I always look forward to reading the latest Anita Shreve novel, but this one was totally disappointing--I wouldn't even give it one star. So many of these reviews mentioned a "horrible accident," but I didn't find the accident either believable or horrible, and therefore I was puzzled by the various characters' reaction to it. "Horrible" could be most accurately applied to the character whose rudeness, possessiveness, and lack of any human emotion other than anger made her totally unreal and uns [...]

I keep saying I'm going to give up on Anita Shreve, but I keep getting suckered back in. I started with The Pilot's Wife and then Sea Glass and a few others that I thought were really good. But the last 3 or 4 I've read I've felt very unsatisfied with. Honestly, she's a great story-teller; concise, engaging and knowledgeable about many different things. But there is usually a great desire to smack her leading women (for me anyway) in the head. And I always say Shreve is about as depression as Ed [...]

This book totally intrigued me because of both its unique approach and subject matter. Shreve has written of a young, newlywed couple, Margaret and Patrick, who have embarked on their new life in Africa where he, as a physician, studied tropical medicine. The author has beautifully melded the interior life of her characters with their surroundings.This is not about today's Africa. Shreve has woven into this tale the vast differences for the impoverished, struggling native peoples and the wealthy [...]

I'm beginning to think I'm a huge Anita Shreve fan. This was a great book. The back of book gives away that there is trouble on the horizon for the couple, but you still get caught up, waiting for the crisis. There was enough suspense in the first third of the book to have kept me turning the pages.Then the crisis was reached and part 2 began. This shift initially threw me a bit because the pace is totally different. After the crisis, the protagonist muddles about trying to find her feet (and he [...]

I'm having a very hard time putting into words how I felt about this novel. I was really looking forward to reading it, I had never read anything by Ms. Shreve, but had heard good things about her writing. I'm not sure if my personal reactions to the book are based in a style of writing that doesn't appeal to me or expectations that could never be met. I had a hard time following where the story was going and I'm still not sure if the feeling of confusion was an intended response to the writing [...]

Newly married Patrick and Margaret decide to make a trip to Kenya. Patrick a doctor, is busy with his practice and Margaret a photography novice, finds she has much idle time on her hands. When her car breaks down, Margaret finds herself being helped by an English couple Arthur and Diana. The couples quickly become friends and Arthur and Diana offer Patrick and Margaret a nice cottage to use on their property. In short time it is discovered that Arthur and Diana are planning a trip up Mt Kenya a [...]

In this latest effort, Shreve sticks to her general formula- how one moment, one decision can forever change a life. Margaret and Patrick are a young newlyweds living in Africa when a tragic moment on a mountain climb with their landlords causes a rift from which their marriage may never recover. The book covers the year following the actions on the mountain, and traces the efforts Margaret makes to rediscover her life and her love.The book was well-written, and the flavor of expat life in Afric [...]

I just finished reading this book and I have not read others by this author. I found it very hard to get into. I was still not attached to the characters 100 pages into the book. It was not believable to me. There were not enough details about the climb up Mt. Kenya to make me believe it really happened. I wanted to care about Patrick but he just seemed like a jerk. I wanted to feel with Margaret but she was just defensive and evasive. I kept reading hoping that something would evolve into a tho [...]

I've read nearly all of Anita Shreve's novels. She has set a series of them in the same waterfront home--different, unrelated characters with diverse stories and plotlines and story-telling devices. Although she is probably writing for the same audience, she doesn't write the same book over and over again--one of the reasons I will always read her newest: she will generally find something new to write about.This also means I've had very different reactions to her books. This one felt a lot like [...]

Well, in the end I began this book with more enthusiasm than I ended up. It definitely promised more than it delivered, on all counts: suspense (storyline falls flat half-way through), emotions (we never really get much insight into Patrick's character, for example) and even Kenya. While I quite enjoyed the first half, the 'set up', really able to visualize Kenya, a place I'll likely never visit and which, to be honest, I know little about and have never felt much interest in, after the so-calle [...]

Este é um daqueles livros que só se lê quando está por perto. Não é de forma alguma uma leitura compulsiva.Achei que o tema principal foi tratado pela rama e deveria ter sido mais desenvolvido. Mesmo as personagens são muito superficiais e reagem aos acontecimentos com uma certa letargia.

Set in the late 1970's, Margaret and Patrick McCoglan are a young married couple from Massachusetts who decide to spend a year in Africa. Patrick is a doctor who plans to do research on equatorial diseases, and to conduct free clinics around the country for those in need.In Africa, the couple meets Diana and Arthur a British couple, who convinces them to climb Mount Kenya with them, accompanied by an expert guide. When a tragic accident occurs during the climb, the blame seems to be directed tow [...]

Anita Shreve is, in all senses of the word, an attractive writer.From way back she has been a constant in my reading life, churning out books at approximately one per year. She can always be relied on to produce a good yarn without pretensions to great literary merit.The machinations of human relationships are her constant, set to variations in time and location. Her novels are never less than eminently readable, and on odd occasions somewhat more. This effort though does not fall into the latte [...]

As a young woman, Shreve spent three years working as a journalist in Nairobi, Kenya, and her vivid descriptions clearly show an affection for the East African nation. Unfortunately, most critics found the setting to be the novel's only redeeming quality. Shreve, known for crafting complex, multilayered protagonists, ultimately fails here. Critics unanimously expressed their disappointment in Margaret's character and described her as dull, unlikable, and frequently obtuse. The critic from the Lo [...]

I was disappointed with this story. It begins and ends with a trek up a mountain in Kenya. At the beginning of the story, the six people trying to climb the mountain have so little experience that it is unbelievable to me that they would even attempt it. Then when things go bad during their climb, the main couples' marriage begins to crumble. They make another attempt a year later and when the wife makes the summit, the story ends. Abruptly. With little closure for the reader. I really couldn't [...]

Out of Africa is one of my favorite movies, so the references to Karen Blixen and Denys Fitch Hatton in the area of Kenya where this book takes place brought back happy memories of the film. The mountain climbs were also extremely interesting. But I thought the main character was too hard on her husband and men in general (getting upset if someone calls her "girl" or says they'll take care of her). The ending left me wanting more. Still overall, it's another very fine book by Anita Shreve.

Anita Shreve espelha neste livro fantástico a fragilidade de uma relação quando é abalada por uma tragédia.Juntos há dois anos, mas casados há apenas cinco meses, Margaret e Philip decidem partir para África em busca da realização profissional de Philip. No entanto, Margaret não se adapta tão bem como gostaria ao Quénia, e passa os dias aborrecida em casa.Opinião completa em: marcadordelivros/2

Margaret and Patrick are newlyweds who are spending a year abroad in Kenya. Patrick is a doctor who is undertaking a study in equatorial medicine. In return for using the hospital as a base for his research, he must do free clinics for the locals where they are in Kenya. Margaret is a photojournalist who came to Kenya simply because Patrick did. They consider themselves ‘lucky’ to be able to rent a small cottage on the grounds of a large house occupied Diana, of Brit origin and raised in Ken [...]

If you (like me) are a fan of Anita Shreve, then you are probably salivating over her new release, A Change in Altitude. And after Testimony, who wouldn’t be a fan? Shreve seems to be getting better and better. This novel centers on a late twenties newlywed, Margaret, who jumped at the chance to follow her husband to Kenya where he is doing medical research. One day Patrick announces that they are going to climb Mt. Kenya with their land lords and another couple. The climb is an arduous severa [...]

“The Ascent of Drama”Anita Shreve, author of A Change in Altitude is one of my all time favorite authors. This captivating novel is about an American couple whose lives dramatically change when they move to Nairobi, and in particular during their ascent to Mount Kenya. While I did not like that the novel was told entirely in the third person, the plot was fluid and intriguing and the language and descriptions were excellent. For example, when describing an antique typewriter she writes, “S [...]

A couple falls in love in Africa, and begins a life together. They are renting from a couple, and they all decide to climb a mountain together. The husband from this other couple makes a pass at the wife, continually flirts with her, but she just brushes it off. On the climb, he holds her hand as they sleep (due to her being afraid of the rats), and HIS wife and HER husband catches them in the act. All parties are upsetc. On the glacier, the wife of the "cheating" husband unclips herself from th [...]

A story of newly weds who have just compromising with their likes and dislikes to keep up with the marriage. A series of bad things puts a crack on their relationship and later slowly they make it up. Margaret, i felt her as a lady with stupid ego when her husband cared and with a slight tinge of inferiority as she was jobless. She tried her best to show that she was capable of doing dangerous but in a stupid way.Patrick, a husband who didnt know how and where to give importance. The very beginn [...]

Anita Shreve deals with some interesting interpersonal relationships and plot lines, but the writing in many of her books, including this one, just can leave me cold. I was interested in the social and political ground she covered in this book set in Kenya, but the relationship between the main characters, a photojournalist and her doctor, was just too dry and colorless to engage me. I also miss there being even a shred of humor anywhere in the book (plot, dialog, anything). The guiding theme an [...]

In a word - shallow. Shallow plot, shallow character development, shallow writing. It's as though the author traveled to Africa and was required by her publisher to incorporate that experience into a new novel as quickly as possible. I generally enjoy this author's stories, with particular nods to The Weight of Water and The Pilot's Wife, but I can honestly say that this was one of the worst books I have read in the past few years. I don't usually write reviews but, in this instance, I felt othe [...]

I liked the book up until the ending. I was actually livid and almost threw the book down. Very disappointed in Anita for this one. I feel like she just simply ended the book because she didn't know where else to go with it.

I enjoyed the first half of this book and enjoyed the description of the Mount Kenya climb and subsequent incident. In the 70s mountain climbing was not so popular and hikes were attempted without the specialist gear we have widely available now. This kind of accident still happens and I found it totally credible. What did begin to grate a bit was that Margaret seemed to attract men like bees to a honeypotPatrick, Arthur, Rafiq. I also found the central plot development of Margaret and Arthur ha [...]

A young married couple, relocated temporarily to Kenya because of the husband's job (he's a doctor), decide to undertake a challenging climb up Mount Kenya with two other couples. A tragic accident occurs on the climb that casts a pall over the couple's relationship. Margaret and Patrick spend the next year trying to repair their marriage but only become more aware of the challenges they face. This novel is a marvelous study of a relationship and the often capricious forces that can threaten it. [...]

Ik had er meer van verwacht. Wel mooie beschrijvingen, maar het leek wat doelloos en onbevredigend: het is me niet duidelijk waar de schrijver naartoe wil.

3.5 stars

Review to follow shortly.