Blame: A Novel,   ISBN:9780374114305

Customer Rating: 

I loved the first few pages, but by Page 10 I was bored: no story. Like most so-called "literary" novels, it is well written but has no story problem. So the girl's mother has cancer. OK, that's bad, but it's not a problem she can fight to overcome. It has no potential for drama. The girl is hanging out with her druggie uncle and his stoned girlfriend who plies her with beer and pills. Same kind of situation. It's bad, but so what? The antagonist is her life situation. Maybe she will get sucked into it or maybe she will get out of it, but I don't care. There is no drama here.

Customer Rating: 

Alcoholic drives drunk ,,,,kills two people and has a somewhat splendid time in prison..gets out and has a beautiful place to live...what am i missing???

Customer Rating: 

I couldn't put this book down. A must read for anyone struggling with or surviving from any kind of addiction.

Customer Rating: 

Patsy MacLamoore is a history professor by day and a hard-edged party girl by night. She's fighting a losing battle with the bottle, though she thinks she has it completely under control. Until, after another blackout she wakes up in jail, assuming that she's been arrested for being drunk and disorderly, or perhaps another DUI. She blacked out the night before and remembers nothing. The news, when it comes, shocks her. She's killed two people, a mother and daughter. She'd been driving drunk.

In her novel, //Blame//, Michele Huneven delves into a life of consequences: regret, a trial, prison and the blame that Patsy simply cannot escape. A life built on self-blame is its own prison, though, so when years later the possibility surfaces that Patsy may not have actually been guilty after all, how will she find peace?

This novel is, in parts, both well written and questionable. The style is unique, at times refreshingly so, at others aggravating. The characters are alive and compelling, but the resolutions to their stories may leave you wishing they'd been handled differently. The first half is brilliant while the second pales in comparison. It's a good read, worth your while, but could have been better.

Reviewed by Albert Riehle

Customer Rating: 

I had high hopes for this book and bought it because it was chosen as a top ten in a list I read about. I thouroughly enjoyed the beginning and found myself engaged. It is strongly written for about the first two-thirds. However, towards the end, when the "twist" was revealed, I felt jipped and unsatisfied. The author sold out and made a good book bad. Blame should be a great book about redemption and forgiveness. However, Patsy is not likeable and I found her gay friend, Gilles, completely unbelievable in his actions and words. Her husband, Cal, bored me as did his family. The more I write about it, I realize I did not like this book and would not recommend it. The ridiculous end just made me feel like I had wasted my time and disengaged me from all the characters because I no longer respected the plot. Don't buy this one. Don't even get it from your local library.