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Errands (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)) | 
| Author: Judith Guest
Publisher: Random House Large Print
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 3503470
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Pages: 387
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 067977419X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679774198
ASIN: 067977419X
Publication Date: January 14, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on cover and pages, ex-library, some stamps and stickers on book, some spine creases.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Judith Guest is an elegant writer capable of highlighting a moment and crystallizing a thought, effortlessly creating a powerful emotional story. Her modest yet moving style gained great exposure with the success of Ordinary People, her account of divorce amid family tragedy. Errands returns to themes of grief and the trials of family life. When Keith Browner succumbs to cancer, his wife Annie faces the challenges of supporting their teenage children while dealing with her own grief and loneliness. The qualities of Guest's style complement this story, which eschews sensationalism in order to describe authentic feelings and believable characters.
Product Description
As bestselling author of the critically acclaimed masterpiece, Ordinary People, Judith Guest knows the subtle rhythms of family life. With a perceptive eye that captures the nuanced relationships of husbands and wives, parents and children, and the constant tug-of-war of sibling rivalry, she creates remarkably real characters struggling with profound dilemmas. Now, in her luminous new novel, Errands, Guest once again gives us an unforgettable family that finds the fabric of their lives unraveling.
North of Bay City, Michigan, past the small highway town of Au Gres, past acres of sugar beets and fields of grazing sheep, the Browner family enters the slow curve in the road that leads onto a view of Lake Huron. Keith, Annie, and their three children have rented the same cottage here every summer for the past six years. They know this place like the back of their station wagon. But a shadow has fallen over this particular trip: Keith is dying of cancer. It is a fate he has accepted. Annie however can not, will not.
Once safe inside a happy seventeen-year marriage, Annie finds her entire world turned upside down after Keith's death. Her sister, Jess, does her best to comfort Annie, only to find the boundaries of their own close relationship stretched to its limits. Consumed with grief, mounting bills, everyday tasks that seem insurmountable, and three kids that have become nagging sources of frustration, Annie fails to see that the family is beginning to come apart.
Thirteen-year-old Harry, the oldest, changes into a brooding teen, roaming the streets with a new rebellious friend; Julie, the youngest at nine, starts to lie about her whereabouts, but keeps a secret journal that reveals her true feelings; and Jimmy, sandwiched forever in the middle, can no longer take the pressure of being the peacemaker. As each child moves toward his or her own level of acceptance, a second threatening event will transform both the children and Annie, teaching them that, even with the loss of Keith, they are still a family--a different family, but one that is no less loving, real, and enduring than they had been with a father and husband in the house.
Searing in its depiction of despair, warm in its evocation of family and the fragile ties that bind them, and tempered with gentle humor and dazzling wit, Errands is nothing less than a triumph. Judith Guest strikes at the very core of loss, and has written her most extraordinary novel to date.
A MAIN SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD(c)
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE DOUBLEDAY BOOK CLUB(c)
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Long book, but not about much. May 30, 2006
This was a torturous read for me and I was saddened by that. ORDINARY PEOPLE was (and still is) a great read, but I had a tough time getting through ERRANDS. None of the characters jumped off the page; none were memorable. Most of the voice belongs to Annie, the wife, and to be honest, she whined a lot. The death of a husband has to be tragic, but it was not unexpected. I was waiting for Annie to have some sort of realization that he was going to die. Better: I was hoping there would be some preparation for the pending death and some thought about how to deal with it. When it came, it was as though she was in a fog. If he had died unexpectedly in a car accident, that's one thing. If he's slowly dying, I would think one would prepare (even at a minimum). Here, there was nothing. She became so self-absorbed, I had a hard time feeling any sympathy. Annie spends a lot of time thinking, but doesn't "do" much. I got bored with her and the story. And the sub-plot of the sister and the affair was probably inserted to liven things up. Unfortunately, it doesn't work here and throws the novel off balance.
I read pre-teen angst as fast I can - this was no exception. Surely there are pre-teens and teen-agers who don't fall apart and become deliquents when things don't go as planned. Unlike the teenage dialogue in ORDINARY PEOPLE, I found the dialogue in ERRANDS a stretch and at times, trite. It seems Ms. Guest doesn't have the grasp on it she once had.
If you haven't read Judith Guest, start with ORDINARY PEOPLE.
 Thoughfut and hopeful.... April 18, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I picked this book up randomly at the Hope Lodge in Rochester MN. We were there for my husband to begin his chemo and radation for a serious brain cancer, after removal of the large tumor in his brain. Fate? Chance? I don't know. I only know that the books cover, which gives nothing away as the contents, spoke to me.
My husband is alive. For how long no one can know. When one faces the horrific prospect of losing the love of one's life, books like this one help, tremendously.
I think Guest captures the turmoil perfectly. The pain, which you cannot ever articulate and the agony which comes with a terminal diagnosis are written with simple truth. The chaos that something like this brings to a previously ordered life, is apparent in her writing. Perhaps one needs to experience this grief, this loss before they will completely appreciate this book for what it was to me.
In the end, the book gave me hope, no matter what time and fate may hand to us. A hope, that one day life may regain some sense of balance and normalcy.
Wrenching November 19, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
At about the half way point in this book, I was tempted to give up. The incessant niggling and carping of the children was beginning to irritate me so much that I could have cheerfully banged their heads together. When Annie Browner's husband, Keith dies, her overwhelming grief takes over her whole life to the exclusion of the needs of her children, 12 year old Harry, 11 year old Jimmy and 9 year old Julie, who are hit hard by their father's death, but who are, of course, too immature to comprehend the total devastation of their mother's every waking moment. The normal behaviour of young siblings is exacerbated by their frustration in attempting to make sense of their feelings, and the pinch and punch rough stuff and the non stop aggressive verbal exchanges make for hard slog reading...this is when I nearly gave up. The story highlights the complete self absorption of the young as well as the difficulty of the newly widowed mother to rise above her own feelings of grief, to care for the emotional well being of her children.
 This review refers to the abridged audio version. October 22, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This wonderfully composed, emotionally engaging story follows a young family on their remarkable journey, coping and adapting to their life's circumstances when their family dynamics change with the sudden illness and death of the husband/father. It was very realistically presented, especially from the children's viewpoints. My heart was with Jimmy thoroughout much of the novel and I related very closely to Annie's frustrations as a mother, especially in dealing with her children not getting along with each other.
I probably wouldn't have read this book at all had it not been for the opportunity to listen to this abridged audio-version, so I appreciate this chance to experience it. However, I did feel that I was missing out on important bits and details along the way that were probably included in the complete versions, particularly development of the secondary storyline about Jess and her almost-divorced boyfriend Ryan. Also, I have mixed feelings about the way the story ended - there were a lot of loose ends left hanging and after investing so much emotional energy into these characters, I was left wanting to know more about what happened to them beyond just the one year following their life-altering circumstance that this story covers.
Still, all-in-all, it was a very pleasant story to listen to.
Out of Grief Comes Change October 5, 2003
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Annie is in denial, her husband is dying of a brain tumor. She's convinced the chemotherapy will work. It doesn't and she finds herself all of a sudden the sole provider of her three children. She's thirty-six and it's been seventeen years since she's had a job. Finding a way to make ends meet for her, is to say the least, a challenge.
Then there is the barrier her grief has put between herself and her children that she has to somehow deal with as they are each trying to come to the terms of their father's loss themselves. And her new job isn't going well.
Annie feels like she's no longer in control and when it looks like another tragedy is going to strike, Annie and her children are finally able to work through their grief and find that they have all been changed.
There is a lot of pain in this five star book, but there's humor too. It's a wonderful read.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene, Number One fan of Ken Douglas, writer of Dead Ringer, Desperation Moon & Running Scared. One of the advantages of being married to a writer is that there are plenty of good books around the house. It's turned me into quite a reader. In addition to Ken's books you might also want to check out Second Heaven & Tarnished Eve, two other fine stories by Judith Guest.
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