Review also posted @Diamond&Coal Book ReviewsA lot of people are depressed by this book. I am not one of them and every time I re-read it (so far about six times!) it uplifts me and reminds me that nothing is ever quite so bad as I think it may be. This book is about the Jarret family, Mom and Dad with their two sons. When we meet them they only have one son left, Conrad, the younger son who has recently been released from a sanitarium after attempting suicide. The book is mostly from Conrad's point of view, with some glimpses into his Father, Calvin's head. The entire family is dealing with the loss of Con's brother Buck, but instead of bringing them together it's tearing them apart. His Mother, Beth, is using every excuse to escape the situation with constant vacations and denial that anything is wrong. One scene in particular at a friend's party, where Cal is slightly drunk and discusses Con's therapy, really makes her angry. You don't share personal business with anyone but family, and even then you NEVER talk about it - that's her life motto. Without perfection in her life anymore, Beth has no clue who to blame. She becomes withdrawn and harsh when Cal tries to show any interest in Conrad, who is trying to piece his life back together in a way that makes him happy. Which isn't necessarily the way his Mom wants things. Maybe Cal isn't as happy as he always thought either. When he begins looking past the face value of the things in his life, the situation finally combusts.I loved this book. It's an honest and hard look at the consequences of real-life tragedies and how they change people forever. The family dynamic is extremely interesting, with Cal being the slightly hovering, interested parent and Beth seeming like she wishes Conrad would just disappear. Conrad himself is messed up and after living his whole life in a house that kept repression and perfection as rulers (*cough* *Beth* *cough*) this is really the first time he has ever dealt with his emotions in an honest way. As he works through the guilt, sadness and anger of Buck's death, as well as his twisted relationship with his Mom, we see him grow as a person and learn to let himself be happy. Cal's transformation from clueless, middle-aged lawyer with the perfect wife and good son also is something to see. He really starts to take off the rose colored glasses and feel what's going on in his life. Dr. Berger, the not-so-crazy therapist that Con (and, later on, Cal) go to see is what makes the book in my opinion. His obvious contentment with life and it's ups/downs is the opposite of Cal and Con but it balances them out. The ending of this book, reconnecting with the old while moving on with the new is beautiful. One of my favorite books that I've read since becoming an adult. Super glad that when I was nineteen the cover and synopsis intrigued me. Overall and extremely well written novel, a character piece that is in the style of The Virgin Suicides or White Oleander. It is something special that only comes around every so often. I highly encourage anyone who hasn't read it to give it a shot! You won't regret it! :)VERDICT: 5/5 Stars**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**
It is one thing to read a book written by a contemporary author, set in the not-too-distant past; it is another entirely to read one written in and completely of its time. To read Ordinary People is to step through the looking glass into the sweetly familiar terrain of mid-1970s. But beneath the surface details is a book of timeless themes and incomparable elegance. As a fan of the 1980 movie, I could hear the voices of the actors as I read the dialogue: Mary Tyler Moore's controlled high-pitched fury, Donald Sutherland's velvet sorrow, Judd Hirsch's nasal sarcasm. But Judith Guest's brilliant, unaffected writing brings life to the characters in a more personal and profound way. You become a participant, not a passive observer, in the inner lives of a family as it falls apart, slowly, wretchedly, inevitably.I was just eleven years old when Ordinary People appeared in cinematic form in the autumn of 1980, but I remember it as a seminal cultural event of the era, hand-in-hand with Kramer vs. Kramer, released at the end of 1979. It was the year my parents divorced, my oldest brother joined the Marines, the American hostage crisis in Iran dominated the headlines, we waited hours in line at the Cinerama to see The Empire Strikes Back, Reagan took office and John Lennon was murdered - my political and socio-cultural self awakened at the start of a new decade to my formative years and to a world about to enter hyper-speed. I can't imagine Ordinary People is still being read in high school English classes, but more's the pity. The clothing and music have changed, but the universal nature of adolescence - the sense of isolation, the discovery of love and the longing to be accepted coupled with the struggle to assert one's individuality - remains. Anyone who has suffered depression, whether as a teen or as an adult, will walk in step with Conrad Jarrett as he struggles to return from a shadow life to one with dimension and hope. And what a gift to have one's conflict and confusion validated by Guest's honest, aching, clean prose.
What do You think about Ordinary People (1982)?
I picked up this book last year, and at tge time I didn't know what to expect. But from the first page of my journey with the Jarret family, it became clear that this was the kind of story that will live with me for a long time to come. There were momentous when I would just put the book aside and think of what I would do. It's that type of book which immerses you deep into the lives of ordinary people. This is the background, Conrad Jarret, son to Beth and Calvin Jarret, is has been diagnosed with depression and classified to be with what tbey term high risk suicidal tendencies. A boy who was onc bright, the kind they label A-student, has flanked his junior exams and has to redo the exams. He hails from a succesful family, Calvin Jarret is a tax attorney while the mum, Beth is a succesful saleswoman. Despite tge fact that the two are in love, there are a lot of glaring differences between them. Beth is a perfectionist who likes to see everything in order. She's firm and principled, while Calvin is a worrier who is constantly worryong about Conrad. Calvin thinks that Conrad is suffering because he is a lousy parent. But when Conrad starts attending sessions with Dr. Berger, his life improves. He slowly starts getting his old self back. He who had once failed his papers is now passing, he who did not know how to ask a girl out, finally muscles up the courage to do it and slowly starts shaping up his social life. Yes, all families have their own challenges. But this book encourages us to remain together despite our happenings. Thst we are not outcasts, we are ordinary people. Nothibg is meaningless, we shoul be positive. Give everybody a chance to be who they are, to make mistakes and writing them off. A wobderful book.
—Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma
Last night, I watched the movie based on Ordinary People and it's one of those situations where it's leaps and bounds above its source material. It highlights all the good parts, while cutting out the bits and that are contrived and silly. Redford deserved his Oscar for best director for pulling a great movie out of an alright book. Was nobody else bothered by the parents in this book? Cal is perfect, the great orphan who pulled himself up from the muck to achieve greatness. He still has depth, despite his cloying bits, and throughout the whole novel, he gets to show his real human thoughts and struggles. Beth does not have anything below the surface in the book. She is only an evil harpy who dares to have a life outside of her family. Don't you know that women are supposed to identify as a wife/mother first, a daughter second and and individual third? (All women in the novel are either awful shrews or the second incarnation of the Virgin Mary.)Mary Tyler Moore, by the sheer virtue of the fact that she can act like nobody's business is able to give humanity to Beth that Guest never did. She is visibly repressing everything, fighting along the way. It's much more moving than the pieces in the novel that get devoted to her. The Conrad part of the book really was great, even though he grew up with a pretty two-dimensional mother. Guest explores ways to keep humanity when dealing with a person with mental illness, and she has some pretty stellar moments along the way. His life is funny and normal and complex, despite the fact that he has problems . Often times in lit, people with depression cease to be really people, and it's refreshing that Guest is able to avoid doing so. The movie also portrayed Conrad incredibly well, and in both it's clear that his life is the central focus. Guest's prose also bothered me a little throughout the whole book. It seems like nothing was really deliberate. Haphazard sentence length with really no flow, and sometimes awkward word choice dominates her important message. It's a shame too, because every now and again she has a moment that is powerful and deeply felt, but it takes some digging to get to it. I loved Calvin's epiphany towards the end where Guest writes: “Life is not a series of pathetic, meaningless actions. Some of them are so far from pathetic, so far from meaningless as to be beyond reason" but it took a while for something original to come through instead of moments where Guest clearly thinks she is being insightful, but is really just repeating another platitude. So, mixed feelings here. Some great moments, some overwritten and odd ones. Watch the movie instead. It's much more well thought and skips over a good deal of the parts that were poorly done.
—Nathan Long
I read this book my senior year in high school. I picked it up off of my dad's bookshelf. I have since reread it and it remains one of my favorites. The family and friendship dynamics are good and the themes are universal. There is an honesty about all things (including depression and relationships) that the main character has that is striking. It could be a fairly quick read, but I still feel that it has a lasting impact.The movie, to me, is not as good as the book. I almost always think that though. . .
—Julie
