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Good Harbor (2003)

Good Harbor (2003)

Book Info

Author
Rating
3.2 of 5 Votes: 2
Your rating
ISBN
0330491660 (ISBN13: 9780330491662)
Language
English
Publisher
pan macmillan

About book Good Harbor (2003)

If a married woman were to list the significant personal relationships in her life, it would be assumed that the most significant, most deeply felt, most comforting, most interactive would be with her spouse. Love those men (or women) as we may, oftentimes they would not fill the role as adequately as a trusted female friend. I had (have) such a friend. For 18 years I spoke every day with her about the significant and the mundane details of my life. The experience was never finished until I told her about it and heard her take on it. We had a standing lunch date at a local Mexican restaurant for 18 years. We now live very far away from each other and the relationship is changed by that distance but never again have I found such a friend. This wonderful book reminded me of Maryell and our outstanding friendship and likewise, how much I miss it. I love my husband and my daughters, my sisters, my sons-in-law, my mothers, my grandchild, each with a deep and abiding affection and emotion. But none of them fills the void that a very good friend can, a trusted soul to whom you can tell anything, the good, the bad, the things you are most proud of, the things you are deeply ashamed of. Read this book. Then go call your friend and tell her about it.

I read this as an unabridged audiobook. Not having read The Red Tent I had nothing to compare Good Harbor to for good or bad. Overall I all enjoyed listening to this in the morning but it wasn't nearly as emotional as I'd expected it to be which is good, I guess, because I expected it to make me a runny mess. On the downside, this is a book I won't remember come next week . . .It was a nice, gentle tale about the distance that can develop between couples that often goes unnoticed but it was also a book about the power of friendship between women and the special bond and sharing that occurs when two friend's just "click".Both women came across as very realistic but somehow I always remained at a distance from them both. Joyce's snotty attitude towards her "romance" novel which paid for her summer home rubbed me the wrong way on more than one occasion. Her troubles with her bratty daughter were very realistically portrayed and her loneliness well done but in the end I still sympathized much more with Kathleen's character though, in the end, she nearly lost me as well.This isn't a book I'd read again but I am interested in picking up The Red Tent to see what all the fuss is about.

Do You like book Good Harbor (2003)?

Kathleen and Joyce are both living on Cape Ann. When they meet, they're both a little lonely and going through some tough times in their lives. Kathleen is facing a breast cancer diagnosis and Joyce has a terrible teenager at home and a mostly-absent husband. They immediately click and become confidantes. I think it says just about everything you need to know when I write that I really never did get the two names straight in my head. They're not even that similar but I had to have context before I could think, "Right. Kathleen=cancer, Joyce=family trouble." The book just felt a little too generic to me. They could be any two women anywhere at just about anytime. And that may be exactly what the author was going for. Anyone who's had this kind of deep, soul-baring friendship may immediately recognize it and love the book. I'm too private for that kind of thing. I'm quiet so I don't have many friends but the ones I do have are truly close friends. I would do anything for them and they would do anything for me. Nobody hears everything though. So this kind of tell-all friendship just leaves me in the dark.Some women will enjoy this book more than others. I didn't really connect with it but if you think you will, give it a try.
—JG (The Introverted Reader)

Anita Diamant’s Good Harbor is a far cry from her best seller A Red Tent. However I must acknowledge that to compare one against the other would be comparing oranges to apples. Having read The Red Tent and The Last Days of Dogtown I have been an avowed Diamant fan so was excited to read Good Harbor. This one is written in a different vein altogether – of two women, complete strangers until a chance meeting during prayer services at the Temple. Kathleen, late fifties, beautiful and elegant, has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Joyce, early forties, is facing a crisis in her marriage and plenty of “attitude” from her twelve year old daughter. The author has woven the two stories together with great humour, warmth and love, so the reader can’t help but marvel at this budding friendship between two women – although each is guarding a secret, at the end they help each other to heal, mentally and spiritually. It was an easy read, sometimes too hurried and at others somewhat repetitive. I wonder if the ending were different whether it would have had more of an appeal, at least to me.
—Purabi

Probably more like 3.5 stars. I really really liked it, and I was a sobbing mess at parts, but I'm not sure I can say I loved it. I think I might have, were I not expecting a book of the quality and depth of the Red Tent, but this fell short. I saw someone else's review compare it to a Lifetime movie, and that kind of rings true. That may not be entirely fair, as the two main characters were wonderful and I loved their friendship, but I just felt a little bit cheated, like something was lacking. Definitely worth a read, but go in knowing what you're in for.
—Allison Bishop

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