April Moran Female, 25, Married. Palmdale, CA, USA

Hanna's Dream is a very simple book - there's no fancy language or hard to get to metaphors. The beauty of this book is in the simplicity of the story. The writer presents everything to the reader on a dinner plate with fork and everything. I usually call these "lazy read" books, but that doesn't mean that they are bad books. I enjoyed reading Hanna's Dream because like the writer, I, too, love animals. The story wasn't heart wrenching or gut stabbing, but there were parts/dialogues (especially between Sam and Corinna) that had me feeling what they felt.

My favorite character in the book was Sam. When I first asked myself who I connected to the most, and who I enjoyed reading the most, I was surprised when my mind answered: Sam. Sam is very simple in character, and yes very diverse as well. His character is believable and his dialogue is superbly written. I learned the most from him and his wife's dialogues together. It would seem to me that they are the most well rounded in the whole book.

As I read further into the book, I found the Hannah/Harriet dichotomy interesting. Harriet, the manager of the zoo, is a foster child, just like Hanna. She was neglected by Maude and told that she was ugly. In addition, she was bounced from home to home, and didn't really have anyone in her life and even in her adult life had no one to lean on.

Both characters are very similar, even though Hanna happens to be an elephant. Hanna was neglected at an early age, with her mother being murdered. She also had no one to love her, initially and even bears physical scars from someone abusing her on the ship that transported her to the zoo. She was also bounced around from owner to owner - Max, Sam, and now Neva.

I was very surprised that Harriet never realized in the book just how similar her situation was to Hanna's. She could have learned from Hanna and leaned on her. But Harriet is always too busy in the novel with trying to steal someone else's life (Max's) instead of living her own. Perhaps the lesson here is that we could all learn from animals. Also, both names start with an H, intentional perhaps?

"From her night table Harriet pulled a thick stack of unframed pictures and fingered them like rosary beads. She left on top a close-up of the face of a young elephant, its left eye mangled and swollen shut, the eyelid pulpy and weeping blood. Under the picture was written in faint pencil, OUR DEAR GIRL. The photograph was of Hannah, freshly orphaned: Hannah, Maxine's crowning achievement, the object of her final passion. A big, awkward, wounded creature who was lucky enough to be loved by a woman who saw beauty where there wasn't any. Along the bottom of the photograph was written, THE FINAL RED TAPE IS DONE, AND WE SHALL HAVE HER!"

There's also an aspect of religion in this book. Sam and Corinna lose their baby, and Corinna never really forgives God until she and Sam start believing that Hannah is their dead baby's incarnate. The message that I found here is: always hope, and always stay optimistic because God works in mysterious ways.

The book overall is a "cute" read. I label it cute because as I stated above, it's very simple and straight to the point. There's no hallways to get lost in or rocks to stumble on. It was a very quick read, and I enjoyed reading about Hannah, the elephant. Will I remember this book, 6 months from now? Probably not, unless someone sparks my memory

When I realized that Wally Lamb had written another book after so many years, I was excited! Especially when the library informed me that I was the first to check it out. I've read Wally Lamb's other two novels, "She's Come Undone," and "I Know This Much is True," and I wasn't disappointed. I read both of them while I was working on my B.A. of English and he became one of my favorite writers. After years of waiting, I had pretty much given up on Lamb writing another book. Surprise !!

My first thought was: Wow, that's a monster! It wouldn't even fit in my purse :) lol. To the book...

There wasn't one dull moment throughout the book. The story line was nice with a variety of characters that were very well rounded. My favorite character was Lolly, even though she died half way through the book. I related to her more because she defied the norms of her time. Being a lesbian and raising her brother's child, while keeping a farm and a prison running.

Wally Lamb creates characters that the reader will miss once they are finished with the book.

The protagonist, Caleum Quirk, says that we are all stuck in a maze of sorts, that we get lost in. This is what the book is about. Columbine, the Iraqi war, post traumatic stress disorder, and just ordinary life. We all have our own mazes that are there for a purpose - and we must embrace our prison in order to find what we need. Another quote that is repeated quite frequently throughout the book is: In searching for what we want, we end up finding what we need.

Caleum Quirk wanted just an ordinary life - he discovered his family secrets that at first were shocking, but later on he realized that he needed to know these things, and in knowing them, he became more at peace.. (the conclusion, when he has his epiphany, and says, this was the hour I first believed.")

Maureen wanted her stress to go away from her experience of Columbine - she ended up going to prison for running over a boy while high from drugs she stole at the hospital she worked at. She needed to go to prison, because there, she found a way to heal herself through healing others in the prison hospice.

Obviously, Al found the mustang he wanted - and in doing so, he also found the woman that he had needed for so long :)

There are many characters that go on quests/journeys to find what they want, and end up getting what they need instead.

The book is wonderful. I would go on and on about just how superb it is, but then no one would probably read this :) The book is long and weighs at least 5 lbs, but it's definitely worth reading. I got more out of this book than I've received in the past 5 books I've read. And not only is this book a good read, but it has something to offer each reader.

Thank you, Wally Lamb for such a wonderful book !!

An interesting book. It read like a historical research paper, but it was unique. I didn't particularly like the historian's intrusions, every time he saw fit to add something. I got bored half way through the book, but trooped on. I owe Doris Lessing that much. I didn't learn anything new, which is a prerequisite for any book I read. This book reminded me of that movie that came out last year, "The Wicker Man." I'm not sure what Lessing was doing here - perhaps experimenting? (chuckle) Some bits were funny, however I found that a lot was repeated, over and over. I suppose this book will now be an interesting conversational topic and it's worth reading just for how interesting it is.

I didn't particularly like Sophia. She was too concerned with trying to get that man to fall in love with her when she should have been trying to save her friend. I thought the writing flowed well, and I learned a lot about Russia and Stalin. I probably won't remember it either, as someone below admitted. Some of the descriptions and metaphors are nice as well; especially the red scarf metaphor. I recommend it :) It definitely wasn't boring.

I thought this book was rather strange. I also found it difficult to follow the family line as the book progressed and kept turning back to figure out who the next story was about. Although when the story got to Annie, the nurse, it seemed that the stories unfolded more clearly. I didn't really care for some of the stories, but there were a few that tickled me!! The story about the girl who had problems and escaped from the mental institution was a favorite - especially when she put her sister's dress on over her scrubs - this got me laughing! I also liked the story about the little girl who was obsessed with Herman Melville and the Beatles. She reminded me of myself when I was a girl. Once I finished the book, my initial thoughts were trying to figure out what the point of the book as a whole is. I'm thinking that it's just a family of women who defied societal norms in their day. Or perhaps the message readers are to swallow is that oddities stay within families, even years later? My overall opinion is that the book is unique in itself and definitely worth reading, at least for the few stories in it that one won't be able to forget and also for the comical aspect. I enjoyed the titles of the stories and the puzzles of trying to figure out the symbolism within each one. I finished this book in about three days, which should have been one. I feel that this book is meant to be read in one sitting - perhaps then there wouldn't have been any confusion as to who was who in the stories :)

As with every book by Kundera, I finished it and was stunned. I never really know where to begin with his books. I love them, that's for sure, and he's one of my favorite writers, but he touches upon so many things in each book that I always feel that I missed something! The beauty of Kundera's writing is the way he portrays the human psyche. I haven't read too many writers that do such a fantastic job of defining a character's thoughts as he does. What I really enjoyed about Slowness is that it was in fact very comical. There were parts that were so silly that I couldn't help but laugh. Especially the part where a certain someone is fixated on a certain woman's body part, a part of her behind, and so fixated that he can't even think of anything else to say except that the moon looks like an asshole! The part of the book that I feel readers are to take away from this book lies in this quote:

There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting. Consider this utterly commonplace situation: a man is walking down the street. At a certain moment, he tries to recall something, but the recollection escapes him. Automatically, he slows down. Meanwhile, a person who wants to forget a disagreeable incident he has just lived through starts unconsciously to speed up his space, as if he were trying to distance himself from a thing still too close to him in time. In existential mathematics, that experience takes the form of two basic equations: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.

I like this quote, and the idea, mainly because I think it is true. This is why I adore Kundera; he writes his thoughts down in a way that no one else has. He takes the ideas that we only think about, and brings them to life through his writing.

Do I recommend the book? HELL YES !! Anything written by Kundera is worth reading. :)

I really enjoyed reading this book, and pretty much read it in one sitting. It was comical, well written, and educational. This book had me chuckling every so often that even my dog looked up with questioning eyes. The plot was ridiculous in itself - the panties left in his jacket, the invitation for punishment. Besides the comical aspect - there were more deeper issues if one dug deep enough. The death vs deaf dichotomy, the whole idea that deafness is comical, while blindness is tragic. I believe that over 70% of people living in the United States don't even know how to listen and are in a way symbolically, deaf. It is easy to hear someone speaking, and rather difficult to actually sit and listen. On the other hand, learning to live with deafness as it progresses is also a type of death, as the protagonist pointed out. The book flowed very well and kept me up for most of the night. I definitely recommend this book. I'm now curious about the writer's other books - are they as well written and comical??

When I finished reading, I wanted to know what happened to Owen !! I don't know if you guys felt the same way, but the book left me craving to know what happens to him. But, that was the whole point of the story. We suffer because we can't ever surmise what life is going to throw our way, or take away. The metaphor of the dark ties in nicely with the idea that we are all in the dark; we don't have a manual that tells us how to live life, or what to do if caught in bad situations. We do what our nature tells us to do, whether that is watching movies with our grandfathers, or creating fictional stories in our rooms once everyone has closed their eyes.

This book reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegaut's (spelling?) books. The story that August creates at night so that he can escape from painful memories was very believable. I felt like I was there, right with Owen, wondering what the hell was going on with America. The writing flowed nicely without any awkward moments in the novel.

The book is mainly about discovering ourselves when we feel that we are broken inside. The book describes the things that we hide from the public, the things we are ashamed of, like watching movies all day and then falling asleep. And it's also about learning to let go and live again. This was a very short read, but it was packed with meaning.