Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220421 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 685 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A young Kansas woman struggles through life and love in Simons's debut novel.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this beautifully written first novel, Simons captures the lives and loves of Tully and her friends Julie and Jennifer in Topeka, Kansas. After her father and brother disappear, Tully's childhood is shaped by an abusive mother. Her wild adolescence culminates when Jennifer commits suicide. Unable to accept the death or admit to grief, Tully seeks consolation at the gravesite, where years later she meets Jack, a former lover of Jennifer. Although married to Robin, she begins an affair with Jack, despite the warnings of her friend Shakee, also one of his former lovers. When Jack wants her to move to California, a lifelong dream of both Jennifer and Tully, this survivor in life must come to grips with past griefs to make a decision. A strong story line with great characterization makes this book hard to put down. A potential best seller, it is highly recommended for public libraries. [BOMC and Quality Paperback selections.]-Heather Blenkinsopp, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
--Heather Blenkinsopp, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The publishing industry has cranked into high gear to promote this hefty first novel about heartache and craziness on the Great Plains. What, we wonder, is all the fuss about? Would you believe a feisty, troubled, graceful, and gray-eyed gal named Tully? Simons, Russian-born and American-raised, has set her melodramatic, slow-as-molasses, seventies novel in Topeka, Kansas, a location emblematic both of what is most trying and most meaningful in life. It is a place of meteorological extremes and a subtle beauty that either grows on you or drives you mad. Tully is the same way: extreme, unconventionally attractive, and simply maddening. Raped by an uncle and beaten and abused by her mentally ill mother, Tully barely survives her wretched adolescence. Just when she seems to be healing, her best friend commits suicide, and Tully is hurled back into the abyss. Such physical and emotional battery is bound to make love a tricky endeavor, and Tully makes quite a mess of it, tormenting the kind and generous men who finally earn her trust. There's rock-steady Robin, poetic Jeremy, and Jack the sun god. Our girl Tully manages to devastate each in her own monumentally self-absorbed way, but to Simons' credit, Tully's behavior is wholly comprehensible and oddly forgivable. Paced as sluggishly as a TV soap, it will be hailed as a provocative entertainment and condemned as a particularly viscous form of quicksand. Either way, Tully is a wallow, and sometimes, doggone it, that's just what the doctor orders. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

Crying out for an editor!!
I will agree with several other reviewers who say that the main character, Tully Makker, is not very likeable, and the book is way too long. It was a chore to get through it.

The main problem with this book is that it is sorely in need of editing. First of all, the dialogue is not very authentic. I was a senior in 1979 too, and all I kept thinking, while reading this, 'NOBODY talked like that!' No, not even in Kansas. The factual and spelling errors are so frequent and distracting that I found myself pencilling notes in the margins. The author doesn't know STRAIT from STRAIGHT, or AISLE from ISLE. A few more (and some quite amusing) examples:

"Remember what Tolstoy said? All that doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Nope, NOT Tolstoy. Nietzsche. If you're going to use the phrase, why not research it first?

A character is referred to as "Martha Louise Lamber nee Bowman"-- but Lamber is her maiden name and Bowman is her married name. The author does not understand "nee", meaning "born".

And the medical stuff...this is where is gets REALLY silly:

"Tully was AB positive, the universal receiver. Robin was O positive, the universal donor." Ehhmm....NO. O NEGATIVE is the universal donor.

"She looked like she was sleeping, despite the IV tube going into her nose..." An IV?? In her NOSE?

"He grabbed her, tubes and all, and started shaking her and screaming. A feeding tube fell out of Tully's nose." FELL out? He'd have to do a fair amount of yanking to get THAT to happen, feeding tubes go all the way down the throat to the stomach!

"Tully saw the glass bottle of Lucosade connected to her arm." Lucozade is like Gatorade. You don't put it in an IV, you put it in the fridge, then pour it into a glass to drink!


And if you can get past THAT sort of thing there's another big distraction. Aparently the author thinks she has come up with a really fabulous name, Tully Makker. And needs to hit us over the head with it. You know how nearly everyone in Peanuts cartoons calls Charlie Brown by his full name? is this a Kansas thing? Is there a reason ALL the characters have the SAME speech quirk?

HEDDA says "Shut up, Tully Maker, shut up!"
JENNIFER says "That's where you're wrong, Tully Makker."
and "Have it your way, Tully Makker."
JEREMY says "So, do you live with your folks, Tully Makker?"
and "You've got plenty, Tully Makker."
ROBIN says "Oh that's great, Tully Makker, just great."
and "Don't say it, Tully Makker."
and "Well, Tully Makker, you're not God..."
JULIE says "Well I'll just hate to see what happens to you, Tully
Makker, when you have your cataclysm."
and "Tully Makker, please don't tell me you fell
asleep in the---"
and "You did the right thing, Tully Makker."
and "You are the sister I never had, Tully Makker."
JACK says "I know a little bit about you, Tully Makker."
and "well, Tully Makker, you're actually at your desk."
and "I really don't think I should, Tully Makker."
and "Nobody dances like you, Tully Makker."
and "I wasn't good enough for you, Tully Makker."
and "And what would you have me do, Tully Makker?"
and "Who else did you leave that to, Tully Makker?"


Fed up with readng my examples yet? Just think how fed up you'd get reading this (594-page) book!

Paulina Simons "Tully"
The book was in good condition and was shipped in a timely manner.
The story was not to my liking and does not compare with the author's
book "The Bronze Horseman".

Great!
For me, this book started off a bit slow. I thought it was kind of cheesy or too intense in the first bit. But it didn't take long for me to get so involved in it! It is a long book and I read it very quickly because I had to know what would happen. It is a very real book and I really connected with the characters. It is great! As are her other books, but this is her best in my opinion.