The Bottom Line
The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik, bestselling author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, tells the story of Joe Andreson, a high school hockey player who moves to Minneapolis. The novel follows the story of his life through middle age, and traces the impact of his high school years and the friends he made. The View from Mount Joy is a meandering story, but Landvik will keep you reading.
Pros
- Well-written and well-plotted, The View from Mount Joy is a great beach read
Cons
- Landvik doesn’t seem to probe too deeply into her main character’s emotions
- There are some explicit sexual passages, so this novel is not appropriate for young readers
Description
- Joe Andreson’s father dies when he’s a high schooler, and he and his mother move to a new city
- The story follows him through high school and college, and well into adulthood
- Family members and friends from high school reappear throughout his life
Guide Review - The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik - Book Review
Joe Andreson’s life is turned upside down at 14 when his father passes away. This shattering loss isn’t the focus of The View from Mount Joy, though, since the novel follows Joe over the course of most of his life. Grief is an emotion he experiences more than once, but it’s balanced with the joy and surprise that come his way. One high school classmate in particular, Kristi Casey, keeps popping back into his life in strange ways, even as her own life takes an unpredictable turn.
One flaw of The View from Mount Joy is that for all the time it spends following one man, it never really explores his character in depth. Transitions from one period of life to another are narrated in such a way that it doesn’t allow Joe to reflect too much. And as much as Landvik is careful to include lots of grief and sadness in her portrait of a life, the tone is still overall saccharine. Landvik’s view of family life--however modern and unconventional that family may be--centers on singing show tunes while gathered around a piano.
Despite the drawbacks, The View from Mount Joy is an absorbing and fast read. Landvik’s combination of modern realism with a tinge of nostalgia will appeal to many readers.
