Helpful Score: 13
AS with most of this author's books, the ending is the best! There are times i wonder,while reading it, where is he going with this. there are times i do not like that but, i like this author.
Alfred is a black boy,passed thru many many foster homes before he gets with Laura and Terry in rural Vt.These people lost their twin daughters 2 years before in a flood and different ways of grieving has taken its toll on them.
To say much more would give too much away. This book address's family,color,love,grief and redemption. It is a very complex book and deserves a read!
Alfred is a black boy,passed thru many many foster homes before he gets with Laura and Terry in rural Vt.These people lost their twin daughters 2 years before in a flood and different ways of grieving has taken its toll on them.
To say much more would give too much away. This book address's family,color,love,grief and redemption. It is a very complex book and deserves a read!
Helpful Score: 11
Bohjalian's landscape of Vermont makes you feel like you are there. This book deals with relationships between husband and wife, daughter and mother, brothers, neighbors and children. Decisions are made and strength of the characters are revealed. Fantastic story! This author has not disappointed me at all!
Helpful Score: 11
This book is a great story about love, life and belonging. The Buffalo Soldiers weave through the text as a cohesive strand. A couple who has lost twin daughters in a drowning accident fosters a young African American child. Kindly neighbors, a horse named Mesa, and an affair round out this thought-provoking tale.
Helpful Score: 8
WONDERFUL book. All of the characters were so very realistic, like people I could imagine running into in my daily life (I'm a Vermonter and the book is set here). Intriguing premise and wonderfully executed. Highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 5
This is a moving story about living through grief and making a new family. By the author of Midwives, another good one.
Helpful Score: 4
This book creates a suspensful, moving portrait of an unconvential family. The author's writing draws you deep into the lives of the characters and leaves you thinking about them for days.
Helpful Score: 3
Interesting novel about a husband and wife trying to move forward after the devastating death of their twin girls two years earlier. They take in a 10-year-old boy as a foster child and the husband has trouble connecting with him. The child is dealing with having been moved around a few times, with being the only African American in the area (his foster parents are white, too), and with his new home being threatened by the potential split-up of his foster parents. Bohjalian's writing is intimate and comfortable. You feel you know the people in the story and can understand what they're feeling.
I look forward to reading his other books.
I look forward to reading his other books.
Helpful Score: 2
This was the first book I read by this author and I was extremely delighted with it. The way he developed the characters made me feel like I personally knew each one of them.
A very touching story about human relationships. I especially enjoyed the relationship between the young boy and the neighbor. It was unexpected but sweet.
A very touching story about human relationships. I especially enjoyed the relationship between the young boy and the neighbor. It was unexpected but sweet.
Helpful Score: 2
What an incredible book. You immediately get caught up in the life of Terry and Laura Sheldon because their twin daughters die in a tragic accident. As their lives move on they decide to take in a foster child - Alfred.
While Terry's life moves in a different direction, Laura desperately tries to bond with Alfred. One of the most beautiful parts of this book is Alfred's relationship with the neighbor, Paul. Paul teaches Alfred all about the Buffalo Soliders - the African-American calvary troopers.
This book is very touching and will leave you wanting to read more from this author. This is one of my favorite books by Bohjalian.
While Terry's life moves in a different direction, Laura desperately tries to bond with Alfred. One of the most beautiful parts of this book is Alfred's relationship with the neighbor, Paul. Paul teaches Alfred all about the Buffalo Soliders - the African-American calvary troopers.
This book is very touching and will leave you wanting to read more from this author. This is one of my favorite books by Bohjalian.
Helpful Score: 2
The first book that got me interested in the author, have read all of his works by now, but this is definately his best!
Helpful Score: 2
This is a "must read". I hate to part with it, it's so good. Bohjalian's characters are true and intense and moving.
Helpful Score: 2
Having recently been by "Before You Know Kindness," I am now solidly back on th Bohjalian bandwagon. This is exactly what I have come to expect from the author--a character driven, page turner about people you may know or be. I love that the author creates his characters with flaws that you are willing to forgive, just like we do with our friends and family. Even some of the extreme situations are totally believable.
The last third of the book filled me with dread about possible outcomes. At one point I spoke outloud to one of the characters, giving some needed advice. I won't give it away but the ending was not what I expected. It was satisfying, though, I think. If you like Chris Bohjailian, you will love this book.
The last third of the book filled me with dread about possible outcomes. At one point I spoke outloud to one of the characters, giving some needed advice. I won't give it away but the ending was not what I expected. It was satisfying, though, I think. If you like Chris Bohjailian, you will love this book.
This was hard to get into for some reason. It didn't grip me like Midwives did. But after page 200 or so, I finally connected with the characters and enjoyed it.
Helpful Score: 1
This was my first Chris Bohjalian book - I really liked it and would definitely read another book authored by him. A great story.
Helpful Score: 1
Good read. I wasn't certain how he was going to pull off a happy ending or even if he was. Masterful weaving of the plots and characters together
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent author. This is about a childless couple (after a tragedy) decide to become foster parents to an African American boy. The elderly couple from across the street befriends the child and introduces him to the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, who come to represent strength to the young boy. The major themes of the book are tragedy, relationships, family, and acceptance. Not as good as Midwives by the same author, but a worthwhile read.
Helpful Score: 1
I have a new favourite Bohjalian book and it is "The Buffalo Soldier". An amazing read -- couldn't wait to turn the page, and at the same time, wish it would never end. Lovely, lovely writing, and interesting story. I loved this book!
Helpful Score: 1
This book was difficult to get into at first. It changes narrators/perspectives every chapter. By the middle of the book I liked/understood all of these characters/narrators. The last chapters were very action-packed; I was glad I stuck with it. Bohjalian is definitely a favorite author.
I wasn't as thrilled with this book as I had hoped. There were times when I had considered putting it down and not picking it up again. I wanted Laura and Terry to be more substantial, to show more growth. Instead they remained stagnant until the climax. I found the ending nice but too simplistic.
Simply AWESOME
Moving story of husband and wife who struggle through the emotional upheaval of the accidental drowning of their twin daughters. How they offer foster care to a young black boy who doesn't fit in their white rural town. The title refers to the black soldiers who served in the U.S. Army during the Westward Movement. There really isn't any tie in to the story, except each chapter has a quote from a Buffalo Soldier, or his wife, at the beginning.
I read this after listening to Skeletons at the Feast, and again I love how he really lets you know the characters. I liked the story and the boy, So much I read it in a weekend! BUT, I did feel somewhat let down by the ending. He combines many elements wonderfully. A plus is that just as in Skeletons, he adds horses and their wonderful link to healing humans in this story too.
from the cover: With his tradmark emotional heft and storytelling skill, bestselling author Chris Bohjalian presents this resonant novel about the formation of an uncoventional family-the ties that bind it and the strains that pull it apaprt. Two years after their twin daughters die in a flash flood, Terry and Laura Sheldon, a Vermont state trooper and his wife, take in a foster child. His name is Alfred; he is ten years old and African American. And he has passed through somany indiffernt families that he can't believe that his new one will last. In the ensuring months Terry and Laura will struggle to emerge from their shell of grief only to face an unexpected threat to their marraige. Terry's involvement with another owman. meanwhile Alfred cautiously enters the family circle, and befriends an elderly neighbor who inspires him with the story of the buffalo soliders, the balck calvrymen of the old West. Out of the entwinging and unfolding of their lives, The buffalo Soldier creates a suspenseful, moving portrait of a family.
Excellent story
Unforgetable story, well written. Highly recommended.
Entertaining tale with a twist at the end.
From the dust jacket: "In northern Vermont, a raging river overflows its banks and sweeps the nine-year-old twin daughters of Terry and Laura Sheldon to their deaths. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the highway patrolman and his wife, unable to have more children, take in a foster child: a ten-year-old African-American boy who has been shuttled for years between foster families and group homes. Young Alfred cautiously enters the Sheldon family circle, barely willing to hope that he might find a permanent home among these kind people still distracted by grief.
Across the street from the Sheldons live an older couple who take Alfred under their wing, and it is they who introduce him to the history of the buffalo soldiers-African-American cavalry troopers whose reputation for integrity, honor, and personal responsibility inspires the child.
Before life has a chance to settle down, however, Terry, who has never been unfaithful to Laura, finds himself attracted to the solace offered by another woman. Their encounter, brief as it is, leaves her pregnant with his baby-a child Terry suddenly realizes he urgently wants.
From these fitful lives emerges a lyrical and richly textured story, one that explores the meaning of marriage, the bonds between parents and children, and the relationships that cause a community to become a family."
Across the street from the Sheldons live an older couple who take Alfred under their wing, and it is they who introduce him to the history of the buffalo soldiers-African-American cavalry troopers whose reputation for integrity, honor, and personal responsibility inspires the child.
Before life has a chance to settle down, however, Terry, who has never been unfaithful to Laura, finds himself attracted to the solace offered by another woman. Their encounter, brief as it is, leaves her pregnant with his baby-a child Terry suddenly realizes he urgently wants.
From these fitful lives emerges a lyrical and richly textured story, one that explores the meaning of marriage, the bonds between parents and children, and the relationships that cause a community to become a family."
