Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Calling Me Home: A Novel

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Touched My Heart

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2023

Life is full of struggles for each of us!
I appreciate this story of imperfect but resilient women and the imperfect but good men who love them.

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clnrun

I thought I'd like this book more than I did

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2017

I thought I'd like this book more than I did. It kept my interest enough that I kept reading but I found it a bit predictable and slightly unrealistic at times. I didn't appreciate the vocabulary lessons in the form of crossword clues that appeared throughout and I thought Dorrie's language was a bit "off." What 30-something woman in today's world tells a guy she "digs" him? I was also surprised at the depiction of current issues on race relations. I understand discrimination still exists, I understand DWB happens but I was a bit in disbelief at how Dorrie and Isabelle were treated in the restaurant and hotel. Maybe it's due to me living my life in an urban and suburban area in the north as a white woman and not a small town in the south as a black woman. Maybe my eyes were opened to the truth? Despite all this I give the book 3 stars because it does have me thinking a lot even after I've finished.

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From the United States

Brenda Medvid

Love, relationships, family, tragedy, race relations all rolled into one delightful novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2019

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“With others, you believe you’ll never be more than acquaintances. You’re so different, after all. But them this thing surprises you, sticking longer than you ever predicted, and you begin to rely on it, and that relationship whittles down your walls, little by little, until you realize you know that one person better than almost anyone.”

This story employed a writing technique that I really enjoy. It was a dual narrative with one story in the past and the other in the present. The past story dealt with forbidden love and its consequences, as well as the relationships between parents, children, and siblings. I found the relationship between the main character’s parents to be very unusual for the time and this is the one part of the story I found hard to believe and understand. Otherwise, I felt the author did a fabulous job creating a sense of time, place, and history that drew me in and was very realistic. I could feel the heat, smell the dust, and taste the lemonade. I also really enjoyed slowly discovering the story of Robert and Isabelle. I am fortunate to be friends with a number of mixed race couples and I would love to get their perspective of this story.

The present day story dealt with a journey for Isabelle and her friend/surrogate daughter, Dorrie. This journey showed the ways in which people’s attitudes and prejudices have changed and remained over the last few decades. Many elements of the race relations in this novel are relevant to today’s climate and headlines. Also, the emphasis on motherhood displayed during this journey was profound. I was partial to how beautifully the author showed that family is not only those born to you, but can be found and nurtured in the most unlikely places. I found Isabelle to be a force of nature and a woman whose time had not yet come. I admired her spunk, courage, perseverance, and way of looking at the world. She is a formidable main character that I will not soon forget. The backbone and grit she displayed reminded me of my own grandmother.

This book stayed with me for quite a while after finishing it. I kept thinking about the characters, their experiences, how I wished situations could have been different, and how much circumstances have changed yet still remain the same. The novel was about friendships, love, parent/child relationships, race relationships, segregation, tragic consequences, and loss. This was the author’s debut novel and I was impressed with how sensitively and delicately she handled these themes. I look forward to reading more from Julie Kibler.

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Barbara

Well written,enjoyable read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 31, 2022

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Enjoyed each character and could see them clearly in my minds eye. Hard to understand the 'normal' way of life back then.

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Doogal's Mom

Interesting story.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 17, 2022

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I enjoyed the story, but was disappointed the author is white. I felt like it was a story about a young black woman written by some one who cannot possibly, truly know the experience of being black. So I often wondered at the emotions and thoughts of the black woman. All that said, I think it really was a good story.

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SweetRead

Sweet and Heartbreaking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2020

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What a hard story, but at the same time so sweet and thoughtful. This story took me a bit to get into, some of that is because I'm not necessarily one that gets pulled in by a romance. Once I really let the story pull me in,I realized it was more than a romance. So much heartache and loss and confusion. The main character at first made me so frustrated.
She was such a spoiled, I thought, child and while protected should have understood her world. She should have been doing something. Then I read on and realized in her own quiet way she tried. She did as she got older.
Tragedy was in this story from the start. The author gave me feels I didn't know were there for this type of story.
This was read for a book club. I am glad it was chosen.

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Solid Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2017

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The first book I chose to read for 2017 was Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler. It’s the story of Isabelle McAllister, an elderly white widow, and Dorrie Curtis, the black single working mom who has been the older woman’s hairdresser for a number of years. They have developed the traditional small-town beautician/client relationship (reminiscent of Steel Magnolias), which means they have more than a casual business relationship. The story opens with Isabelle asking Dorrie for a favor: she wants Dorrie to drive her from Texas to Ohio for a funeral. After initial reluctance, Dorrie agrees, and the two women set out on a road trip that will change their lives.

The story bounces back and forth between time and locales, from the present-day to 1930s Kentucky. In bits and pieces, Isabelle relays her story to Dorrie. Despite their differences, there are parallels between their lives, and the author takes her time unraveling the story without it ever feeling like she’s just killing time.

The relationship between the protagonists felt real and true. In fact, the entire story held the same realistic air throughout. I figured out early on whose funeral they were attending, but it didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the story.

The “buddy-movie” road trip was nice to read, as I don’t think I’ve ever read one that featured two female characters as the leads, and I would recommend it if that sort of thing interests you.

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Amazon Customer

A Good Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 28, 2014

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Calling Me Home tells the journey of Isabelle. Her life, her loves, and ability to continue on when everything is taken away.

In this tale, Dorrie drives Isabelle to Cincinnati to attend a funeral, but it is Isabelle's story that drives this novel. Dorrie's troubles seem to take a bigger toll on her than they should. Worrying about the love of man, the care of her children after all she's been through shouldn't be the cause of all the grief she suffers on the road trip. And while Isabelle's story was wonderful, the book didn't make it seem as if she was telling the story, but more like it the book switched between the two time periods. Either way, however, Isa's story makes the book.

I would certainly recommend this book. It's enjoyable, and a tear jerker. It's not the last chapter that gets you though as it's kind of predictable, but it's the arrival at the funeral and the conversation afterwards that will bring the reader to tears.

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M. Krupiak

Calling Me Home: A Novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 30, 2013

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This was a really good story about interracial love. I really liked the author's depictions of the cruelty and stigma that was attached to people whose only difference was the color of their skin. The story showed the stupidity of people, making judgments on others based on nothing more than irrationalities. The truly sad part for me was that even though this particular story was fictional, how many stories are there that resemble this one that are true. Love that could never be because of prejudice(Isabelle and Robert). Love that was diminished compared to hatred (Isabelle's mother). Love that was lost because of hatred (Isabelle's father). Even as Ms. Isabelle was making her trip home, after 70+ years, there were still racial prejudices encountered. I think this is a story that should be read to serve as a reminder of the damage hatred can do. I don't want to give the story away, but you will see what I mean when you read the end.

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Amazon Customer

The Life's Almanac...to each there is a season

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 11, 2020

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The old have life experiences to share, hard lessons learned. Don't miss the chance to hear the stories your family has, before they are lost. We all share something...bad decisions, failed relationships, recessions, to many wars, and still to this day prejudices. Your choice is to continue to repeat, or to actively try to make a change positive....Love the life "YOU" choose.

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Stacey

Compelling!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 16, 2015

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This was a very compelling read. The story switches back and forth from present day to 1939-44 when Isabelle, a white teenager from a racist southern town, fell in love with Robert, a young black man. I must admit, I was much more interested in the story of how Isabelle and Robert met, fell in love, and faced the obstacles standing in their way, than I was the present story told by Dorrie, Isabelle's hair dresser whom she'd asked to drive her to Cincinnati to attend a funeral. In fact, Dorrie's story often seemed like an intrusion, and I would rush through her chapters to get back to Isabelle's story. However, Isabelle's story had me biting my nails with anticipation, so I recommend this book for those looking for a tragic love story sprinkled with lots of heartbreak.

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Beth

Issues of racial prejudice sensitively addressed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 3, 2015

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Nicely done and an interesting look at race. The story of an African-American hairdresser and her elderly client Isabelle and their decade-long friendship.

Isabelle is now in her 90s and asks Dorrie to drive her long-distance to a funeral. Dorrie is a single Mother with issues of her own going on at home but she cares about Isabelle and agrees to take her. Both of their stories unfold slowly over the few days in the car - Dorrie's life as a young black woman growing up in Texas and Isabelle's life as a wealthy southern white woman and the love of her life, a black man, at a time when interracial marriages were more than frowned upon, they were against the law.

I liked this book - interesting perspective and good writing.

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