San Miguel Audiobook

" Beautifully written, terrifically depressing. "

" Although this book started off interesting, it did not pull me in. As intriguing as it was, the characters felt to interest me throughout and find myself questioning why I even bothered. There are a few things that I look for in a novel and this one lacked the crucial things. The content of the story itself was good but too many loopholes and inconsistency. However I will say that the first part of the story had potential but did not bother to suffer through the other parts. "

" One of my favorite authors. Enjoyed the book. "

" This work of historical fiction is not a happy story by any means, but it is somewhat interesting. The setting is the northern most Channel Island off of Southern California, and it is the story of 2 real women taken to the island by men - one in the 1800s and one in the early 1900s. There was nothing easy in their life and the first woman is miserable and finds a way off the island while the second is very happy with the isolation. Yet again, a book that I was happy to see end, but equally happy that I did finish it. Not one I can recommend, but redeemable by the wide span of history covered! "

" I have read three other books by T.C. Boyle that I rally enjoyed. I struggled to get through the book. "

" Set on an island off the California coast, T.C. Boyle's San Miguel does a beautiful job of capturing the isolation of his setting. He writes wonderfully, artful without being pretentious, well-detailed without being overly verbose. I really think I could have liked this book a lot more than I did, if it wasn't so boring. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that when an author does such a good job of portraying desolation, it falls on the characters to keep things interesting. For much of the first half of the book, we see things through the eyes of Marantha, a woman who moves to the island of San Miguel with her husband and adopted daughter in the 1880s ostensibly because it will be good for her tuberculosis, but really because her husband has used her money to buy into a sheep-ranching business and San Miguel's where all the sheep are. The blurb on the book's inside cover says that the stories in the book are told "from the points of view of the strong-willed, sympathetic, determinedly optimistic women who anchor them." I'm fairly sure that whoever wrote that blurb skipped the entire section about Marantha. Marantha is whiny, often cruel, and self-absorbed. The TB provides some of the excuse... I can't imagine it being very easy to stay positive or nice when you keep hacking up blood. Still, if Boyle had chosen to stay with her much longer than he did, I fear I would have given up the book entirely. The next section is narrated by her adopted daughter, Edith, and that one's a little more lively, although it gets cut short. In the final section, we follow Elise, a librarian from New York who moves to San Miguel in 1930 with her new husband. The key to this last section is the obvious timebomb that is her husband, who provides tension and suspense to what should have been an idyllic story about newlyweds. "

" T.C. Boyle is one of my favorite authors, so it pains me to say I did not enjoy this book. I didn't even finish it, which is unusual for me. It was beautifully written, just desperately boring. "

" I love TC Boyle. This was a great story but doesn't top World's End which is one of my favorite books ever "

" Not his best but I liked it alot! "

" The best parts were those sections dealing with the Island. This novel is the stories of three actual families who lived on San Miguel. I didn't care about some of them and really didn't like the audiobook reader's rendering. The book might, read, might be better. "

" This book is actually two stories tied together but almost 50 years apart. After reading the first one, I would have rated the book 2 stars but decided to keep reading and the second part was much better. I like Boyle's way with words but didn't care for all of his characters. Still a decent book. "

" I really liked this novel of about one of the islands off the coast of California. Almost like 2 novels in one, it tells the story of 2 different women and their experiences living on a largely uninhabited island. It is also the portrait of 2 marriages and motherhood. I always enjoy TC Boyle. "

" The first TC Boyle book I've read -- and the last if the others aren't any better. This was such a "girlie" book, nothing but a long yarn, not one memorable sentence or phrase, so-so descriptions and characters. The book never came to life. "

" Very similar to Floreana, set in the Galapagos. But I guess life on an island would have much the same concerns anywhere. "

" Two separate families' experiences on an island off the coast of California, each with aspects that drew my interest. However, I felt like I wanted to hear more about each story, and the segue between the time periods was not that smooth, so the time shift was a bit rough. "

" San Miguel is charming and compelling, a meditation on solitude. "