Dale Loves Sophie to Death

by Robb Forman Dew

Book Overview

Robb Forman Dew's cult first novel explores themes of familial and romantic bonds as it tells the story of a woman whose husband stays behind in New England while she and their children spend the summer in her Midwestern hometown.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316890669
• ISBN13: 9780316890663
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

brilliant evocation of character and heart

Real writers are hard to find, but Robb Forman Dew is most assuredly one of them. One falls at once into the dream of this book and doesn't leave it until the last page is turned. In scene after scene we meet a most believable family facing the strains of separation and the consequences of poor judgment, facing the complicated tangle of forgiveness. It is a seamless book, a perfect book club book, ripe with beauty, power, and wisdom.

What a Find!

I simply can't recommend this book highly enough! My book club read it, and we are all about the age of the book's protaganist. We all began to realize, as we discussed this amazing book, that we, too, had unintentionally neglected out children--and the other people we love best in the world--while always meaning to do the right thing. We, too, had to learn how to forgive ourselves and our families in order to finally grow up. And we laughed in recognition of our own foibles in the character of Dinah, and her "perfect" friend, Pam, and of poor Martin who misses his family. We are a coed book club, and we try to alternate between "women's" and "men's" books. We decided that this book filled the bill for both! I am so surprised to find negative reviews of this lovely book. It has changed my understanding of my own life!

Well written and absorbing

Although the subject of Dew's novel is well-trodden territory-- a husband and wife, temporarily separated, re-evaluate their marriage and their conceptions of each other-- Dew's writing is excellent. This story of this complicated couple and their families and friends is quietly moving as well as engrossing.

Emotionally unforgettable!

I read this book years ago, when it first came out in hardback, and it has stayed fresh in my memory. The title refers to a spray-painted sign on a highway overpass that the family references each summer on it's way back to visit the extended family in the heartland of America. While visions of getting centered en famille overtake the mother in this tale, she neglects the danger confronting her own children, ignoring signs of malaise until she is forced to relinquish her dreams, and deal with reality. All the characters are well drawn. My heart went out to every one of them......things do happen that aren't anyone's fault, and happen when you least expect them. All the characters change, grow, adapt....in very realistic ways, and there is a kindness in the way the author tells their story. It's easy to understand how it won the National Book award; what isn't easy to understand is why it was never made into a movie----i feel like I've almost seen it, because Ms. Dew's descriptions are so visual, and her characters are so appealing.

Quintessential family novel

This is one of the best novels ever to treat marriage, child rearing, dealing with eccentric aging parents, and a whole range of other intra- and inter-generational threads, with humane and literate humor. Worth reading just for the poignant description of a child's illness, all the mistakes that can be made, all the resilience a family can somehow locate. But Robb Forman Dew is also brilliant when it comes to exploring the effects of marital separation, family feuds, adolescent memories as they remain in high-relief in the psyche, the fragile wonder of adult friendships. Whenever I re-read this fine novel, I'm confident of receiving some new take on hopefulness.