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is quite possibly the overall worst book I have ever readeven worse than sitelinkA Reliable Wife, which I didnt think was possible, For most of the book, my notes were variations of “this is terrible,” “WTF!”, “!!!!!!!”, “just NO,” and “these people are idiots, ”
For the love of everything, if you are ever writing a book with sex scenes, PLEASE do a CTRLF for “organism” just to check that Autocorrect hasnt changed “orgasm” to this.
Also, proofreading and copyediting are important, Very important. Hopkins apparently decided to forego both of these tasks, as well as employing an editor to catch the timeline mistakes, correct the meandering plot, provide historical accuracy, and STRENGTHEN THE WRITING.
Unbelievably bad writing, Clunky info dumping. Enough with the emphasis on ethnic group/racial/gender/socioeconomic stereotyping! IrishAmericans are not a monolith, ItalianAmericans are not a monolith, Catholics are not a monolith, Jews are not a monolith, AfricanAmericans are not a monolith, Women are not a monolith, College students are not a monolith, The middle class is not a monolith, The South of which Baltimore is NOT a part is not a monolith, Did Hopkins miss the first day of Cultural AnthropologyThe endless references to “Santa Claus” storiesI gave up counting the references because the book had too many,
I absolutely hated the rather throwaway line of “Twelve people, including Ed and Steve, and eight women ranging in age from age sixteen to sixty milled around in the office.
”WOMEN ARE PEOPLE, TOO. Hopkins immediately others them, reinforcing the idea that only men are peoplewomen are something else,
The terrible TERRIBLE scenes involving anything remotely sexual, These were just so bad, Laughably bad. Banging my head on the table bad, Groaning out loud bad. Some key ones:
“I try to keep in shape, I run and watch my diet, Im recently divorced and I have to keep my figure to attract men, Im glad you like it, ”
“She knew Anna would not receive adequate counseling from her parents and became Annas selfappointed sexual guardian, ”Probably my favorite line in the book, Teresa needs this on a business card,
“She planned to learn all about sexual procedures, ”
“They devoted most of their time alone to studying and earned B averages, since they had no sexual frustrations, ”Because if you are sexually frustrated, then you cant earn high grades!
“She is attractive and voluptuous, But, as far as I know, no professor pressured her for sex, ”
“She dressed sensually, but stayed away from clothes that would make her look like a hooker or a hippie, ”
“At twenty she knew the difficulties of keeping a sensual figure, ”
“A low sex drive enabled him to lead a moral life”Because naturally, if you have a high sex drive, youre immoral,
Onedimensional characters and/or characters with little internal logic, Or “logic” that is beat into readers a thousand times, Like Dr. Green, who, “because of his German and Korean experiences, . . believed unplanned or too many children cause endless cycles of poverty and war, ”While this is, technically, true, I dont see the immediate connection between the two, Or “this activity performing abortions had a soothing effect, ending his headaches, ”WHAT. From what all Hopkins writes, Dr, Green is a legitimate doctor with a legitimate medical practice, If Hopkins is writing to convince his readers of the horrors of illegal abortions Which I think is his point This book is so poorly written, I cant really tell.
, there are so many other character types he could have used, Call the Midwife the show, not the books and Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries do a much better job at showing the effects of illegal abortionand the actual desperation of women in this situation.
Unrealistic dialogue. Whatyear old is able to have exceptionally nuanced conversations about raceSteves “remembering” what being in the womb felt likewas ridiculous, And just about every conversation between characters is stunted, clunky, and in no way sounds like how people actually talk, Dr. Green: “I developed a severe headache, which occurs when I recall the horrors of the police in Germany arresting Jews, ”
Ridiculous plot. Is this what crime writing was like in the preCSI or Law and Order days Dr, Green is an idiot. Anna dies in Dr. Greens office therefore, he immediately hacks her body up with a surgical saw and literally flushes what he can of her body down the drain!THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY.
Also with learning from Law and Order: Steve tells a police officer that he doesnt want to talk about his and Annas sex life, the cop says “Fair enough” and moves on.
Thats just poor police workwhich continues, Detective Prestons theory about Annas death: “Annas beauty had overcome the resistance of a lonely sick man who attacked and killed her, ”The police also think that if they just ask women, they will definitely tell the police if they had an illegal abortion,Of course, Officer, let me confess to illegal actions!
Unbelievable settings: Dans father makes,per year!Steves family lives week to week, yet his father gets an aerospace job in Florida and commutes weekly!Dr.
Green is able to solicit,donations for his work like it was nothing, When the median household income was less than,in thes,,is an immense amount of money, Its a lot of money even now, for most of us, Anachronistic emphasis on higher education in thes, especially for women, Hopkins is applyingst century standards to midth century lives, and it just wasnt true that college was the only path to success in those days,
“Youll need a degree to get a good job, You dont want to experience the daily workers poverty, ”
“To be successful, a woman needs a college degree, ”
“The nuns expected all the girls attending Sacred Heart to go to the convent or to a Catholic college before marrying a nice Catholic boy and bearing many Catholic children.
”
I received a copy of this book for an honest review
Steve Lynch is a teenager who grew up in a strictly Catholic household who sees the realities of the world as he grows up.
He learns about sex and women as he lives in New York and realizes the consequences of his decisions when he gets his girlfriend, Anna Marino, pregnant, Anna sees the only choice is abortion and dies during an abortion, The book examines the effects of Anna's death on Steve and the people around him,
Upfront, the book tells us that it is proabortion yet the storytelling gets confusing and I was left wondering if it was more of an antiabortion book since Anna died because of an abortion.
Of course, if abortion was legal during that time, it would have saved Anna but the book doesn't give enough avenue to explore this important idea, The problem with this book is that it tries to do so many things with the story, There are aspects about the war, gender issues, race, and choice that with so many things happening, it gets bland and overwhelming,
I didn't like this book very much because the prose is also bland, telling more than showing us what's happening, No concrete connection was established with the characters that made me empathize with the fate of the characters, Even Anna's death was dealt with lightly, not giving enough time for the readers to be appalled or shocked that she was dead, The book also doesn't have engaging conversations that attract the reader to finish it, I'm quite surprised I finished the book since there weren't too many things going for it, At some points, it becomes too preachy and too loaded with ambition that the reader
isn't left to discover things on their own,
Overall, I would not recommend this book because it aims to do so much and leaves the reader frustrated, .