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| Plot Summary of Blue Diary |
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"
Putnam, Jul 2001, 24.95, 303 pp.
ISBN: 0399148027
The residents of Monroe, Massachusetts believe that Ethan Ford is the most dependable and hardest working person in town. The locals consider Ethan so trustworthy, he has his own keys to many of the homes he is remodeling. Besides being an excellent carpenter, Ethan is a volunteer firefighter and a highly regarded unpaid coach. After thirteen years together, he still loves his wife Jorie and their twelve years old child.
One knock on their door ends this perfect world. The police detain Ethan for a murder that occurred before he met Jorie. To add insult to injury, friends who worked along side of Ethan on fire calls read him his rights before arresting him. No one believes that the respectful, revered Ethan could commit this heinous crime, but the evidence that he murdered and raped a teen in Maryland seems overwhelming. The statue begins to fall from its pedestal.
Anyone expecting a glib tie the ribbon in a bow ending can forget it with Alice Hoffman's deep literary character study, BLUE DIARY. Instead, the story line is an astonishing look at the impact of an ugly crime apparently committed by the big fish on the little fish in that pond. The key to the tale is not whether Ethan raped and killed in a previous life. Instead the plot is so good due to the depth of the secondary and tertiary cast members whose reactions to the growing evidence against the local hero follow the pattern of grieving individuals. Ms. Hoffman goes where few writers have traveled before as she provides an intriguing, well-written portrait of the human condition.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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"A man and woman has been married for 13 years then the man gets arrested for a rape and murder committed 15 years ago of. He gets put into jail and no one can can beieive it because he has been so generous to the community."
leslay, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Blue Diary |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems
Yes
Kind of romance:
- late discovery that lover does bad
Crime & Police story
Yes
Story of
- criminal becomes sensitive
- victim falls in love with criminal
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Outside culture (society)
- American Northeast
If story of urban/rural...
- Small town life
Ethnic/regional/gender life
Yes
Lover is
- a criminal (possibly)
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Age:
- 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- writer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an above average amount
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 2 (a little)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- rape/molest (yeech!)
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
- No single main character?
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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