How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life
3.5/5
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About this ebook
What do a chamber pot, a famous poet, a family feud, and a long-ago suitor all have in common?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning might have written about the length and breadth of love, but Abby Randolph has given up on all that, preferring to spend her time between her cluttered "needs work" apartment and an overcrowded antiques mart optimistically named Objects of Desire. Yet Abby can't help but wonder what happened to her earlier passionate self . . .
Then the Antiques Roadshow comes to town, and Abby joins thousands of Boston's hopefuls at the crack of dawn, artifact in hand. But there, among the carousel horses and bedraggled stuffed animals, Abby's rather squalid piece of porcelain gets the star treatment. And from the moment the show airs, everything changes—friendships, her career, love affairs, even the way she views herself and others—as life comes rushing back at Abby Randolph full force.
Mameve Medwed
Mameve Medwed is also the author of Mail, Host Family, The End of an Error, and How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life (which received a 2007 Massachusetts Book Honor Award). Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in many publications including the Missouri Review, Redbook, the Boston Globe, Yankee, the Washington Post, and Newsday. Born in Maine, she and her husband have two sons and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Reviews for How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life
89 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Abby, antique dealer, is vulnerable and trusting. Raised in the academic environment around Harvard, her hard-headed and arrogant father chips away at her confidence, while her mother is supportive. Eventually mom leaves with Henrietta, her neighbor ... and begins a short but fulfilling life filled with love. She and Henrietta are killed in an earthquake while on vacation visiting the Taj Mahal. Abby misses her terribly. Dad eventually moves on to a younger woman and loosens up!Abby's life hits some serious lows but eventually takes a turn for the better after one of her antiques is found to be real!Fun, quick read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cons: The protagonist, Abby, is whiny and her please-use-me-as-your-doormat personality is irritating and self serving, as is her tendency toward self put downs; they have an air of falseness about them. The ending is far too predictable. In some instances the symbolism is embarrassingly overstated.Pros: Unique writing, word choices, and plot. Lots of great literary references. Much of the writing is very nice. Despite the ending being far too predictable, it is the ending I wanted. :)
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Read for book club it was okay. Good to read after reading some heavier material.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well written, pleasant winter book. Light romance.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this book. I am partial to local books - books set in Metro Boston. This book had a really wonderful sense of place. I felt like her portrayal of things in Cambridge - specifically Harvard Square and Inman Square smacked of authenticity. The story rambled in a charming sort of way. Some of it was far fetched but I was willing to go along for the ride. Some of the side characters could have used some finer detail - fewer bold strokes. I particularly liked the very ending of this book. I felt it was a resolution I could really identify with and felt satisfied by.And.... one of the most striking covers I have seen in a long time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic, funny, engrossing, engaging, sweet, and all around good book. Can a Cambridge blue-blood, Harvard faculty brat, drifting under-achiever junk dealer wannabe find a little happiness and perhaps even (gulp) love? Even after getting her heart broken by the boy next door and love of her life? Well why not, and have a few wacky misadventures on the way there. This was a great book because all the jerks get their just desserts and the poor little Boston Brahmin is so human and fallible you can't help but like her and cheer her on. Great story and well written to boot.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cons: The protagonist, Abby, is whiny and her please-use-me-as-your-doormat personality is irritating and self serving, as is her tendency toward self put downs; they have an air of falseness about them. The ending is far too predictable. In some instances the symbolism is embarrassingly overstated.Pros: Unique writing, word choices, and plot. Lots of great literary references. Much of the writing is very nice. Despite the ending being far too predictable, it is the ending I wanted. :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mameve Medwed weaves a very interesting tale, which reads like a memoir, of Harvard drop-out, Abby Randolph, who comes from a family of Ivy League graduates. Abby is a soft hearted, albeit naive girl who stumbles her way onto the Antiques Road Show, with her inherited chamber pot, and encounters trouble in both the romantic as well as the antiques department. Medwed's characters are well thought out and interesting, it's a laugh out loud book that brings back those horrid memories of mistakes, we've likely all made, with men, business acumen (or lack thereof), and family relations. I highly recommend this easy to read, attention getting and fast paced book to anyone looking to delve into a memorable protagonists life while escaping a few hours of your own.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I had some problems with the heroine's self-pitying attitude and general naivete. While I understand that it was necessary to demonstrate these qualities in order to effect a transformation, I felt they were taken to an extreme that made it difficult to sympathize. At the same time, it was a pleasant, quick read that engaged my interest due to skillful plotting.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Protagonist: Abby Randolph, Harvard drop-out and struggling antiques dealerSetting: Present-day Boston, MassachusettsIn her mid-30s and stuck in a rut, Abby Randolph has all but given up onherself. Her mother died in India the year before. Her childhood sweetheartand ex-fiancé wrote a tell-all novel exposing all of Abby's secrets. Hermost recent boyfriend has left her for another woman. But when a colleaguetakes a look at an old "nothing special" chamber pot in her booth--the oneshe sticks fake flowers in to bring color to the place--he tells her sheshould wrap it up and take it to the "Antiques Roadshow" while they're intown filming. She does, and the experts tell her that it belonged toElizabeth Barrett Browning and is worth...well...a pot of money. The chamberpot's pedigree sets in motion a whole series of misadventures that forceAbby to get off the couch and get in gear.If you're not interested in "stuff" or collecting or the possibilities offinding treasure, chunks of this book aren't going to appeal to you at all.It appealed to me, having followed my grandparents to all sorts of auctionsand estate sales when I was a child. Abby was an interesting character. She got me involved in the story and kept the pages turning. This was a light, fast read perfect for a weekend afternoon.