A satisfying romp through a New England enclave that’s not nearly as idyllic as it seems.
After relocating to Maine for her husband’s job, a young woman must learn to navigate her new social scene while trying to save her deteriorating marriage.
When Charlie’s husband, Dev, takes a job in the wealthy town of Rumford, Maine, she’s hopeful the new gig will mean a more relaxed lifestyle and more time to work on the growing schism that has crept into their once-blissful relationship. As they settle into their new home, Charlie is surprised not only by the level of opulence in Rumford, but also by the fact that Dev is working harder than ever. He’s never around, leaving Charlie alone with their young twins as she tries to figure out life in the high society where they’ve landed. It’s not long before she meets a few of Rumford’s young moms, who quickly take her under their very preppy wings. They invite her to join parties at the country club, sailing trips, book club meetings, and more, gradually revealing that none of their lives are quite as perfect as they seem. As relations between Charlie and Dev grow increasingly strained, Charlie finds herself becoming too friendly with a handsome, flirtatious local man. Struggling to understand why Dev keeps pulling further away, she wonders if she’s going to become one more scandal in this deceptively perfect town. Told entirely in the first person from Charlie’s perspective, this plot-driven novel pokes fun at cliquey young families in fancy coastal towns while also tackling deeper issues like marital struggles, financial strain, and the pressure to fit in. Though the story is engaging, much of it rests on the constant miscommunication between Charlie and Dev, which begins to feel unrealistic as weeks pass without Charlie simply asking him about his puzzling behavior. Similarly, as Charlie struggles to keep up with her new friends, the slapstick nature of her repeated mistakes begins to feel contrived. Even so, the character development, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, and nuanced examination of social dynamics are strong enough that readers will find much to enjoy in this perceptive novel.
A satisfying romp through a New England enclave that’s not nearly as idyllic as it seems.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781662514852
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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