The Mason Jar...Review

About the book:
What if your old college roommate called, raving about a book someone sent her, calling it the most beautiful book she’s ever read? “But,” she said, “it’s about you.” The author is your college ex.

In The Mason Jar, Clayton Fincannon is a Tennessee farm boy raised at the feet of his grandfather. He and his grandfather leave letters for each other in a Mason jar on his grandfather’s desk; letters of counsel and affirmation. When Clayton attends college in Southern California, he meets and falls in love with a dark, debutante, named Savannah. However, when an unmentioned past resurrects in her life and she leaves, Clayton is left with unanswered questions.

Clayton goes on to serve as a missionary in Africa, while he and his grandfather continue their tradition of writing letters. When Clayton returns home five years later to bury his grandfather, he searches for answers pertaining to the loss of the young woman he once loved. Little does Clayton know, the answers await him in the broken Mason jar.

A story about a girl who vanished, a former love who wrote a book about her and a reunion they never imagined.

Written for the bruised and broken, The Mason Jar is an inspirational epic, romance, tragedy which brings hope to people who have experienced disappointment in life due to separation from loved ones. With a redemptive ending and written in the fresh, romantic tones of Nicholas Sparks, The Mason Jar interweaves the imagery of Thoreau with the adventures and climatic family struggles common to Dances with Wolves, A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall.

It's always disappointing when a book doesn't live up to your expectations.

The premise of the letters between Clayton and his grandfather was what drew me to the book and that was a minor subplot to Clayton's obsession and inability to move on from Eden. Clayton spends much of the book wallowing and it drew no sympathy from me.

There were also glaring inconsistencies that distracted me. The main one being that in the back cover blurb, the name of the woman Clayton is in love with is Savannah. In the book, her name is Eden. He also is supposed to have changed her last name in his novel, but it's the same in the novel as well as the book. I'm still puzzling over how those were missed in the editing process. I also found the dialogue difficult to follow at times.

There wasn't enough explanation for me of why Eden left and when the friends all gather together again years later for college homecoming, the interactions are juvenile and childish. I kept thinking, "Enough already".

The ending is very reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks and a comparison to him isn't a great recommendation for me.

Overall the parts just didn't add up to a whole and it was a promising potential that went unfulfilled.

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity for the opportunity to review this book. You can learn more about James Russell Lingerfelt here. You can see other reviews and tour stops here. You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 10/14

* *
2/5 Stars

Comments

  1. Uh oh! I have this on my library to read list and now Your comment "the interactions are juvenile and childish" have me wondering if I should take it off.

    Sorry you didn't like the book!

    ReplyDelete

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