Bookends: A Novel

by Jane Green

Book Overview

Jane Green, author of the best-sellers Second Chance and Straight Talking, examines friendships and their limits in her highly entertaining novel Bookends. On the shelf, but still best friends . . .... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767907817
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

it was okay

wouldn’t recommend to a friend

Bookends

This is by far the best Jane Green book. I have read all of her books, and have the new "second chance" on the way to my home. In this novel Jane Green captures the different personalities with outstanding succes!! All her books have something that makes them good, woth a read, but this one - Bookends - Is by far the best one!! When the book is done, after one sitting or so, you find your self wondering how their lifes are going to fold. It is a really good book, and can not be praised too much.

A dramatic, comedic, and real look at friendship + love!

I'm a sucker for a romantic comedy, and after Bridget Jones's Diary, I became eager to read more books in that genre. When I picked up Bookends by Jane Green, I was looking for a light, fun read, but what I received was a novel that would not let me put it down. Bookends is hilarious, witty, and full of tension and drama, and characters that you will love...and some you might not like all that well.In Bookends, the reader is introduced - by way of narrator, Catherine "Cath" Warner - to a group of friends who meet in school and though individually different as night and day, they become a tight clique of trusted friends. That is, until the ever-beautiful Portia - the friend thought to be the sun in the clique's universe - destroys friendships that were meant to last forever.Fast forward ten years where we find Cath and lifelong friends, Josh and Lisa, and her best friend, Si, living and loving in their early-thirties, in London. Si, the sweet, adorable, and gay love of Cath's life spends most of his time in friendly counsel with Cath regarding the lack of men in their lives, and discussing how each deals with that situation in their own way, whether it's Cath's refusal to believe she wants a man in her life, or Si's ability to lower his standards, for fear of living alone.Just as everyone's life seems to be on track, a blast from the past in the form of an older and more self-indulgent Portia, pops back into the group's tight circle and in an instant, lives are shook up, adulterous innuendoes are cooked up and friendships are tested.I have to say, this book is a wonderful read. I fell in love with the main character, Cath, and her feelings on friendship and love. Green does a great job in creating characters that you want to care about, characters that you can feel and even relate to. I think readers will be thoroughly and happily surprised that there is more to this book than pure entertainment. I finished this book with tears in my eyes because I felt a connection with Green's characters and I felt moved by the way Green deals with some heavy subjects in this novel.I would definitely recommend Bookends - love the title - to those who want a fast read with a lot of bite and wit.Shon Bacon

Marvelous!

I have just finished Jane Green's third novel, Bookends, and I loved it! This story brings out the tenderness of Jemima J that seemed to be missing from Mr Maybe. I loved the characters and really felt like these were people I could become friends with. Si's witty personality lent to a great reading experience and seemed to balance out Cath's insecurities. While Jemima J is still the shinning sibling, I would rate Bookends at a close second. Jane Green is a fabulous "Brit Chick" writer, I would say one of the best out there. I am eagerly awaiting her fourth book due out in 2003.

Bookends - By Jane Green

My first impression of this book was the usual "oh lord, another one of these icky romances" but as I got more involved.. of course, after the fact that I had no idea what was happening at the beginning, everyone being thrown into the first two pages of the book. As the story went along I developed relationships with everyone. (yes, even Max). This book was magnificent! Made me laugh, cry, frown all good and bad things :) but all meant for this book! I just wish that some of Ms. Green's books were also US printed... I loved this book! I think it's her best yet! (out of "Jemima J" and "Mr Maybe") I recommend this to anyone who loves a quick and easy romance read.

Fun and relaxing

I have just finished my second Jane Green novel, Bookends. And loved every word of it.Like the first Jane Green I read, Jemima J, this one is about the life of single Londoners, following the footprints of Bridget Jones. But still the book is worth it's own money, and is not at all predictable and boring.A gang of University friends stay together for years after they left school, though they have lost contact with one of the girls from the gang, the beautiful Portia, queen of the gang. She broke their hearts one night and after that drifted away from the close gang. Life goes on, Josh marries Lucy, Cath stays single being hurt one time to many, and the gay Si is always hunting for the perfect man of his life.The book is a wonderful, charming and witty story about friendship. How to give everything for your friends, how to stay together through thick and thin. Though the part of the book that charms be most is Bookends, the bookshop and café Cath and Lucy opens. Through this Cath meets James, but is this man the one for her? Jane Green has a charmimg way to take us through the every day life of her characters.The ending is surprisingly, and may be a little out of Greens usual style, though it makes you think about the values of your live, the values of your friendships.Britt Arnhild Lindland