This book is one of the best I read in a long time. The characters are well defined. This book has funny, laugh out loud moments. For me,though, the story was gritty and hard to read at times due to the realism in the story telling. The last chapter was amazing. By way of warning, I am an animal lover and have trouble when bad things happen to animals. It happens in this book, but works within the story. ( )

Edward Turrentine Bayard III is one character that truly comes to life from the pages. For about the first 50 or so pages, I just enjoyed the humor of the story and the witty writing style. Then the book really started to set in. Behind the humor, the wild & interesting characters and circumstances, one begins to see a view of American history from a new angle. The trip down the coal mine, the "marriage" of Avelina and Tilfert, the stay in the Chicago slums, and the brutal time on the frontier provide a compelling panorama of this time in America's history. At times, I just had to shake my head with "this is just too over the top" -- but then it all seemed to fit.

And, I so agree with other reviewers that the last chapter pulls everything together in such a satisfying way. As someone who has heard many a story told by an elderly person, the author sums up memory perfectly: "Never is being so permanent as in yesteryear, when...soft memory solidifies into story, and in that solid form, rejects the anguish of reality..... If we exist at all after we are gone, it will be as a story."

Turpentine is funny, interesting, and just a wild ride that will make you smile and think. ( )