When She Was Good Audiobook

" Three and a half stars... "

" Yet another Philip Roth book. Pretty good but I was easily distracted "

" Maybe it's stupid of me to give this so high a rating when it's been so long since I've read it, and I should read it again. But it had a very powerful effect on me both times I read it. I reread the first chapter recently, I still love the writing. "

" While I enjoyed the banter in the first half of the book, the plot involving weak men, their weak wives, and a girl that can develop a strong interior story then flip it twice before acting... now that can get a bit long. The first part had quite a few funny lines. These dried up as you saw the main character's personality issues come to the front. The book played off of three men that can be best described as wishy washy. There's a lot of non-decision and inert dreaming that goes on, enough to drive one crazy. The one being either a character in the book or the reader. But it is Roth, you feel you know these characters in real life. "

" This was better than its reputation would suggest but still read like a transitional Roth book. Roth captures, with shifting sympathies, the ups and (mostly) downs of a marriage that should never have happened but it feels a bit belabored by the end. "

" Maybe it was a timing thing, or maybe I need more space between my Philip Roth books, but this book just didn't grab me. Didn't mind stopping midway through when it had to go back to the library. I'll probably try this one again another time. "

" Part of it might have been the reader, I really wasn't a big fan of her, but I thought the book was fairly engaging right up until the part where we zoom in on Lucy's PoV. After the third scene of her fighting off Roy's advances, I gave up, it was just painful to listen to / get through. "

" i loved this book. a depressing story with a frustrating end. "

" The main character- a psychotically self-righteous, judgmental young woman, is, to me, one of Roth's most interesting. "

" Good book, but only so-so for Roth. It's on of his first and you can see him getting his legs as an author. "

" A chilling book; not in the scary sense. Lucy's disintegration and her anger and despair with those around her especially the men in her life is truly chilling. This is a morality tale about the hidden truths within families "

" This book was equal parts understandable and incomprehensible. So I split the difference and went with three stars. "

" Finally finished this from-the-stacks. Odd rambling portrayal of a holier-than-thou daughter/wife who comes to a bad end. "

" Early Roth with some of the ferocity (but not the humor) of his magnificent and important later novels. "

" This is one of the worst novels i have read in a long time. "

" Liked it. Lucy was such a witch. Definitely of the moral stamp that she would either be burned at the stake or burning people at the stake. Like how you keep on trying to root for her and how skillfully and subtly Roth reveals her madness. "

" I remember liking this book, but I do not remember much about it. Like the other Philip Roth books I have read I remember small passages and many of the images I created in my mind when reading descriptions of the houses and the settings of the book. "

" ER never gets old. At least not on the page. "

" Painful, angry, hard to read but also lovely. "

" This book, to me anyway, was amazing. This character could have been my deceased sister. It helped me understand my sister. I liked the way the book built and how, for me anyway, you did not understand the full extent of what was happening until the last page. "

" Roth again proves that he knows human flaw better than anyone else. From the time she called the police on her drunk father, Lucy has always been morally superior. That superiority turns her into a disgusting (and loony) person hated by the people she expects the most from. "

" Finally finished this from-the-stacks. Odd rambling portrayal of a holier-than-thou daughter/wife who comes to a bad end. "

" A chilling book; not in the scary sense. Lucy's disintegration and her anger and despair with those around her especially the men in her life is truly chilling. This is a morality tale about the hidden truths within families "

" It read like all exposition and no real story; I kept waiting for something interesting to happen and it never quite did. "

" shining insight into dark psyche, female and non-jewish at that "

" The main character- a psychotically self-righteous, judgmental young woman, is, to me, one of Roth's most interesting. "

" Liked it. Lucy was such a witch. Definitely of the moral stamp that she would either be burned at the stake or burning people at the stake. Like how you keep on trying to root for her and how skillfully and subtly Roth reveals her madness. "

" This was better than its reputation would suggest but still read like a transitional Roth book. Roth captures, with shifting sympathies, the ups and (mostly) downs of a marriage that should never have happened but it feels a bit belabored by the end. "

" Maybe it's stupid of me to give this so high a rating when it's been so long since I've read it, and I should read it again. But it had a very powerful effect on me both times I read it. I reread the first chapter recently, I still love the writing. "

" Good book, but only so-so for Roth. It's on of his first and you can see him getting his legs as an author. "

" Rigid morality as a disease. Cool. "