by Chris Bohjalian
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Product Description
Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Midwives, presents his most ambitious and multi-layered novel to date--examining wildly divisive issues in today’s America with his trademark emotional heft and spellbinding storytelling skill.
On a balmy July night in New Hampshire a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough, the shot that hit him was fired–accidentally?–by his adolescent daughter Charlotte. With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page-turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane.
Amazon.com Review
If you imagine most writer's bathrooms (and this is probably a mistake) you'd picture damp towels in a clump on the floor, hair in the soap, a few mildewed paperbacks stacked on the counter. But it's impossible to picture Chris Bohjalian's bathroom as anything but an Architectural Digest centerfold: polished counters, not a stray thread on the plush towels, the modulated colors sparked to life by fresh flowers from a neighbor's garden. Bohjalian's eighth novel, Before You Know Kindness, is a beautifully observed, delicately balanced portrait of a family that could only come from the hands of a tireless craftsman who keeps reaching into his story to straighten the tulips or tuck in a shirttail. It begins with two EMTs leaning over animal rights' activist Spencer McCullough's gushing shotgun wound and winds back through the ordinary days leading up to the extraordinary accident, and then forward again as Spencer and his family come to terms with what has happened. As ambitious as other Bohjalian novels, Before You Know Kindness spirals out to encompass the larger issues of Spencer's political loyalties and the heartless, passionate world of political spin. Some readers may find Bohjalian's style too smooth. Others will relish the completeness of his vision and his obvious tenderness for even the most difficult of his characters. --Regina Marler
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 deceptively simple, 2008-08-23
This book, on the surface, is simple, straightforward and plot-driven. But the real power comes from its understatement. It is a beautifully-written and conceived story that reveals the complexity of human nature and yields a powerful statement about what is important in life. I am a psychotherapist and I have recommended this book to a few of my patients. It shows rather than tells. My favorite Bohjalian book.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Just Okay, 2008-04-06
It seemed as thought the author kept repeating himself over and over and the book was boring and predictable. Things started to pick up in the last 1/3 of the book and I became more interested. Not as good as Midwives.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Ugggghhhhhh....., 2008-02-09
I was asked to read this book for my job. I started out with high expectations because it was suggested by the community to read. As i go to reading it, i was disgusted on how slow and tiresome it was. I proceded to read it untill i got to chapter 7, and when i found that no plot has even erupted yet. The entire chapter was about a deer. How can a book be seven chapters in, and about 100 pages in, and still have expostition material. this book was terrible and would never suggest to anyone.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Yawn, 2008-01-26
I tried to like this book, I tried to read this book...all I ended up doing was yawning & falling asleep. Since I am having trouble sleeping, maybe this is a good book for insomniacs or those going through a major breakup like me. All I can say is I tried!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Boring, 2007-12-12
I have enjoyed Chris Bohjalian's other novels. He usually picks an offbeat topic and sets up a lively family situation surrounding it. However, this novel seems endless, and the main focus gets drowned in wordy descriptions. His dialogue seems stilted and old-fashioned. For all the character development he describes in painstaking detail, you never really get to like any one of them. The book was at least 100 pages too long, and very repetitive. Not his best effort I'm afraid. I will continue to read his other novels, though, as his other novels are more engaging, especially those in first person.
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