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List Price: $12.95 | | Publisher: Vintage
Salesrank: 189921
Released: June 10, 2003 |
| Our Price: $3.24 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
From the actor, director, and writer Ethan Hawke: a piercing novel of love, marriage, and renewal.
Jimmy is AWOL from the army, but—with characteristic fierceness and terror—he’s about to embark on the biggest commitment of his life. Christy is pregnant with Jimmy’s child, and she’s determined to head home, with or without Jimmy, to face up to her past and prepare for the future. Somehow, barreling across America from Albany to New Orleans to Ohio and Texas in a souped-up Chevy Nova, Christy and Jimmy are transformed from passionate but conflicted lovers into a young family on a magnificent journey.
Ash Wednesday is a novel of blazing emotion and remarkable grace, a tale that captures the intensity—the excitement, fear, and joy—of being on the threshold of the mysterious country of marriage and parenthood. Powerful, assured, large of heart, and punctuated by moments of tremendous humor, it represents, for Hawke the novelist, a major leap forward.
Ash Wednesday Reviews:
First Impression of Ethan Hawke's Writing 
2008-04-29 - I picked this book up the other day, and although I haven't finished it, it's pretty obvious (to me anyway) that he's not just some "actor" who thought he would take a crack at writing a few novels while trading off his name. It's clear he understands the fundamentals of strong, tight prose and that he has put in the time to learn how to see those fundamentals are adhered to. His sentence structure is strong, as is his grammar (despite what other reviewers have said), and, honestly, I find myself a little jealous of his talent.
What's interesting to me are some of the scathing comments found under the heading of this page. It seems to me that these reviewers are almost fixated on the fact that he is a well known actor (and a very good one, let's face it). Who cares? In fact, in many of these reviewers' minds that bit of information somehow cripples his potential as a writer. I just don't see it. If anything, it only helps him create more believable characters while making the most subtle of description choices. I'm almost positive it works the other way with his acting, too. Think Training Day. Think Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. Tell me I'm wrong.
If you want to find a sample of what I'm talking about in his writing, though, just open this book to Chapter Four. The opening is a very good example of what I mean. He says a lot about the state of mind of the protagonist without drawing it out too much. He does the same with the description of the protagonist's mother. Tight, tight, tight. It's really almost masterful.
Bottom line. I can't help but feel that if he wasn't already an established actor, his literary work wouldn't be held under such a bright light. I also feel that some of these negative reviewers, who are assuredly writers themselves, would do well to learn from his brevity.
You've got to deliver the goods if yer gonna write a "road" novel 
2008-02-05 - This novel is what would happen if a jazz-less, dyslexic Jack Kerouac collided head on with an adolescent version of Tom Wolfe. Hawke's prose hustles along in a cute, jingly-jangley sort of way stuck somewhere between immature versions of the above mentioned authors. This novel isn't bad, but it isn't good either. We see genuine flashes of exceptional writing, but a lack of consistency. The story is occasionally graceful, but the characters often present themselves as clichés. Hawke manages to tell his story but at no point does a definitive, individualized style present itself. Ethan never puts his stamp on this one and we're reminded that good writing simply has to move beyond what we've read and experienced before.
Sexy and cool as expected but no soaring heights
2007-04-29 - Ethan Hawke's novel is sexy, dry and cool, as two likeable characters road trip through America, the inner workings of their relationship and self-knowedge. It is a little too trying to be Catcher in the R for me at times, and although both characters are reasonably strong and real, it eventuated for me as merely an insight into the developing self-understanding (with sometimes-inspired philosophical revelations attached) of two young people and how they relate to each other, and not much else. I need my novels to soar higher than that, Hawke. Three stars.
Because love ain't always perfect...
2006-06-12 - Jimmy is far from perfect, but he now knows that Christy, who he'd recently split up with, is perfect for him and that he's ready to commit to her.
What he doesn't know is that Christy is carrying Jimmy's baby, and that she's not going to let him back into her life that easily.
As they travel across America, Jimmy tries to show Christy that he loves her and how far he's willing to go for them to be a family.
Hawke seems to really care for his characters: he represents them honestly, but without being critical or judgmental of them, and that made the characters really come alive for me. All in all, a touching read.
Peanut Turd 
2006-03-01 - plop, plop, ploppity plop, pplllhhhgggh, plop. Ahhh.... and Ash (ASS) Wednesday dropped. Ethan, please read some John Gardner if you want to write. Then practice. Then Rewrite. Then in about ten years, try us again. Kinda like your acting career.
