Astute, keen-eyed musings on lives well lived—and otherwise.
The protagonists in Sittenfeld’s second collection of short stories look back—with mixed emotions.
Though the characters here are largely middle-aged men and women reflecting on marriage, career, and friendship, few encounter anything as dramatic as a midlife crisis; these are tales of midlife contemplation. In “The Richest Babysitter in the World,” a professor finds joy in her own comparatively ordinary life even as she recalls turning down a job offer from a then-unknown Jeff Bezos–esque figure; in “Follow-Up,” an attorney awaiting medical test results reminisces about a hookup in law school. Sittenfeld’s characters—including Lee Fiora, the protagonist of her debut novel, Prep (2005), who reappears here in “Lost but Not Forgotten”—typically see the world with an almost hypervigilant level of scrutiny. Cutting remarks or seemingly innocuous gestures take on outsize meanings; characters analyze their own and others’ social positions through the prisms of wealth, artistic talent, physical attractiveness, and celebrity. Happily, the once-insecure Lee has mellowed considerably, and though her powers of observation, honed during four agonizing years at a New England prep school, haven’t been blunted, they’re no longer tinged by self-loathing. Sittenfeld’s politically themed novels have been wildly popular, and several stories use politics and contemporary issues as jumping-off points for sharp insights on human nature. “A for Alone” follows an artist attempting to make sense of the “Mike Pence rule” (the former vice president’s policy of avoiding one-on-one time with women other than his wife), while “White Women LOL” features a protagonist who displays a stunning lack of self-awareness for a Sittenfeld character—a woman dubbed “Vodka Vicky” after a video of her attempting to oust a group of Black people from a bar goes viral. While the lack of resolution of several entries may frustrate some readers, Sittenfeld’s candor and matter-of-factness make for compellingly intimate and at times wildly funny reading.
Astute, keen-eyed musings on lives well lived—and otherwise.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593446737
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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