Orient Hardcover – 9 April 2015

Orient aspires to be a literary thriller and for the most part it succeeds. Christopher Bollen writes well and does a good job of evoking the tension between the old timers in Orient, a poor relation to the Hamptons, and the newcomers who want to turn it into a hipster artist colony. There are enough twists and turns to maintain the tension for most of the story, but he suffers from the classic problem of the thriller writer, which is how to bring all the threads of the story together in a credible and compelling ending and unfortunately he doesn't succeed. The last section is increasingly silly and sketchily written as if he couldn't wait to get to the end and reads like the worst kind of airport bestseller, however the 20% that's rubbish doesn't negate the 80% that's enjoyable so it's still a good option for the sun lounger.

An absorbing novel but the final section which ties up all the loose ends is somewhat irritating! It doesn't sit easily with earlier sections. It's a kind of literary crime novel with some very good writing but at times it seems the writer is trying too hard in his descriptions and metaphors to the extent that you may think 'that was an unusual collection of words but I have no idea what they were all about'! Maybe it's just me who thinks this and I needed to make more of an effort. Well worth trying though.

I enjoy crime books and mysteries, especially the Nicci French books, but had read a good review of this book so decided to buy it. It was in the first instance far far too long. Secondly, I could not relate to the main character at all, a young male non-heterosexual, and I am an older heterosexual female. To use an old expression, it did not 'float my boat'. Also I am from Southern California, and could not relate to the East coast location of this book. I soldiered on to the end as I tend to do this with books but felt very disappointed.

The sex scenes are formulaic and add zero to the character and story except as very clunky plot devices. There can only be one suspect as all the others characters are dead...like Hamlet. The outsider irony is the only irony. This is no satire.

Really got gripped by this. Characters well drawn. Good sense small town atmosphere. Small instances of overwriting. But very enjoyable and some good sending up of various New York/small town types.

A beautifully written novel centred on a cynically exploited homeless, rootless, gay young man. These are the very qualities that help him survive the cynical perfidy of the plot which takes twists and turns to the very end. A really good gripping read.

Interesting but a bit wordy. The plot was quite clever and the ends were all tied. Not sure I'll be going to orient.

Mostly very well written and for most of the book I loved it, although I was unsure if the literary style of the book worked as a thriller/murder mystery as well.The last 20 pages of the book ties up the loose ends so badly that I wanted to throw the book across the room. I've wasted two weeks of reading time on this! The outcomes did not make sense, there had been no clues whatsoever as to 'whodunnit'.PLOT SPOILERIs it just me or is it a bit uncomfortable that the book is called Orient and one of the murderers turns out to be from an east Asian country (one of only three non white characters in the book)? Why could the author not just pick the name of another town in Long Island?!

I must confess I do not understand all the enthusiasm of some reviews for this book. The author knows how to write and thus the book deserves three stars for the language. However, the plot is diluted in an unnecessary number of pages that make the reading near to boring. I am one of those who always wants to visit the last page of a book, but this time, I tell you, it was kind of hard. I didn't expect a noir or crime novel only, but an interesting book yes. The book does not deserve all the favourable reviews and enthusiastic newspaper articles. The idea is good, the language, as I said, is fine, but the rest is very questionable. Fine, three stars and I am very benevolent.

Non andate a vivere in provincia, non sapete cosa vi può capitare !

I am a real person, not a book critic and I am not going to do what so many of them do and sit and summarize the entire book for you.I started this the day it was released and have not put it down. Even missed Game of Thrones and Mad Men to finish it. EXTREMELY well written, capturing the reader from page one until its tightly wrapped finish. Not like Gone Girl that leaves you wanting to strangle the author for sucking you in, nor like HBOs True Detective with its fine character studies and dialogue and zero plot and a zillion loose ends. Those were called great successes, and it brightens my day to find a mystery so solid, so beautifully developed as Orient. Thank you, Mr. Bollen for the five day ride it took me to read.

I liked nearly nothing about this incredibly long and tiresome novel. The author can't decide if this is a pretentious commentary on the art world, or murders in a small town, or the story of a homeless young man with more than his share of problems, or the inevitability of the intrusion of modernity in rural America. There is a sort of plot: small town murders for unknown reasons. The author throws in so many tributaries to the river of the story that everything loses connectivity and relevance to the quasi central storyline. On top of this incoherent mess, the author is a terrible writer. If I never hear a description of an action followed by "...as if he was [xxxing]...' That blank stands for every lame "as if" that permeates the unnecessarily heavy and convoluted prose. The wrap-up takes place in the last 30 pages or so and it's as incoherent as the rest of the book. Maybe it would have been a better book if the author actually focused and dispensed with the lengthy irrelevant subplots. I don't want to bore you with more--if I did, I'd be no better than this hack. I'm stunned he has so may books in print!

Orient is set on the North shore of Long Island in the type of community that dots the Atlantic Seaboard from Maryland to Maine. Considered “off the beaten track” by seasonal visitors who believe they have discovered utopia, a certain amount of friction with local residents trying to make ends meet is inevitable. However, the "us v. them" scenario has more twists than a licorice stick. The outsiders are famous artists, largely self-absorbed and indifferent to local gossip. Instead of standing tall, the locals present a divided front Add the hybrids, (natives who left and returned), and complete strangers, (visitors accidentally blown across the causeway as if by wind), and the author has a rich garden of odd flowers. Its not just the eccentric beekeeper or the incestuous farmer, its the handyman with everyone's keys and secrets, the divorcee addicted to plastic surgery, the scheming lawyer’s wife, to name a few of the low lying shrubs. In the hands of this talented author, every minor character is a well cut gem, glistening with pride in the sun at the local picnic. The tensions, as fluid as the underlying currents in the bay, are depicted with such rich color, you’re hooked on the story before the plot kicks in. Though a mystery, the crime and suspense float like whipped topping on a fudge brownie, the story would be just as gripping without the murders. The artists, who basically came for the salty view, also seem like empty calories. They add character and color but mostly serve as a passive background for the locals on center stage. The intrigue, and subsequent deaths, revolving around greed and real estate, is home grown, not imported. Ironically, the art generates more wealth than the locals can ever imagine, but the locals have their land and are dying for it. While the mystery keeps things rolling at a brisk pace, the book is about identity. Told from the point of view of a young gay male, with insight beyond his years, the real mystery, revealed through literary artistry, concerns what people expect from each other. There is only one portrait painted in the novel and it ends up as a "wanted" poster. This sort of metaphor testifies to the author's skillful depiction of context shaping perspective, constantly shifting like the coastal breeze or the rays of light on the waves.

I grew up near Orient, and I could smell the air, feel the sea and enjoy the changing seasons again. A very nostalgic read for me. Orient is beautifully written by a very evocative writer who certainly captured the flavor of a small town on eastern Long Island. Bollen captures perfectly the symbiotic conflict both overt and covert between the year rounders and the outsiders, the weekenders and summer people. The secretive nature of the Plum Island scientists breeds fear and projections, possibilities both real and preposterous much as fears about the real Brookhaven Lab have festered through generations. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but also feel it needed shortening and tightening by a good editor which could have helped the terrific writing shine even more brightly. I felt the ending needed some work as the story became far less believable than it could have been. I would read another book by this author.

Beautiful metaphors abound in this exciting novel about a small town on Long Island Sound. The writing is exquisite with solid character development as we meet first the orphan Mill and then the man who collected him from the NY sidewalk drug life to bring him to Orient, Paul. Then people began to die and I like the way it is all being handled. The young orphan boy who is nineteen is the primary suspect for the killings. We know he didn't commit the murders but we don't know who did.I feel like it was about at thus point the authir decided to move what was literary fiction into a murder mystery. Now near the end the beautiful metaphors and exquisite writing began to smudge and become infrquent. Solving the crimes took precedent as though the author decided to just finish the book.

A bit disOrienting. All sorts of odd geographical changes. And of course the book is a bit out of date already on the topic of Plum Island. If you are familiar with the area this becomes distracting. The characters also are not very pleasant people to spend time with. And it just really did not jibe with what I know of Orient and the East End. I have summered in the area since 1963 and moved east year round from NYC two years ago. At first I kept putting it down but then a day or two later I would read a bit more. Towards the end I finally got hooked and read it more rapidly.

Good solid story. Growing up and living on Long Island I purchased the book because of it's local setting. The conflict between year-rounders and summer people, families who have spent generations in the town and new comers rang true. The main characters were well developed. The book starts out at the end, and you begin the novel wondering how we got to this point. 600 pages later, we find out, and the sign of a good book is when you have to read the beginning again to find out for sure how it all ends Mills was a thoroughly enjoyable character, I wish things worked out better for him.

A fine novel. Characters were diverse, themes in addition to the mystery element included classism, homophobism and ageisim. Knowing the East end of LI well, I enjoyed the author's sensitivity to place..Good read although a tad long.

WOW - great read! I hated every time I had to put book down for "real life" responsibilities. well written characters with strong delineations between characters. Atmosphere of small beach town with conflicts between long-time residents and new more affluent people believable. And...leads up to a sucker-punch ending. Have fun reading this one on the beach this summer.

I really liked this book and didn't want to put it down. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the somewhat unsettling ending. I'm not sure I totally bought the motive the author gave the killer. So much violent killing seems to need a stronger more focused reason. That said, the story gripped me and I put aside most of the things I should have been doing to read and finish this book. I didn't think it was too long, I actually wanted more as I reached the end.

I love Orient Point and can see Plum Island from the beach in Groton, CT. Although I didn't like the ending ( I think writers get weary writing, after too many pages and just want the novel to just plain end!), I loved the book, was fascinated by all the characters and, especially, love big novels in the summer. Until the last few pages, I had no idea who the murderer was.

Fun reading; characters developed easily at the outset and provided further insights along the way, along with an occasional surprise.Really needed some serious editing, though; the author indulges in too many contrived and forced descriptors, most of which are superfluous and interrupt the flow of the story (e.g., gray the color of a paper clip -- really?!? Even an occasional grammatical error.But, a reasonable summer read, all in all.

Orient weaves a mysterious spell around the small town of Orient. The environment, the people, the community all become part of the mysterious plot. The only thing that bothered me was that the story ended. I want an END, a real end, a happily ever after where the villian gets what coming to him/her (no spoiler from me). Great summer reading; held me captive on the beach and much more aware of what the ocean might be washing up on shore!