Helpful Score: 3
While reading Joseph Monningers Eternal on the Water, I felt my heart rearranging, reconstructing and taking on a more pure shape than it ever knew before. The hows and whys and whens of love are best described as a mystery in most peoples lives. One could say everything about love is unknown, unplanned and uncertain until forces in place, timed to perfection, bring ones path to anothers path and forever alter their lives in ways unimaginable. Somehow love, in its most pure form, is brought to life in Monningers story about a man and woman who fall in love but tragically are aware of their love having a time limit. What would you do? How would you want to live knowing you or the one you love will decline quickly through an incurable disease? These questions are answered in the most beautiful and provocative manner as the reader is treated to being there from the moment Cobb and Marys soul-mate-kind-of-love blooms to the very end when the couple elevates their love to the highest form of love known sacrifice. In between their first and final meeting youll be intrigued and romanced with mythology, legends, stories, poetry and global travels all related to beauty in earth, water, nature, animals, landscape, friendships and family. But mostly, youll view love with a renewed and pure heart that will surely remain with you long after youve finished the book.
Helpful Score: 2
Life is a journey and we all know the destination. We just don't often know the time of departure, except when an incurable disease is involved. That's the ultimate point of this book, a moving, powerful story of love between two travelers who meet -- by chance? Maybe. by fate? Maybe. by heart? Definitely -- enroute to a kayak trip down a fabled New England river. Their story laces a love of nature, of education, of science, of people, of animals, of birds, around the love created by two hearts joined as one in a way only true love can. And how they face the dark reality that soon they must love each other enough to let go. For "love is," as the songwriter Ben Gibbard said, "watching someone die." This is a moving story of love and its power in life and up to and over death. Read it with someone you love. Share it with someone you love. You will be all the better for it.
Helpful Score: 1
You'll need a box of tissues when you read Eternal On The Water. It's a heartbreaking story of true love and loss. It's raw. It's emotional. I rarely cry when I read books, but this book had me reaching for my Kleenex box. The book opens with the ending so you know what happened, but the story is still captivating even though it's told from flashback. The author, Monninger, has a knack for creating beautiful imagery. I could imagine myself in Maine paddling in various lakes like the two main characters. He uses all his senses to capture the sense of a place be it Maine or Indonesia or New Hampshire. I learned quite a bit about rapids, crows, Thoreau, camping, and mythology. The hero and heroine are both likable, witty, funny, and realistic. This is a lovely book, but I can't read it again. As beautiful as it is, it's also very sad.
Helpful Score: 1
this is one of the most amazing love stories i have ever read...the characters are well developed - i think i fell a little in love with all of them myself - beautifully written.
