam moves on, becoming sexually involved with her college-aged rock-climbing coach, Declan. She keeps the liaison secret from her mother. Declan is, of course, a player and a betrayer. On and on it goes. Sam endures, inarticulate and chronically joyless—or so it seemed to me. Eventually things improve for her when she meets Justin they fall in love and his friends, who are also rock climbing enthusiasts. Things do change for Sam when, prodded by her mother, she attends college with the goal of becoming an accountant. Chancing by a geology class in session, she discovers her real interest. Encouraged by a professor, she ultimately gains admission to the University of Massachusetts to follow her bliss.

While reading, I mostly imagined Sam as a young Kristin Stewart doppelgänger: a mumbler, with a blank, affectless face across which the shadow of an occasional sneer might periodically flicker. Sam, it seemed to me, was a very strange figure to build a literary novel around. An unimaginative, dull but determined character, she doesn’t waste time reflecting. Her thoughts and emotions run so deep, they’re practically subterranean. I could not summon up any real interest in her. This is not a terrible book, but I could not, did not, like it.

Rating: 2.5½

I loved this book. Every character rang true as they each navigated life's challenges. Each character was well developed and inspired empathy although not always admiration. I appreciated Courtney's reality as she tried to rear her kids and keep her own life afloat. A standout in realistic fiction.

This is a straightforward novel about a girl raised in hardscrabble circumstances, with many chances to misstep, fail, and go wrong. Which Sam does. But she also perseveres, succeeds, and goes right. Her relationships with her hard-working mom, addicted dreamer dad, troubled brother, and coach are complicated and she reaches maturity with minimal guidance, relying on her own internal wisdom and strengths, even as she is mistrustful and isolated, having few friends and mentors. You all probably know a Sam. I hope you actually helped her along her way.½

Sam by Allegra Goodman is a recommended coming-of-age story narrated by the protagonist from ages 7 to 19 years-old.

Sam is an active seven-year-old girl who lives with her mother, Courtney, and half-brother, Noah, in Beverley, Massachusetts. Courtney does her best but she has to work hard trying to make ends meet and doesn't have a lot of extra time or energy. Sam adores her father, Mitchell, but he can be an unreliable part of her life. What he does do right is introducing Sam to climbing, a sport she enjoys. Climbing is something she enjoys and continues doing as she grows up even as she struggles to fit in with others.

The novel is narrated by Sam in the third person present tense. At the beginning the sentences are very simple and child-like to resemble a seven year-old and then become increasingly more complex as Sam grows up. As a reader, this strategy wasn't entirely successful for me, especially at the opening of the novel. Later sections of the novel where she deals with what is a serious, actionable situation, her limited point-of-view is too narrow and restrictive.

Sam's love of climbing and her striving to excel at the sport does show her focus and determination to attain her goals despite her insecurities in other areas. All of the sections concerning climbing are descriptive and insightful. The narrative also competently describes her complicated life in a dysfunctional family. Her father struggles with addiction, something which she doesn't understand when young. Her mother has poor judgment in men; this doesn't just include Mitchell as Noah's father, Jack, is abusive. 3.5 rounded down.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House/Dial Press via NetGalley
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/12/sam.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5171736550½

Very nicely constructed, well paced. Every kind of twist and turn as the story evolves. Maybe a little over-complicated, maybe it moves too fast. It never really sits and simmers and soaks... it takes a taste, and then on to the next wild scene.

I really liked the tension between science as the quest for truth and science as the quest for fame. This book did a good job of walking the tightrope, never landing on either side.

Second time I've read this book and I believe it has the potential to be a classic. A story about family, love, and marriage partners. A story about the end of the crazy dot com days and a pretty accurate look at the bay area during that time period.

A sprawling and ambitious story of a suburban Boston neighborhood of intertwined characters. It was a vivid peek into the universe of teenagers and how their problems don't and do intercept with those of adults, as well as a video game universe that one primary character helped design and another became obsessed with. If anything, I felt like I was meeting the whole neighborhood at once and it was hard to keep the minor characters straight. Still, there were compelling plot points on dating across class lines, finding meaning in jobs, and how your neighbors can be a true part of your family.

Nice fiction about post doc research in the biological sciences. I liked that it was set in Cambridge MA. I liked the scholarly setting and some of the competitiveness they all felt for one another. Reminded me of college and what a PhD must be like without getting my hands dirty.

NA

I enjoyed the setting--place (sucker for books set in my hometown) and that time (1999--2001). Goodman did a good job with both, especially with capturing the odd frenetic dotcom world, with all its out-of-touch-with-reality greed. She also juggles many characters, giving most of them decent attention.

The title mislead me for the first part of the book--but I went along for the ride, and enjoyed it...I do, now, want to go back and read more about some of those cookbooks! (and perhaps re-think space--apparently I could store lots more cookbooks if I'd be more creative with storage space).

I think someone gave this to me, thinking I would like it, with "The National Bestseller" and a National Book Award finalist sticker on the cover. I didn't. Spanning June 1976 to June 1978, it is set in the fictional town of Kaaterskill in the Catskill Mountains, which is based on the real town of Tannerville, near the real Kaaterskill Falls, where the author's family spent the summers. In this book, a sect of Orthodox Jews from New York City spends its summers in the town. I could not relate, and there wasn't enough plot for me to care, but I did finish it, as I kept hoping something would happen.½

Where do I even begin? It wasn’t until chapter 15 that I really started enjoying the book’s content. Prior to that, the characters were compelling enough to keep me reading, but once chapter 15 arrived, the book got more interesting and more in-depth.

I loved hearing about the cookbook collection. That whole stretch of chapters was my favorite.

I did find that there were so many characters that sometimes, there would be a reference by name, of a minor character, and I could not recall who that was.

There were, at times, long descriptions of business and/or technology, and it seemed to slow the story down.

I’ll admit that some things left me puzzled [no spoilers] but the ending left me feeling sad and almost let down by its simple sentences and what it seemed to imply. I’m hoping I got that wrong and will go and look up what others had to say, in the hopes that I overlooked an important fact.

When I bought The Cookbook Collector, I didn't anticipate that one of the main subjects is about Jewish religion and tradition. I believe that for people that know nothing or a little bit about the faith and its traditions, they should read it through the audiobook.
On the other hand, the primary and secondary characters have a chance, and they understand the meaning of life not only because of the 09/11 terrorist attacks.
When I bought The Cookbook Collector from my secondhand bookstore because of the period, it takes place. I have read a book that takes at the same time, and I have an unread one on my TBR shelf.
I loved the relationship between Emily & Jess, the two sisters. They were one for each other in good times as well as in bad times, even though their believes and ideologies are different.
The Cookbook Collector is a book with a lot of sub-plots. There were times that it is too much for a book. It felt dense. I enjoyed Allegra Goodman's writing even when I felt parts dragging, and I am happy that I read this book while listening to the audiobook through the Audible app.

Compelling as a story, but not particularly chilling or persuasive as a potential future.

This should have been better; I really wanted it to be.

Goodman explores themes of hunger and greed, power and vulnerability by setting the book in the Bay Area and Boston between Spring 1999 through Fall 2001, and populating it with so many characters that they read as stock characters (the wise and wise-cracking rabbi, the commitment-phobic tree-hugger, the gay Indian business competitor -- she gave them names, but I don't know why she bothered).

The shallowness of the writing is magnified in the first third of the book, which reads like a travel guide to the Bay Area and Boston/Cambridge, as she drops place names in an apparent effort of authenticity.

Long periods of just gaming without substantial plot or real character development.