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    Thoughts of Maria
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    Thoughts of Maria
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    Thoughts of Maria
    Ebook130 pages2 hours

    Thoughts of Maria

    By Gregory Heath

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Gerry Thorley’s wife Rachel has left him for another man. His son Callum, who works for a PR company by day and deals drugs at night, hardly ever visits him. Now Gerry, divorced and approaching fifty, wants a second chance at love.

    On the other side of the world, on the infamous Payatas dump in Manila, nineteen-year-old Maria and her family live a life of abject poverty and desperation. Picking through the filth, they earn just enough to stay alive. There seems no chance for change, until one day a young man appears with a proposition.

    As Gerry combs web site after web site searching for the perfect mail-order bride, Maria and her family come to terms with the possibility that she might marry a foreigner to escape the miserable cycle of poverty in which they live. But he must be just the right man, a kind, respectful man, and a man with the means to give her a better life.

    Will Maria’s future husband turn out to be an Englishman more than twice her age? Will Gerry’s new wife satisfy his needs for companionship and warmth? And what might his ex-wife and son think of Gerry’s new bride?

    When the marriage is finally arranged and Maria returns with Gerry to England to start their life together, neither expects perfect marital bliss but both are willing to patiently cultivate a mutually satisfying relationship. But trouble is lurking just around the corner as Gerry’s son Callum feeds the fires of an escalating sexual obsession with his father’s new bride, and Rachel resolves to see the marriage fail, and Maria back where she belongs in the Philippines.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Books
    Release dateFeb 3, 2013
    ISBN9781301959198
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Thoughts of Maria

    3.5/5

    51 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      It wasn't bad. It isn;t a book I would highly recommend to my friends...but it is good. The author tells the story of families facing struggles in Manilla. They are doing anything they can to survive. The story has multiple POV's, but the author does a good job of giving the charactor their own "time" to talk and tell their story. There is no ending to this story, it just stops. I cant decide if I am upset because I want to know more or that it ends with no resolution. But then again life sometimes just ends with no real answer also.
    • 4/5
      I received a free review copy of this book, which I (surprisingly) thoroughly enjoyed. This surprised me since I normally prefer deep complex books with lots of twists and turns, whereas this one was very short and based on an extremely simple story. But the conversation style used felt genuine and engaged me immediately, and the idea of telling the story through different first-person narrators made it all the more interesting. Apart from one mostly boring chapter narrated by Gerry's father, I couldn't put the book down and was sad to see it end so soon. I would have loved a couple more chapters, perhaps telling the story from Jose's perspective, and hearing what happens to Maria and her family.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as part of the early reviewers. I found it to be an easy read, however I really enjoyed it. I liked the way the story was told through different viewpoints and would certainly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This was a quick read. But an interesting story about a broken family and a polemic matter told from different points of view.I really enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      One story - narrated in the view of half a dozen different involved persons. An English family that went broke at one end, a Filipino one living at a garbage dump at the outskirts of Manila at the other. Their views and feelings are connected through the marriage between the 19 year old Filipina daughter and the divorced English husband, who is very much older. The little book tells not a sweeping story. But it gives you a fictional situation to think about. And that is what a little book should give you ...
    • 4/5
      I received this as an advance reader from librarything. This is definitely a different twist about a mail order bride. I loved the way that the story had different chapters of the family members involved . Each expressing their " thoughts of Maria ." It was sad reading about the struggles each person faced but intriguing to learn how they coped and dealt with their internal issues and feelings. This story touched on numerous things that happen in peoples lives today and I feel the author did a good job tying it all together. I will be looking forward to reading more books by Gregory Heath.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as an Early Reviewer. Thoughts of Maria reads as though you had stumbled across diary entries or letters from Gerry, a middle aged divorced man; Maria, a 19-year-old girl living on a dump outside Manila with her family; Rachel, Gerry's ex-wife; and Collum, Gerry's son. The chapters from the points-of-view of Gerry and Maria are very well written; I felt like I would come to know and understand them very well. To read their letters was to gain perspective into their lives, their motivations, and had me pulling for their happiness.Rachel and Collum - I wish we hadn't been subjected to their unhappy minds. Their chapters felt forced, and cliche. There was one chapter from Gerry's father, and that felt very out of place. I wish his blessing would have come from Gerry's perspective.The book ends abruptly. It's a testament to Heath's strong characterization that I was actually a little ticked at not finding out exactly what happens, that I felt cheated out of sharing the exact moment that Gerry and Maria live "happily ever after." I would recommend this book as an easy ready for the bus/train or the waiting room.
    • 3/5
      Thoughts of Maria is a short, quick read about two families on two very different paths that collide through a ‘mail order’ marriage. The novel is told from the perspective of five characters: Gerry, Maria, Rachel, Callum and Arthur. Gerry is an older English man who is looking for a committed relationship after his wife of over twenty years left him for another man. Maria is a young Filipina woman in her late teens living with her family in the Payatas dump in Manila, scratching out a living by collecting and sorting trash. Rachel, Gerry’s ex wife, is a depressed alcoholic who regrets her decision to leave Gerry a few years prior. Callum is Gerry and Rachel’s drug-addicted son and Arthur is Gerry’s father who suffers from Alzheimer's. The novel moves quickly through Gerry’s search for a wife through various mail order bride agencies online to him meeting Maria and her family. Along the way Gerry, Rachel and Callum fill in details about the family’s past. Based on the description of the novel, I expected the marriage between Gerry and Maria to take place early in the storyline, but the reader is nearly to the end of the novel by the time the two wed. Several new plot developments occur as Maria is adjusting to her new life in England and then the novel abruptly ends. A chapter ends and that’s it for the story, the new twists in the plot are just left hanging in the air. I don’t feel every book one reads has to have a neat and tidy ending but this felt sloppy and too loose. I keep expecting an e-mail from LibraryThing Early Reviewers letting me know that I received the wrong version of the novel.
    • 3/5
      I was also lucky enough to receive this book for early review from library thing. The book is written in the first person by the main characters of the story. The central character is a lonely middle aged man who decides to organise a mail order bride from the Philippines. We also hear from his ex-wife, his parents, his bride and his son. We are lead to feel sympathy for each of these people, as they explain their own perspective of the events as they unfold. I must admit I felt less empathy for the son than any of the other characters. This book had potential. I was just beginning to feel engaged by the book when it suddenly ends.
    • 5/5
      I recieved this book as an early review book from Library Thing. I loved loved loved this book. From the first page it caught my attention and I didn't want to put the book down. It is about a divorced man that decides to try a mail order bride that is much younger than him. The book gives the point of view of the girl's family, the son, and the ex-wife. The ending was disappointing because I really wanted to know more about how everything ended with everyone. Hopefully there will a sequel. Overall, I really recommend this book it is a great and easy read!
    • 4/5
      I truly enjoyed Thoughts of Maria by Gregory Heath. It was a sad story about two families struggling to improve their lives and dealing with the choices they each made in life. I enjoyed that each chapter was written from the viewpoint of a particular character. The author did a good job allowing the readers to establish a connection with each character. I was a little disappointed with the ending. I became so invested in all the characters that I would have liked a little more closure, especially with Maria and Gerry. Even though the story ended too abruptly for my taste, I would definitely recommend the book to others. I will be on the lookout for more books by Gregory Heath.
    • 4/5
      I was drawn to this story of a young Filipina "mail order bride" for a British middle-aged divorcee for two reasons: I personally know of such martial unions and they have been quite successful; I love books that take place in England. Gerry is a very likable bloke whose wife of almost 28 years left him for another man. Not only that, Rachel informed him of her intention to divorce as they shopped in a supermarket. The crassness of this is something Gerry remembers whenever he might feel sorry for Rachel. Their adult son Callum is rather soulless leaving both parents feeling like they could have done better. Still, Gerry finds much satisfaction in the simple things of life. He loves his job as a property surveyor specializing in old buildings as well as playing trombone in a local brass band. The one thing he's missing is female companionship. One day he notices a couple exiting a shop. The man looked about his age and was accompanied by a much younger Chinese girl. Their expressions exuded a "quiet contentment" that inspired Gerry to seek his own happiness via a "mail order bride."British author Gregory Heath spun his tale through a narrative by each character. This made the story very interesting as I came to know each character by hearing them "speak." I enjoyed the story so much that I wasn't quite ready for it to end. A book of just 133 pages, I finished it in a few days. I would like to have read more details about Gerry and Maria's marriage, as it had barely begun by book's end. Also there were absolutely no details from the marital bed, which would have been interesting considering the disparity in their ages (Maria was 19, Gerry 50) and cultures. Perhaps he will write a sequel; I would love to read it.
    • 4/5
      I received this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.The book is a quick and enjoyable read predominantly told from the point of view of 4 characters--Gerry, a fifty year old divorced man, his alcoholic and unhappy ex-wife Rachael, his coke using and unhappy son Callum and Maria, his wife to be (with a brief chapter told by Gerry's father). Surprisingly, Maria, who has the least materially in life, seems the happiest and most well adjusted and most likeable of the characters and I wanted her to be happy in her new life. The ending of the book leaves me wanting to know what happens to her and Gerry or if Rachael's unhappiness poisons them.
    • 5/5
      I won this book for early review on the librarything website. This book was an extremely quick read. The story was told from multiple point of views: Maria (the bride that comes to the UK to help her family), Gerry (the absent husband and father), Callum (the distant son), and Rachel (the drunk mother). All of the characters have their depressing stories and they all want to change their lives in some way. Strangely, although the book is titled thoughts of maria, most of the book was told from the perspective of Gerry. Regardless, it was a page turner for me and I wanted to know how the book would end. Unfortunately, the book didn't really end, and I would have appreciated a bit more detail about what happens to the characters. However, I still found this book very good and would highly recommend it. Definitely want to read more from this author.
    • 4/5
      It took me awhile to get into this book, and I almost gave up on it. The entire story is told in the first person, with each chapter telling the point of view of one of the four main characters: Maria, Gerry, his first wife, Rachel or their son, Callum. The reader gets insight into each character's feelings about the events in the book. without giving too much of the plot away I'll just say that the book tells of Maria's life in The Phillippeans, how she meets Gerry and comes to the U. S. if you're looking for an action-packed story, this book isn't for you. but the author skillfully weaves events together to create a real-life, human interest story of two families. I rated it 4 stars rather than 5 because it took me several chapters to figure out how the characters fit together. The book ended with Maria looking forward to future happiness, but I found myself wanting an ending with more closure
    • 3/5
      Maria lives with her family on a dump in Manila, scraping a living collecting what they can to sell on. Maria dreams of escaping this life to somewhere where she can send money back for her family, especially to stop her sister having to live that life.Gerry, 50 and divorced from England decides it's time to get an new wife, and so starts browsing agency websites for a "mail order bride".Marie is his choice.Callum, Gerry's son, is partial to a line of coke. He finds a picture of Maria on his dad's computer, and takes quite a fancy to her, photoshopping pictures of her on his computer.This is a well-written story, with good characters, that you can care about.But the story ends abruptly. There is no end. There is the hint of a threat that can bring it all crashing down, but no resolution. I was enjoying it until then - but what? There's a beginning and a middle, but no end. I was almost searching for the missing pages. It would have had a higher rating, but what good is a story with no end?
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed parts of this story a lot, but other parts left me wanting. The views in this book were from our main character Gerry, his ex-wife Rachael, their son Callum and Gerry's to be wife Maria. I found that in a book of only 150 pages, this many points of view detracted from the characters, as I could never be invested in one character for too long. I wanted to know Gerry's and Maria story, but was repeatably shown other characters. I really enjoyed the character of Maria, I thought she was realistic and I liked the details added about the culture and the cultural ideals of her homeland of the Philippians. I liked the character of Gerry, and thought that the writing worked to show them different enough, that Maria did sound like a young adult, while Gerry sounded much older. The ending was quite sudden and left me wanted to know more about Rachael's revenge and how that would turn out, as well as more of a every day life of Gerry and Maria.
    • 3/5
      I won this book as an early review for librarything. It was well written and intriguing, but overall it was quite depressing. Callum's role in the book seems insignificant and it is difficult to care about Rachel being the stereotypical adulterating dunk ex wife. The end seems premature as readers are left on the cusp of Rachel's potential revenge plot and Maria's pursuit of creating a new family with Gerry.
    • 2/5
      I was hopeful about this book. The story revolves around a man who found a mail-order bride in Manila, and is told in a series of chapters going from the point of view of one character to the next as the story evolved. Typically I enjoy this style of story-telling, but I didn't feel it was particularly well-executed in this case. It wasn't terrible, but I wasn't very drawn into the story. The characters tended to be very one-dimensional, and the parts of the story I found most interesting involved the lives of the impoverished families back in Manila. The rest of it sort of drug on for me.I rated it two stars because it wasn't altogether terrible, and I would give this author another chance if the plot sounded interesting enough, but I didn't mind at all when the book was over. The end would have been unsatisfying if I cared about the story or the characters.
    • 2/5
      I won a copy of Thoughts of Maria from LibraryThing and was intrigued by the plot. In short, a divorced man, Gerry, pays brings over a mail-order bride from Manila. There are obviously as lot of complicated sides of this issue, and the author does a decent job of showing some of the nuances of the situation. The mail-order bride lives in abject poverty with virtually no hope of getting out of the literal dump in which she lives, and so it makes sense that she'd grab on to any way to get to the U.S.Gerry is divorced and lonely, and doesn't believe that marriage should be about love. He believes it should involve tenderness and care for your spouse, but that inevitably he wants a partner and he thinks if you look at it practically and without all the messy love stuff, you'll make a wiser decision. I found this thought process of his to be believable. That said, there were several sides of it that I thought he handled pretty poorly. I got the impression that the author wanted readers to feel positively about mail-order brides. However, the situation described in this book is the absolute ideal situation and I don't know that I buy that it happens this way very frequently. The man who bought this woman was very kind and non-abusive, the man who went to the dump in which she lived and recruited her was honest and fair with her and her family. I felt like all of the things that make this kind of thing problematic were just glossed over and not addressed. Which is fine, if that's the story the author wants to tell, but I would have found the book much more satisfying if it had explored some of these issues. I also didn't enjoy the characterization of the characters. Gerry had an ex-wife and a son, both of whom were awful and had absolutely no nuance to them. His wife was presented as some sort of shrew who was completely void of redeeming qualities, while his son was a fuck-up who sat around masturbating to pictures of his dad's mail-order bride. They were completely flat, never surprised me, and were essentially uninteresting past their initial characterizations. The writing style was not particularly compelling either. The book was comprised of numerous short chapters and shuffled from the POV of one character to another. I tend to like this format, but the problem was that the author didn't exactly nail each character's voice. Each chapter was titled with the name of the character it was about, and if he hadn't done that, then I would not have been able to tell who was writing what. When you tell a story from a first-person perspective of so many people, they need to have really dynamic, believable voices that feel as though they're truly from several points of view. This was just the author over and over again, and some of them were almost painful to read; most specifically, the son, who was sort of young and the author did a pretty embarrassing job of trying to write like a young 'hip' kid.It was kind of like when you have a favorite TV show you've watched for years, and then you go back and watch the pilot and you're like, "Damn, this is terrible. These characters are not at all themselves yet. They're still trying on these roles."Overall I would not recommend this book and I'm sorry to say that I was glad when it was over.
    • 2/5
      I really tried to give this book a chance, however, it didn't hold my attention. There didn't seem to be a cohesive plot.
    • 5/5
      As many of the other reviewers, I also received this as an eBook for Early Review. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, as well as having so many perspectives to see the world from. Although I agree that the ending was somewhat abrupt and did not tie everything up in a happily ever after, that did not bother me. Rather, it made me enjoy it just a little more. I think he is a very talented writer and I too will keep an eye out for his next work.