Your Blue-Eyed Boy

by Helen Dunmore

Book Overview

From the acclaimed author of "Talking to the Dead" comes a haunting novel about a judge whose husband is on the verge of personal bankruptcy and breakdown. As she struggles to shield her two sons from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316197386
• ISBN13: 9780316197380
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

On irreversible decisions - a story of passing time

"Your Blue-Eyed Boy" is a novel about time lost. You cannot regain the features of the body you once had, every single cell of your flesh underwent many a transformation, and more to the point, your mind has changed. Irreversibly. The past cannot be brought back, feelings, if they ever return, soon vanish under the thick layer of the present, the overwhelming mindset that had gripped you long ago and refuses to let you loose. Perhaps it's for the best, perhaps it's as it should be, for what would happen if we were able to reverse the flow of time? Would we gain as much as we think we would? The answer is yes, indeed we would come straight back to the world of lost impressions, in spite of our altered bodies. The irony is that such reversal is insane. Our ever rational mind revolts against that very idea, for everything we have now, would be lost. You cannot eat the cake and still have the cake, as they say. There is a price for everything in this world. Are you willing to make that irreversible move? The life of a thirty-eight years old judge changes when she receives a call, and then a letter, and then a visitor from America, a sequence of intrusions in her steady life consisting mainly of desperate trials to make ends meet. In an instant, she travels back in time to the era when she had been just eighteen years old, a stranger in a strange land of America, where she met her blue-eyed boy. At that point you think that what you're reading is a mere blackmail thriller, but if you do, then you're deeply mistaken. The book has a barebone storyline, yes, and I strongly advise you to persevere and read the novel to its end, should you happen to have a deeply ingrained aversion to thrillers and mysteries as yours truly. Thanks Helen for small favors, the book didn't turn out to be shallow. The novel is a touching, and yet cruel evaluation of the primary truths of life, sad as they are. There are difficult choices to be made, and there is the horror of passing time we have to reconcile ourselves with. There is infinitely much more to this book than it appears from the terse descriptions, or even from what it seems to be about when you read a couple of chapters. Your "Blue-Eyed Boy" is a novel apt to be largely misunderstood, that seems inevitable. I might also add that those of you who like uplifting stories should better stay away from all books of Helen Dunmore. You might not endure the contents in one piece.

A really freaky book, but somehow satisfying

I just finished reading this book, and I really thought that it was a great look on stalkers. Simone really has been through too much to deserve a blackmail threat. It really gets to her with the bricklayer/blackmailer line. This book also explores who you really are. Are you someone who you were twenty years ago, or are you the person living today? If you want to have a really scary read, read it on a dark night all alone.

A thought-provoking book

This is generally well written. However, although the all too frequent digressions are often important in character and plot development, they sometimes appeared as unnecessary space fillers, and contributed to the slow-moving pace of the book. Nevertheless, Dunmore's descriptions of the settings, especially of the sea, are vivid and powerful. This and her development of mental conflicts of the main character make this a very worthwhile read.

Excellent

A very satisfying read. When she describes scenery, you are not there...the area you are in becomes her words. When she describes food, your mouth waters as if you are chewing it...and you can feel the fear in deep in the heart of her character.

It's a story but it's also a poem

I enjoyed this novel tremendously. Dunmore wanders away from the story line quite often but it's never disturbing because one can simply enjoy the language. And the story itself is beautiful too, It's about love that transforms and never leaves you. It's about remembrance, longing and connection. It's also very real. I know it sometimes happens to the lucky.