REVIEW OF MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON.

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON, IS ANOTHER VERY SIMPLE NOVEL ABOUT LOVE, IT WAS WRITTEN BY ELISABETH STROUT, WHO WAS AWARDED THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR HER NOVEL “OLIVER KITTERIDGE”.
It’s midge 1980 in New York and Lucy Barton is a succesful writer. She is in a hospital with a complication following what should have been a very simple operation, what happens is as she is recuperating. Then she gets an unexpected visit from her mother, a woman that she hasn’t kept in touch for many years. She grew up in a rural town in Illinois, her mother still lives there. In the hospital those days, started to reconnect their lives again. However, under the cover there are many unexplored tensions that haven’t been solved, for Lucy in her childhood had some bad experiences. Her family used to live in a garage, which was owned her uncle who lived belong they.

She grew up in very poor conditions, social exclusion, abuse and neglect. So, when she could, she goes away from her home and went to New York. Where she met with her husband and she got married to him, also they had two daughters and her live shone at the end.
This short novel is about love, how Lucy is and how complicated her childhood was. That marked her forever, and her life went on around solving her lack of love.
The book is easily read, the chapters are very short about three or four pages long. This is a very simple book that it doesn’t want a lot of concentration to understand it. It’s a very intense and beautiful short book, well written. Which explain us mother and daughter relationship and how complex can be. I would like to recommend this book so isn’t difficult to understand and is quite short, it’s a good option for beginners.

Francesc Farrerons

WONDER   /   M IMMACULADA MIRO FONTANET 11/04/2019

The book is about a boy who was different, his face wasn`t normal, although he was subjected to many surgeries since his birth, it didn’t get good enough results so as to look like a boy of his age that could blend in with other children without standing out.

He couldn`t go to school at the time that the other kids go because of his health  ,he had to recover of his successive operations into his face, so he was taught by his mother until she could, yet as the years were going by his family realized that he needed professional teachers to teach him better and new friends to meet and to interact or to  be related. Because of his deficiency he was a shy, polite boy and he was sheltered by all his family, above all by his mother.

In the family there were his father, supporting everything, his mother and one older daughter. All of them had to get used to living taking care of August, the name of the main character.

He began his first school-year, he must have been about ten years old,  obviously he had a lot of problems, small children don`t cheat nor hide, it was hard and with a lot of troubles:  in the classroom, in the dinning room, in the playground, in the aisles,  sharing their homework, at the excusions….,he demonstrates to be so brave and so smart   while he fought to integrate, despite so many difficulties, that finally he was the one who had better mates and who got on well with everybody from the school.

I would recomment reading the book because you could  learn that the life is  not easy to anyone, the boy was extremely clever but physically he had other faults. It is clear that in life everybody has to do a lot of effort. If you have one thing you will surely miss another.

The novel Everyman begins at a funeral. Relatives and friends of the deceased take turns talking about him before burying him. After this situation the novel makes a turn and takes us to when the protagonist was about nine years old. During this time the protagonist lives in Newark with his parents and his older brother Howie. It was during his childhood when the protagonist develops a hernia and is hospitalized for it, the protagonist undergoes the operation but with much fear of death, without expecting the opposite is saved from the operation.

After the intervention the book takes us to when the protagonist was about thirty years. At this time our protagonist works in advertising as creative director, he has two children Randy and Lonny and divorces his first wife Cecilia. He is divorced from his wife because he wants to start a relationship with another woman, Phoebe, who after a few years will be his second wife. At the middle of 1989, the protagonist was about fifty years old he has got a new woman called Phoebe and a daughter called Nancy. But the man is not proud of his life decides to divorce Phoebe and marry a third woman, whose name we do not know because the book does not say so. During this time our protagonist is hospitalized due to the obstructions that he has in his coronary arteries and he undergoes coronary bypass surgery. Before leaving the hospital, he hires a nurse named Maureen to take care of him when he is discharged. The protagonist arrives at his house and the affection that arises between the one and the other causes that they develop a relation first of friendship and soon sexual. It is during this time when the protagonist’s father dies, when this happen the protagonist feels overwhelmed by the feeling of loss.

The September eleven attacks take place, and years later our protagonist decided to leave the city and move to New York to live in a retirement community called Starfish Beach on the Jersey shore. To make the time shorter, our protagonist decides to pursue his passion, painting, and even organizes painting classes for the other retirees who also reside there. At this time the protagonist is single, and like other times also must undergo several surgical operations because he still has congested arteries. In one of his classes he meets a student who is the same age as him, Millicent with her establishes a very close bond of friendship. Millicent is a widowed woman who misses her husband a few days after meeting our protagonist the woman commits suicide with an overdose of painkillers, and the protagonist decides to cancel painting classes.After this episode the author locates us the protagonist married to Phoebe but maintaining an affair with the secretary of his advertising office. The adventure lasts little because soon after he starts a relationship with a 24-year-old model named Merete. While the protagonist is celebrating in Paris with Merete his wife calls him telling him that his mother has suffered a stroke. When the mother is already buried, Phoebe asks the protagonist for a divorce and after the divorce she goes home with Merete.

Then the narrative explains the life of the protagonist as a retiree. One day he receives a call who tells him that Phoebe is very ill. A few days later he receives other calls that tell him that many of his advertising partners have died or sick, that’s when the protagonist decides to go to New York to visit his ex-wife and his friends who are still well. A few days later the protagonist is diagnosed with some other arterial blockage and is hospitalized.

As a mark for this book I put a 5, in order to fail it. Obviously I would recommend reading it to people who like drama novels, because in my opinion this novel is a drama book.

Author: Anna Castells

The book is set in Botswana and it is about a story of an independent woman that when her father died, sold the cattle that she inherited and decided to buy a house and set up the only ladies’ detective agency in the country. The novel relates the cases that she has to solve.

The main character is Mma Ramotswe, a woman proud of being African, capable to run successfully a business which is not common, especially for a woman.

It is not a typical detective novel, with complicated and dangerous cases. Actually, mostly of Mma Ramotswe’s cases are about things that happen every day and that she solves with simplicity thanks to her intuition and her knowledge about people’s behaviour.

It is a book easy to read. The vocabulary is not difficult and it is like a set of short stories, although the entire novel follows the same plot.

I liked this book because the author conveys his feelings for a country that he describes through Mma Ramotswe’s adventures. He describes the landscape and its people. In fact, he shows a way of thinking, or understand of life and the world in general, and expresses his desire that Africa does not change, questioning as well the life that we have in these countries that we call developed.

Cèlia Farràs

My name is Lucy Barton is a novel by Elizabeth Strout, published in January, 2016. This is a story about a woman who loves her daughter imperfectly. This book cover’s a life story,  poverty, abuse, art, marriage and a difficult relationship  between a mother and daughter. It’s a contemplative novel, a novel about trying to make sense of life. Lucy barton spends 9 weeks  in the hospital in the 1980’s in New York city folllowing complications from a surgery. Her mother comes to stay with her. Who can only express her feelings by telling stories of old acquaintances and their imperfect lives and whlie listening , Lucy bartor revisits her  own memories and the things she doesn’t want to remember in order to make peace with herself and her family. Her husband and young daughters don’t visit her much, wich leads her to think about loneliness, her marriage and mother hood. And she also muses about writing, what it mean to her, and how she was inspired by a numberof people. For such a short novel, it’s dense with story, thoughts and emotions. It’s more of an experience than a story. A powerful short novel that is filled with the wisdom that only comes with age. I would recommend  reading the book because it’s a really quite beautiful novel, beautifully written by Elizabeth strout.

( Rifat Khan Ara )

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Charlie Backet lives with his family, his four grandparents his mum and his dad. They live in a little wood house and are very poor. His grandparents are really old, so they stay in bed all the time .

Charlies father is working hard every day in a tooth paste factory but not matter how hard he works he never make enought money to feed his family.They live on cabbage, so Charlie is always hungry.

This young boy loves chocolate and gets one a year for his bithday. Willy Wonka’s cocolate factory is close to where Charlie lives. But this huge factory closed years before because Wonka’s workers were sellying his new chocolate recepies to his rival companies.

One day willy made an annoncement that he will open the factory to the five lickly people who are goig to find a golden tichet in his chocolate bars.

The luckly winners were Agustus Gloop, Beruca Salt ,Mik Tearee,Violet Beauregarde And finaly our Charlie who Bought the wright chocolate with his grandpa’s Joe savings. Little by little allbody exept Charli had  have been eliminate by several accidents they had inside the factory releted to they’r opsetions.

The little Backet, our hero was the last remmining child and wins the prize.Mr Wonka wants him and his family to live with him and to takeover the factory when he gets old.

In conclution, this book had both feelings inside, there was plenty of humor despite Charlies poor live at the begeaning so this has made an important contrast.

Natalia

The book I have chosen is Charlie and the chocolate factory, written by Rald Dahl.
The story is about a boy, Charlie Bucket, who lives with his grandparents and his parents in a tiny shattered house.
They're a very poor family, but Charlie's very happy living with all his family. One day, they announce on TV that there is a contest where if you find the five gold ticket in different chocolate bar Wonka, you can enter the chocolate factory guided by Mr. Wonka himself. Charlie is very happy, but he knows that his family can't afford to buy any chocolate bar.

One day, he finds some money on the street and decides to buy a chocolate bar, and a miracle happened. All happy, he goes home and his grandfather decides to go with him the day of the opening of the factory.
Inside the factory, he and his grandfather spend a lot of adventures with the four children who got the four remaining bills.

Finally, the one that lasts all the way visiting the factory, will be the winner.
It is a very funny and very crazy book, because many things happen inside the factory. Also, give a good example of how children can be. I recommend it, because the movie and the book do not look alike and the book is more interesting.

Mariona Fígols, 4t.

The Notebook is a romantic novel by Nicholas Sparks. It’s about a love story between Noah and Allie from their youth to their oldness. Even though in the book is appeared different place, it is in New Bern, North Caroline, where is happened the biggest part of the story.

At the beginning, Noah and Allie are young and attractive. Noah is strong and empathic, he like writing poems. Allie is sensible and sensitive women, she likes painting (in fact, during the story she becomes a famous artist). They fall in love despite Allie belongs a wealthy family and family’s Noah haven’t it. Their love is too big and real than one cannot live without the other.

I like the book, but I wouldn’t recommend reading the book. The story is wonderful, I think a lot of women like the love story but, I’ve been crying during twenty last pages.

In this epic love story, the writer has wanted to show the power of love, but in the real life I don’t know if love is too big to win all fight of life and if for forty years after a person could fall in love with the same person in every touch or look.

Sílvia Torra Mases