William ZinkCritiques

Thanks for the opportunity to win this book. I really loved it. Keeps you hooked up reading until the very end. As my first book of this subject I enjoyed it very much. If you're a fan of romance books I would totally recommend it. I loved the story, such a nice book to read. Keeping it on my collection and for sure will read it again.

Oh my god... This book was sooooo boring! Probably one of the worst books I've read this year to date. I'm really surprised I finished it. I couldn't even tell you the premise. Basically it was about a guy who works at a nursery, hates his wife, wants to beat a lot of people up and loves to fish.

For the rest of my review, visit my blog at: http://angelofmine1974.livejournal.com/72105.html

Jim Priest's father died and now, a year later, he is caring for his dying mother with his sister and his daughter by his side. The story centers around the statue of the Pieta, which was his father's life's work. As his mother comes in and out of dementia, Jim finds out more about his father's passion for the statue, his mother who was the model for the
Virgin Mary and about his childhood. This is a story which maybe familiar to many of us who have had to care for a dying parent and coming to terms with our childhood as we remember it and accepting that our interpretation of what happened was viewed by inexperienced eyes.

The writing was strong, but the plot didn't grab me. I thought the characters were well-rounded and engaging. They seemed quite realistic.

This story reminds me of Doctor Zhivago in a much smaller book. Many thoroughly enjoyed the former story...it put me to sleep!
This is definitely written for an adult audience, although it is a story about a couple of dysfunctional families. There is profanity and many sexually suggestive references.
The writing was quite good except for a few areas the flow of the story was interrupted. The cover of the book had very little to do with the storyline.
This was a tale of reflection of a mans childhood life while living his adult life. Although the story kept bouncing back and forth, the reader was able to follow through the author's clear writing technique.
This is about a "pieta" a sculptor (the main character's father)worked on for most of his life and the musings of his son concerning it.
The story brought in the relationship with his own wife but seemed to never resolve anything concerning it...It was just sort of "thrown in" then abandoned.
I had to conclude my rating dilemma by deciding on a strong three stars rating.½

I received this book for free, in exchange for an honest review, from the author through LibraryThing.
I enjoyed this book even though it was sad and dealt with death; past and pending death. It was very relatable for me since my mother-in-law passed away a month ago. The general decline of the mom/grandmother in this story was hard on her two children and young granddaughter, as they took turns caring for her. This was an extremely realistic look at what happens to people, caregivers as well as the one dying, as someone is approaching death.

This short book was well worth the time it took to read it. The story moves fast and is very heartwarming. A story about a mother in her final days from the son's point of view.

Won off of Library Thing Early Reviewers.

This is a great book! Once I started reading Pieta I could not put it down. The book is about a novel about life and death. I would recommend this book to every one to read.

I received this book free of charge from Library Thing, in exchange for a review.

This bitter-sweet book tells the story of a brother and sister taking turns caring for their Mother who has dementia.
Watching her as she slowly slips away from them they struggle not only with the heartbreak of today but, also, pain from the past.
Very well written debut novel.

A beautifully written story of normal people doing a normal thing, taking care of their ailing mother while she is dying. In the process sercrets are revealed and issues resolved.

Although it's not the type of story I would usually read, I was easily captured and finished the book in one day!

I didn't enjoy these poems.
I'm not an avid reader of poetry but have been trying to read more of it lately. However, this one was a bit of a miss. I found the poems difficult to read and had trouble sticking with them and finishing the entire work. I felt they didn't have a good rhythm to them, which made them feel more like chopped up sentences than poems.
Also, I know they're supposed to be love sonnets, but really, sometimes I found them more obsessive and creepy than speaking of love.

This is an awesome book, well written and very interesting.

Beautifully written! I haven't read much poetry lately, but after reading this collection it reminded me why I enjoy it so much. Definitely recommended for the romantics out there.

I got Ballad of the Confessor from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's program. I'll admit, I was skeptical when I heard "American Southern portrayal of the working class." But I was blown away by Ballad of the Confessor! The prose is clever, sublime, and poetic, without sounding pretentious or misplaced. Just the whims of the main character's (Lorne's) imagination are enough to sail the ship of Zinks's rhetoric and diction. I read this book in one sitting and, upon finishing, stumbled back to reality with the half-drugged daze of a hydrocodone addict. The entire novel mingles between events in the settings reality, Lorne's day dreams, and Lorne's perception of his grim reality.
The plot revealed what, I believe, everybody struggles with: the escape of the monotony of life with one existential crisis on top of another. Lorne is stuck in a labyrinth of his oppressive job and family, a labyrinth built out of his own bad decisions, but strives to break out of the system he is caught in. His plight if reminiscent of John Green's Alaska and Herman Hesse's Hans (which probably explains why I enjoyed this books so much).
William Zink portrays the hallucinogenic grim reality of the working man. Brilliant.

Ballad of the Confessor is deeply atmospheric: Charleston's steamy heat is vividly matched by our narrator's humid inner thoughts. A grunt, bone achingly tired from moving trees and mulch at a nursery, trapped in his dissatisfaction with life, work and love, Lorne can't stop his overwrought mind from taking flight. Will his intense interior life prove his salvation or the pathway to craziness?

I devoured Zink's gritty prose in an afternoon. Having spent much time in Charleston and South Carolina, I found his descriptions perfectly pitched, from the Gullah weavers along the side of the road, to the late night shrimpers, and the fishermen whiling away hours with stories. Raised in a Midwestern factory town, I found his depictions of the working poor equally convincing and evocative. Lorne's is not an easy world, filled with moments of terrible physical and psychic turmoil. His story is redeemed by glimpses of beauty and the hope of a troubled romantic.

I received a copy of this book through Librarything in exchange for a review, but without limitation or expectation as to its content.½

Stream of consciousness narration interspersed with conversation among middle-aged brothers (& in-laws) away for a long weekend retreat. I actually found this difficult to take, it's a little far outside my comfort & interest zone. Funny because I enjoy other authors that have a not dissimilar style, JP Donleavy & Dylan Thomas come to mind. But I found myself quickly depressed & frustrated by these men & their lives & conversations. Maybe I'm just the wrong demographic/target audience. Not a broad appeal, but not badly written, I think.½

Four men and a river during a hot summer weekend without the wives. Brothers they are, except the brother-in-law Gabriel --- hmm, is that a religious allusion? I don't know but I don't care. This novel frees me to accept its gifts in whatever degree of understanding I can muster. I could cite dozens of disguised references to historical and literary people, places and events, but I am fairly confident there were dozens more that sailed past me on the current of that living river while these four characters let fly with a blizzard of dialogue encompassing their deepest musings, secrets, regrets about . . . well, pretty much everything.

Zink uses one technique that, by itself, launches this work into its own category of prose. The dialogue runs fast and furious, then wham -- here comes the dedicated singular voice of narration, set apart by italics and carrying a flavorful baste of description that drips down over each character and pools at the bottom in a broth of omniscience. Before he knows it, the reader has joined this family of brothers and built a shared history with them.

The language is saucy and expressive. Raucous, flowery, funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes downright mystifying. There were lines I read five, six times before giving up and letting the sentences fall into the mix undefined. But even if certain conventions of speech are annoying to the reader*, the words are honest enough to produce full-blown characters without a lot of straight description.

As for the quality of discussion, a lot of conclusions are left dangling -- probably on purpose, and probably to invite the reader to zero in on his own thoughts. Topics meander from man/woman, man/parents, man/jesus, man/self, to man/nation -- most of these covered under the influence of pot while the non-brother propels himself around overhead with a motorized fan strapped to his back.

This genre that Zink has created is quite entertaining, and I look forward to more of it. There's freedom in the absence of traditional plot constraints and grammatical necessities. Reading through these pages is like dipping your feet in the river on a hot day. You can't help wanting to throw yourself all the way in.

In the beginning, this book was somewhat difficult for me, an avid reader, to dive in to, but I stuck through the first 15 pages and reading became much easier once I worked out the flow of characters and locations.

As the title implies, this is a book of dialogue and reads somewhat like a stage play. Don't expect to find any deeply moving descriptions in here. Those are left to the imagination and, in fact, as I read along, I found myself easily visualizing what was happening, even though nothing was truly described. What becomes moving or touching is the dialogue itself, showing the development of the characters through conversation alone. They don't develop to each other, but the reader begins to see them as individuals, each with a past that has made them the person they are today.

There is some deep conversation in here, mostly political, but there is also some creative insight as well, so readers should be prepared for both. Ideas are always shown in balance, there are no one sided conversations in these pages and it is easy to see each person's point of view within the story.

Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. I also give bonus points for Text To Speech enabling on Kindle format.... but that also wasn't a factor in the above review.

This book just wasn't for me. Due to the way the book is constructed, mainly dialogue, I felt it was hard to really to start connecting to the book. I did enjoy the concept of a book all written in dialogue, but I never felt like I wanted to read more, that I needed to see what happens. I did enjoy some of the topics touched upon and did enjoy reading the characters thoughts on them. Overall, cool concept, it just couldn't hold my attention.½

This is a well written book. At first I had a hard time following it. I got confused with the dialogues than found it was easier when I kept ready. Its about four guys talking over the weekend about the world and whats going on.

Book Title: "Ohio River Dialogues”
Author: William Zink
Published By: Sugar Loaf Press
Age Recommended: 18+
Reviewed By: Kitty Bullard
Raven Rating: 4

Review: I enjoyed the book once I really got into it, but found it a little hard starting off. The dialogues can be a bit hard to follow but once you get the flow they are much easier. The majority of the story revolves around the lives and conversations of four men over the course of a weekend as they discuss the world and what it’s like living in the shadow of politics in 2002. Overall a really good read.

Very thought provoking short novel centered on the care of an ailing parent. The fear of time running out, constant upheaval of buried childhood feelings, of words not shared and lost love, puts life in realistic and heartfelt perspective.

I received this book from William Zink as a giveaway thru Early Reviewers and am thrilled that the author had not only signed it, but included my name on the inscription!
As for the story and the symbolism and themes: The story is simple. Jim Priest is caring for his dying mother and also caretaking his 6-year-old daughter Alex up in the country, aided by his sister. The only characters who we are given much information about are Jim Priest, his mother, his father who died one year ago, and Alex. The estranged wife is handled minimally, Jim's youngest daughter not at all, his sister, very little, and his other siblings fleetingly, but not enough to make a difference to the story. Emotionally, we know that Jim misses his wife terribly, that he resented his siblings and felt marginalized by them growing up, and that he loves his youngest child. However, the story is so short, that we never get to feel these things ourselves, but rather are told them as a fact.
Themes include a dying parent, an Oedipus complex, a sweet father-daughter relationship, a grandmother-granddaughter relationship family secrets revealed, and a suicide that may or may not have been accidental.
As for the sculptures themselves, especially the Pieta--which we are given to believe was modeled after Michealangelo's masterpiece in Rome--we have this copy as being the father's obsessive creation to capture his beloved wife forever as a beautiful female. However, the theme of continual work on this same sculpture isn't explored that well. Firstly, the narrator is the son, and cannot know what his dead father thought about scultpting. We are led to believe that there was an erotic element to the work and to Jim's dad having his wife pose for him night after night. The figure of Jesus in "Mary's" lap seems insignificant until the last chapter when Jim lays his dying mother on top of the supine Jesus scupture as almost an offering. [I kept seeing Yul Brenner laying his dead son in the arms of his Egyptian god of the underworld in the movie about Moses.] This could mean many things. We know from a conversation Jim has with Alex that both are of the opinion that Jesus was a good man, but not God. Did this mean then that Jim was giving the "good man, his father" back his wife by laying her dying body on this life's work of his fathers? This is a good topic for a book group, but it is not covered by the author in this story. It is just told to us, and it is up to us to glean what we can from this. Likewise, the noose-like rope that Jim finds on the mantle of the summerhouse, and surmises that it is what brought the head of "Mary" down--thus killing his father---what does this signify? Jim seems to understand it. I didn't. Was his father so dissatisfied with his life's work that he needed to destroy it? Was Jim's father distraught that his wife no longer looked like the young woman he had sculpted so long before? Was the father trying to kill himself? I don't know.
I must say, though, that I am glad I read this book. I currently am watching my mother fade away, losing her memory, and not being the mother I can really talk to anymore. Unlike Jim's mother who seems able to be nearly dead one day, and carry on a long, involved conversation that is encouraging, and even coy with her young granddaughter the next day, my mom's ability to speak is more and more impaired---and her memory is all but gone. Thus, reading this book gave me lots of food for thought, even though these aren't my favorite thoughts.
I believe the author was working through some events in his life---or in the life of someone he knows---dealing with the issues in this book and also with having felt like "less than" as far as his siblings were concerned. The narrator has a major chip on his shoulder from feeling slighted as a child.
I would recommend reading this book to others, though I felt it was structurally deficient. It still brought up important topics and themes.

When I had received this book from the author via a win through the Member's Giveaway on Library Thing, I was thrilled! The book had sounded exceptionally good, and I adored the cover.

My father had died only a few months before receiving this book, and I really didn't think I'd have the reaction I did to it. Mr. Zink's prose was so realistic and personal, that I couldn't continue reading at the time. I had never expected to have such a gut-wrenching reaction!! I ended up having to put it aside and waiting for a bit before trying to read it again.

I picked "Pieta" up again on New Year's morning and thought I'd give it another go. I didn't put it down until I was finished. What an amazing and heartfelt book!

The book centers on a very short period of time in the life of Jim Priest. He is preparing for his mother to die and he is taking care of her along with his sister. There are days he also brings along his 6 year old daughter so she can spend as much time with her grandmother before she passes. During this time, one gets glances of Jim's life, his struggle with his family - in both his married life as well as in his past childhood. His mother suffers from the last stages of Alzheimer's and when she becomes lucid, he learns a few key things from his past.

Jim's daughter brings clear the reality of life and death from such an innocent viewpoint - straight to the point and in a matter-of-fact tone. She balances out the pain and heartache with questions and a bit of humor that only a child can bring to such situations.

"Pieta" is less than 130 pages long, but the richness of the writing makes it as satisfying as a much longer novel. It deals with some very personal subjects and is quite a heavy read, but a very good read. This one is going to stay with me for a very, very long time.

“Pieta” by William Zink
128 pages

I would swear this is a memoir. Every word feels so heartfelt and real that I truly felt I was right there with Jim the adult as well as Jim the child. Every emotion he felt became my own. Mr. Zink hasn’t used one unnecessary word in this novel of Love with a capital ‘L’.

Just like all of us Jim knows that there are many kinds of love within a family. The unconditional love we feel for a parent is in many ways the same as that which we feel for our children. Just like with Mary and Jesus this love needs nothing to prove it. We will always carry our parent/child with protective and loving arms. The love we feel for our siblings may be there from the moment we are born or may have to develop as the years go by. Family love may also be intertwined with fear or jealousy. Fear of not doing or saying the right thing, fear of not living up to expectation, jealousy for someone else’s position within the family or in Jim’s case the jealousy he and his father feel toward one another in their strife to get the special attention of the person they both love best of all.

As Jim’s mother is quickly sinking into forgetfulness, with death is just around the corner, it is time for Jim to come to terms with his childhood and the love/hate relationship he had with his father. It is time to resolve things quickly before his mother is no longer able to help him.

This novel of Love grabs you from the beginning. Once you start reading ‘Pieta’ you won’t be able to put it down.

meg-r