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Book Reviews of Name All the Animals : A Memoir

Name All the Animals : A Memoir
Name All the Animals A Memoir
Author: Alison Smith
ISBN-13: 9780743255226
ISBN-10: 0743255224
Publication Date: 1/27/2004
Pages: 336
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 28

3.7 stars, based on 28 ratings
Publisher: Scribner
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

23 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

Iluvgoldens avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 104 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Slow at first, but gets very good. Kind of surprised by content, did not know what this book was about, many life lessons learned by this woman.
DarlaZ avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I lost a niece to a tragic accident. This book helped me understand my feelings as one left behind expected to carry on.A good read.
Katchie avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 65 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
excellent writer, I could not put it down. It moved so fast and was so touching. It really got into peoples feelings or the hiding of feelings. I found the mother quite a character.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Beautifully written story of grief and burdgeoning sexuality.
Froggie avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 55 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I really enjoyed this book. The story did not flow how I had expected it to but it was surprisingly good. A quick pace and easy to read. Told from the younger sister's point of view and all the emotional stuff she needs to deal with when her older brother dies.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 636 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This was really good- for a memoir, it read just like a novel. Whereas many memoirs have an inherent sense of distance in relaying the events and experiences of their past, this one had a real sense of immediacy. There were very few sentences that relayed anything of the future - no real hints as to how it all "turned out." She is a very talented writer and I would read just about anything else that she wrote. I was just impressed by the whole book. It was very emotional, and just... quite excellent.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on
Helpful Score: 2
A heartbreaking memoir, but a very well written one.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A touching portrait of grief and adolescence. Compounded are intricate layerings of a struggle with faith and a stirring of attraction that is forbidden by that same faith.

I enjoyed it all the more because I live within miles of the author's childhood home. The landmarks are familiar to me - I found myself curious about how it reads to others who don't know it.
Kmarie avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 529 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a story that has stayed with me quite awhile. I really enjoyed it. I read it in the paper version and the audio. LOVED the audio!
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Name All The Animals is a memoir you will never forget. It is about a family's struggles to survive the accidental death of a much-loved son and brother. Not surprisingly, it takes each member of the family many years to regain a sense of safety in a world which would allow such a tragedy to occur. Each family member suffers and copes in his or her own way. Really, you must read this book.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 222 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This was such a great story. The family tragedy that changes everyone, told by the sister who looses her brother but also looses a part of herself. very very good.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 52 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Very sad but excellent.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 391 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Name all the animals is the tale of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and a young woman stuggling to define herself in the wake of this loss. The story's central character, Allsion, attempts to deal with her grief, while trying to help the rest o her family as well.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
very quick read.... from the perspective of someone who has lost a sibling..an insider's view of her thought process when dealing with the loss.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on
Helpful Score: 1
A very interesting story of growing up with loss. A great read.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 22 more book reviews
This book was a surprise. i had not heard of it. it was really wonderful. well written. Brought me into what it was like to grow up Catholic. Familiar to e in that the family didn,t really talk about what was going on. B+
landonsmama avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 51 more book reviews
Riveting! This is an incredible read. It is one of the saddest, yet interesting books i've ever read. I couldn't put it down. Allison is a very good author!
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 17 more book reviews
This is a sad but well written book.
peapod avatar reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 35 more book reviews
A little depressing, but OK.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on
Great, great book!
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 469 more book reviews
A luminous, true, story, NAME ALL THE ANIMALS is an unparalleled account of grief and secret love: the tale of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and of a young woman struggling to define herself in the wake of his loss. Heartbreaking but hopeful . . . an extraordinary memoir.
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 35 more book reviews
Interesting book
reviewed Name All the Animals : A Memoir on + 711 more book reviews
A luminous, true story, Name All The Animals is an unparalled accoutn of grief and secret love; the tale of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and of a young woman struggling to define herself in the wake of his loss. As childre, siblings Alsion and Roy Smith were so close that their mother called them one name, Alroy. But when Alison was fifteen, she woke one day to learn that Roy, eighteen, was dead. Hearbreaking but hepful, this extraordinary memoir explores the aftermath of Roy's death: his parents' enduing romance, the faith of a deeply religious community, and the excitement and anguish of Alison's first love---a taboo relationship that opens up a world beyond the death of her brother.