Ahhh, the drudgery of getting through this book. I almost threw in the towel halfway through, but I thought there might be some profound twist at the end. Ugh, nothing- it was very predictable. One of my biggest complaints was that the author would over elaborate on things that were not pertinent to the story, which made for a lot of skimming, for me anyway. I'm surprised at some of the high ratings this book got. If you want a really beautiful, family saga that is a true page turner, try Wally Lamb's "I know This Much is True". You will not be disappointed.

I feel like this should be more than three stars, but I don't think it's a four star read and I always round down. It was very good, and for the first 2/3rds of the book, I was enraptured. However, I feel like the author ended up overstuffing the story, which pushed it over the line into melodrama. Specifically, the whole Frances suddenly wanting a baby and the extra characters and fallout around it storyline could have been removed from the book and it wouldn't have made a difference. It seemed like the author needed it just to set up the last two pages of the book. Overall, this was on my TBR for years, and I’m glad I read it. I wouldn’t read it again, though.

Fall on Your Knees is a historical fiction written by Ann-Marie MacDonald. The novel takes place in late 19th and early 20th centuries and chronicles four generations of the complex Piper Family of Cape Cod, Nova Scotia.

Piano tuner James Piper dotes on his beautiful and musically talented eldest daughter, Kathleen, almost to the exclusion of everyone else, including his Lebanese wife and his other daughters. After Kathleen's death during childbirth and his wife's suicide a few days later, James forbids any mention of Kathleen's name. However, the bitter fruit of illicit passion will continue to take its toll on Kathleen's survivors.

Fall on Your Knees is written rather well. Though the mortality rate in this family sometimes challenges credibility, MacDonald's narrative displays a remarkable assurance of style, pacing and plotting as unexpected twists propel a complex story that builds inexorably to tragedy. MacDonald uses the surface tension and love between James and his daughters to explore the repercussions of repression, sin, guilt and violence that simmer beneath the family's delicately maintained equilibrium.

All in all, Fall on Your Knees is a compelling narrative of an epic saga of a family's trials and triumphs in a world of sin, guilt, and redemption.

This novel really lost momentum for me around the 300-page mark. Prior to that, I was intrigued and interested enough by it, but at that point, my patience started to wane.

I initially would’ve compared this novel to ones like A Prayer for Owen Meany and Middlesex, which have always been among my favourites, but as I kept reading, I realized the main reason why I couldn’t enjoy Fall On Your Knees quite as much was because I didn’t like or feel connected to any of the characters. I don’t mean to say that you always have to like a character to like the book they are a part of, but in this particular case, I strongly disliked all of the characters and so I found my desire to read about them faded pretty quickly. Whereas in classics like Owen Meany and Middlesex, I felt an immediate connection to Owen, Johnny Wheelwright and Cal Stephanides, in Fall On Your Knees I actually found myself hating almost everyone. James was despicable to me in so many ways, Kathleen was stuck-up and annoying, and Frances and Mercedes had almost no redeeming qualities. The one thing I did appreciate was Materia’s Lebanese heritage because, being half Lebanese myself, it was nice to be able to recognize the different foods she was cooking and some Arabic words here and there. But that wasn’t enough to make me interested in this family and I felt no sympathy for them whatsoever, even though I’m sure I was meant to feel some.

I also feel very similarly about this novel as I did after finishing Love In The Time of Cholera in that I think I would've appreciated it much more if I had read it when I was in university. There were undeniably a lot of profound themes and ideas at play in Fall On Your Knees, but I simply wasn't in the mood to investigate and analyze all of them, and instead would've preferred a more classically entertaining plot. This has everything to do with the place I'm at right now in terms of my reading preferences, so I do feel that maybe if I had read this novel a few years ago, at the height of my studies, I might've been a lot more impressed by what it had to offer.

I wouldn’t say this was a terrible book by any means because it was very well written, but I grew more and more irritated with it as it went on, and today I woke up just wanting to be done with it. I think the best, most magical books will make a reader never want to stop reading them, and that unfortunately wasn’t something I experienced in this case, as disappointed as that makes me.

❥❥❥ (out of 5)

Changed my life. I saw the world differently after this book

ignore that glowering “oprah's book club” logo on the front of this and just walk up to the counter and check it out of your local library. it's a hefty little paperback, but you'll read it in no time - so long as you're into multi-generational novels with a dark streak reminiscent of something like annie proulx. it's beautifully written and only a shame that the aforementioned mascot of satan has put her name to it. Fall On Your Knees is macdonald's first published work, which makes it ten times more astounding to me.
the parents who spawn our slew of protagonists are james piper, irish heritage self-taught leisure academic and piano tuner by trade, and materia mahmoud, beautiful lebanese girl who is pushed to dementia through domesticity. macdonalds own words are the magic binding the elements of scandal which make this novel.

Although Fall On Your Knees is Ann-Marie MacDonald's first novel, it's the third I've read (the other two are The Way the Crow Flies and Adult Onset). After three books, certain themes and motifs are evident in MacDonald's work: culturally mixed marriages (in this book, a Scottish-heritage Cape Breton Islander marries a Lebanese-born young woman), dysfunctional and sometimes violent families, military service, and telling stories as a way of remembering, if not outright creating, our personal histories.

This is the tale of a family in the first half of the 20th century in small-town Cape Breton Island. James Piper and his wife Materia marry young and raise a family of four girls. Kathleen, the oldest, has a beautiful singing voice and James hopes to have her trained as a classical opera singer. Mercedes is next, and takes after her mother, particularly in her strong religious faith. Frances is the problem child. She loves her family, but can't seem to keep herself out of trouble. Lily is the baby of the family, with a polio-ravaged leg.

The Pipers are not a happy family, although there is real love in their household, but they reach a crisis when James's plan to send Kathleen to New York City in the 1920s for professional voice lessons has tragic consequences. This crisis is hinted at in the prologue and is described about one quarter to one third of the way in. The remainder of the novel addresses how the Pipers cope with their tragedy and the unfolding of the century (such as miners' strikes, the Depression, and World War II). Interspersed with this are flashbacks in various forms (such as letters and diaries) to Kathleen's time in New York and what really happened there. No one, including the reader, knows Kathleen's full story until near the end of the book, but the sisters create stories for each other about her to fill a need for completeness and understanding.

As always, even in this first novel, MacDonald is a writer of great power. Her prose is compelling and her characters are distinct and highly individual. There are some scenes of love and laughter, but, ultimately the book is a tale of perseverance in the face of great hardship. Although this is by no means a happy tale, I found the final scenes to be satisfying and right, in the sense that sins have been forgiven and family ties have been honoured, despite the all-too human flaws and failings of almost everyone. Without a doubt, this is a Canadian classic.

All'inizio cattura con intensità, è molto avvincente e scritto con tecnica magistrale. Ma quella che sembrava una saga ricca di storie e ricordi di famiglia, man mano che si procede si riduce a un unico argomento: sesso, sesso e ancora sesso... Violenza, stupri, incesti, prostituzione, neonati illegittimi, il tutto in dosi così massicce che alla fine ci si sente nauseati. Non ho niente contro il Torbido, ma il troppo stroppia, e qui è usato in modo astuto, accattivante: la MacDonald vuole scalare le classifiche di vendita, e ci riesce con il sistema più vecchio del mondo; però non basta che le sue eroine passeggino lungo una scogliera tempestosa per fare Letteratura, e questo romanzo, pur così ben scritto, vola basso per la povertà dei temi trattati.

4.5 stars (but one that deserves to be rounded up). This was fully a 5 star novel for me until the last section. It didn’t really wrap up in a way that was satisfying or added anything to the story.

This book was extraordinary. I was sucked in from the first page, and every time I picked up the book I struggled to put it down. The character work is absolutely immaculate. This was one of the most atmospheric books I’ve read. There is so much FORCE behind this novel. Very disturbing, gothic, absolutely jaw droppingly bonkers at times. Her prose is some of my all time favourite. But I could tell this was over bloated and the author didn’t really know how to bring it all together. This being her first novel however… I give some leeway. I can’t wait to read more from her.

Beautifully written book about horrible depravity. What a contrast. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the story. When I was reading, oftentimes I was cringing in disgust.
Like many others whose reviews I read, I didn't like the characters either. But I did admire the sister's love for each other. They accepted and supported each other when they were at their most unlovable. As they grew and matured, they each developed and evolved, which kept me coming back for more, even knowing that there was no way this family was ever going to have it easy.
The book is not written in a linear style, it does hop around a little bit. Hints are dropped that sat and niggled in the back of my mind until later in the story when the scene was revisited by another character and made clear. I would definitely read another book by this author.

Çok akıcı ve sürükleyici bir romandı, aile dramalarını sevdiğim için konusu da ilgimi çekmişti. Ortalarına doğru biraz sıkıldığımı itiraf edeyim nedeni ise yazarın bazı yerlerde gereksiz uzatmalar yaptığını düşünmemdi ki hala öyle düşünüyorum. Fakat eğer yazar o kısımların üzerinde bu kadar durmasaydı karakterlerin hepsini hissedip sonunda yine bu kadar etkilenir miydim bilmiyorum çünkü son yirmi sayfası kitabın açıklığa kavuştuğu bölümdü. Açıkçası bitirdikten sonra içim cız etti. Yani ne hayatlar var... Romanın gerçek hayattan uyarlama olup olmadığını bilmiyorum ama böyle olayların yaşandığını biliyorum.

Bir de kitapta beni rahatsız eden şuydu: Karakterlerden birinin dinine aşırı düşkün olmasından dolayı çok sık Tanrı kelimesi geçiyordu. Yani kitapta işlenen o Tanrı motifi beni biraz bunalttı açıkçası ama Tanrı’yla ilgili güzel çıkarımlar da vardı.

Okumaktan keyif aldığım, sürükleyici ve çarpıcı bir kitaptı.

I'm giving this book five stars because I can't find it in me to give it any less. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed this book, a well written tale so wrought with lost dreams, pining for the love of a father, incest, depression, longing, the blurred line between love and hate... I will say that I'm grateful for having read it.