this is the southern novel! makes me proud I am from Atlanta and was way to thoughtful at one time.
I even read it in a crappy small paperback and enjoyed every page. read it and then let me know what northern novel would be it's equal.

I first read this book the summer after my junior year of college and I re-read it every year or so. It's that good.

I have to admit that I don’t know how to feel about this book. It’s beautifully written. That being said, outside of the fact that it’s a long book, it’s one of the most depressing and saddest books I’ve ever read. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters; they were all flawed in ways that made them unattractive, but they fit together. Enablers certainly, all of them. So how can I give this book 4 stars? I honestly can’t say. But I would invite anyone who is so inclined to read the book and decide for yourself.

I wasn't really motivated to finish this book so I can't say much about it except that it was slow moving and dull. Life is too short to read an entire book only to find it was just boring.

Wow. Just finished the book. I wasn't able to put it down for the last 50-70 pages....and found myself skimming a lot just to find out what happened in the end. The book started out slow and strange and I didn't know where it was going. Then, it got really interesting, even though the situations were unfamiliar. (i.e. a lot of cocaine usage) But, it was a well-told story and included a lot of soul-searching of the characters. I re-read the first 30-50 pages when I was in about two-thirds of the way through the book and saw it with a different perspective. This book could be read multiple times (especially since I zipped through parts of it) and also bring up good discussions. I would rate the book a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but since that's not an option, it rounds up to 5 stars.

p.s. the funny thing is that my husband picked the book for me randomly, with the only guideline of "get a book from the North Carolina author section"....so, a nice surprise.

It was good, but I thought it dragged on a bit. It could have been condensed. The characters were well portrayed, but I couldn't really relate to any of them. I guess that is why I didn't really LOVE the book because I thought the characters all made stupid mistakes or choices. Overall though, it was very well written and captivating.

I'm going through my list of read books to attempt to review them and when this one came up, my first thought was I didn't like it. Since I read it in 2004, I went through other people's reviews in order to jog my memory so I could review it. I purchased it in 1998 but didn't read it until 2004 and I don't remember anything about it; usually once I read other's reviews, I remember at least something about the book. The majority of the reviews on Goodreads are great and people seem to love it but I'm giving it 2 stars based on the fact that I remember nothing about it and I no longer have it on my bookshelves. A few years ago, I decided I needed to make room so I went through and got rid of books I didn't think I would ever read again or didn't care much about. This evidently was one of those.

Close to 4 stars, but I felt like the author tried too hard. The descriptions of the characters' respective introspection or events and themselves was really overdone.

Loved the setting

A little more than half-way through. I am re-reading this after more than 20 years. It's very good so far.

Not my favorite. The writing and the plot just weren't my cup of tea.

My husband recommended this book to me as a beautifully written book. It was.

I expected to like this book more than I did since it deals with topics I usually enjoy - coming of age, great location, interesting protagonists. But while I enjoyed the descriptive power of the writing, much of the prose is dense, turgid and way overdone. If I analyzed everything I did to the extent these folks do I would never get anything done. Not only do they analyze something before they do it, they beat it to death again afterward. Reminds me of an Anne Rice novel where she once took 10 pages to describe someone walking across a room. The complexity of these thoughts goes far beyond any adolescent I ever met. Great beach read for those into "romance" and "meaning" and "endless love" but I need things to move along a bit more quickly.