Blessings

Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard home on the Blessing estate and leaves a box. In that instant, the lives of those who live and work there are changed forever. Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, finds a baby girl asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep the child . . . while Lydia Blessing, the matriarch of the estate, for her own reasons, agrees to help him. Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate and who decides; and the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about whom The Washington Post Book World said, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A polished gem of a novel . . . lovingly crafted, beautifully written.”
—The Miami Herald

“A WELL-TOLD STORY OF LOVE AND REDEMPTION.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“[A] RICHLY IMAGINED NOVEL OF THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF LOVE.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“EARNEST, DETAILED, AND COMFORTING . . . [Quindlen] delivers . . . on the promise of her title.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Anna Quindlen is America’s Resident Sane Person. She has what Joyce called the common touch, the ability to speak to many people about what’s on their minds before they have the vaguest idea what’s on their minds.”
—The New York Times

“A well–told story of love and redemption, one that is not based on the passion of a man for a woman but on the affection and understanding that develops between people of very different backgrounds who are brought together by a baby named Faith and a house called Blessings.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“Quindlen . . . is as concerned with the evolution of her characters as she is with the resolution of their story. . . . Quindlen’s moving and gently humorous depiction of her characters’ transformation is thoroughly persuasive. . . . [Her] immense sympathy for her characters remains intact, but her fidelity to certain truths is paramount.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“[Quindlen] treats her protagonists and their hardships with such tenderness it’s impossible not to grow fond of them.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“IMMENSELY APPEALING . . .
Quindlen’s fine-tuned ear for the class distinctions of speech results in convincing dialogue. Evoking a bygone patrician world, she endows Blessings with an almost magical aura. . . . The narrative is old-fashioned in a positive way, telling a dramatic story through characters who develop and change, and testifying to the triumph of human decency when love is permitted to grow and flourish. . . . [A] feel-good novel, a book that will appeal to the entire family.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Quindlen finds a wealth of material in the juxtaposition of two very different lives, moving between lush descriptions of a faille dress in a Park Avenue club library and the incongruous smell of baby wipes in a dive bar. These satisfying details heighten the reader’s emotional stake in Skip and Lydia’s subtly drawn relationship.”
—Vogue

“Readers . . . will be rewarded by a story they cannot put down.”
—BookPage

The gentle language and honest prose ...

Loved the story and characters. The story reader was pitch perfect . Faith and Charles stole my heart

Sheer Poetry for the Heart

I love Anna Quindlen! I notice that some reviewers were not as excited as I in discovering her amazingly haunting style but when I am in the "Poet" state of mind there is nothing better, nothing more emotionally revealing, nothing more real than her ambling trips through the hearts and souls of her characters. I'm grateful to be allowed to join. I become the angst, the grieving, the joy, the secrets kept and the secrets shared. I am grateful! Thanks also to Joan Allen who's voice allows me to imbibe the words without having to focus on the reader. What a gift.

Fantastic

I love "longitudional" novels where you get to know characters from the present time and flashbacks from the past. This novel gives a wonderful flavor for what life was like for a very strong woman of privilege who comes of age during World War II. In present time, she finds herself puzzled by single parenthood, casual language and the trappings of modern life...until a tiny baby teaches her again about love. The book is simply fascinating and the characters are rich and believable. I walked around with my iPod around my neck for days...a lovely boook, beautifully narrated.

Beautiful story

A heartbreakingly beautiful story filled with secrets and characters whose choices are devastating. The Audible version of this Anna Quindlen story was performed by Joan Allen; her elegant voice adds immense depth.

The story begins when one night a teenage couple drives up to the “big” house and leave a cardboard box by the back stairs. In that box is a newborn baby girl who Chip the handyman who decides to keep the child and raise her as his own. When Lydia Blessing, the property owner discovers this she aids Chip in caring for the child.

The different characters are carefully studied and their reactions to people and situations brought me to tears. Family not only through blood is examined and held up for discussion.

A beautiful story by an exceptional storyteller which will stay with me for some time.

Read it for class

Not normally the kind of book that I read but the story was nice. Its more of a novel to curl up to versus using for class but there are some strong points related to the three different life stages described.