One True Loves

I wasn't at book club when they selected One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid as our April title for our "romance" (genre) month. I was surprised to see a contemporary title selected as usually they go with classics. (And it will be streaming on Amazon Prime beginning tomorrow. Is that why they selected this one?)

I was happy to give this novel a try. I was even happier when I got intrigued right away and enjoyed reading about Emma and her two loves, Jesse and Sam. Both Emma and Jesse were anxious to flee Acton, Massachusetts, where they both grew up. They went to college in Los Angeles and after graduation, they stayed. They were living their dream life, traveling the world. Emma was a travel writer and Jesse worked on environmental documentaries. After a few years, it was only natural that they got married.

The novel starts with Emma and her fiancé, Sam, having dinner with Emma's parents when Emma gets a phone call - from her husband. Huh?

The story unfolds in an engaging way. Where was Emma's husband that she thought it was okay to have a fiancé, too?  Will Emma have to make a choice between the two men?

I'd definitely recommend this one and am looking forward to watching the movie.

Siracusa

I finished reading Delia Ephron's Siracusa a day or two ago and I already can't remember how it ended. Why? Probably because I didn't really care.

I have been looking for novels to get me ready for an upcoming trip to Italy (as if I'm not already ready) and Siracusa popped up. The reviews weren't great, mostly talked about unlikeable characters. But several reviews talked about how Ephron really gave a sense of place. Sense of place was exactly what I was looking for so figured I'd read the book.

Lizzie and Finn had a summer romance, remained friendly for years after. They bumped into each other with their spouses on a trip to London and decided that they'd plan to go away together the following summer. Lizzie and Michael met Finn and Taylor and their daughter, Snow. The four adults couldn't be more dissimilar. And the entire novel you kind of wondered what was wrong with Snow. 

The story is told by each one of the four adult characters. Snow, who is central to the entire story, is the one character we never hear directly from. As most of the reviews stated, the characters were not particularly likeable. I didn't feel sorry for the troubles that any of the characters brought upon themselves.

I did get a good sense of place from Ephron's descriptions. My favorite line, which I've already recited to my husband twice, is "That's right, there's no dirt in Siracusa. It's wall-to-wall stone."

Would I recommend this novel? Nope. Not unless you want to get a good sense of what Siracusa might be like. It was also a good reminder about why I prefer to travel alone with just my husband and not with another couple.

Does anyone have recommendations for any more novels I might want to read before my trip?

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris got very mixed reviews on goodreads.com. After reading it, I totally see where the differing reviews make sense. I was in the camp that really liked this novel about two Orthodox women. One, Chani, a young woman just beginning her married life, and the other, Rivka, an older woman contemplating her own married life.

I think what really drew me into this book was that I was able to relate to the Rivka character. Rivka, previously known as Rebecca, spent her gap year between high school and university in Israel which is where she met her husband, Chaim. I spent the second semester of my junior year of college as an overseas student at Tel Aviv University. I'd be lying if I said I never wondered from what my life might have been like had I fallen in love with an Israeli - or a religious Jew - while studying in Israel. Rebecca feel in love with Chaim and that completely changed her life path. She was in Israel just a few short years after I was. Could my life have been anything like hers? That's the thought that kept popping into my mind as I read this novel.

I was totally okay with the ending of the book, but I do wish that the Rivka's parents had played into the storyline in some way. What did they think of her marriage to Chaim? What did they think of her becoming an observant Jew, the wife of a rabbi? That's my only real criticism of this novel.

This novel isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy reading books about the observant Jewish community, you might enjoy this one.

Alternate Side

After reading two memoirs in a row, and a non-fiction book before that, I was in the mood for a good novel. Browsing the shelves on Overdrive, the title Alternate Side jumped off the screen at me. Upon closer examination, I saw that Anna Quindlen, an author I've enjoyed in the past, had written it. Borrow. Checkout. Download. It was on my bookshelf.

In case you're not familiar with alternate side of the street parking, it's a huge deal in New York City. On most streets, once or twice a week, you have to move your car from one side of the street to the other (good luck with that) so the street cleaners can come thru. In my opinion, the streets rarely look any better after this cursory cleaning. But who knows what they would look like if the sweepers never came thru. I frequently speak to my son (who lives in Brooklyn) on the phone as he's doing the alternate side parking dance. I left NYC as a young adult, had to deal with the whole alternate side thing when I was up in Brooklyn caring for my dad a few years ago. It quite often brought me to tears. It made me swear that if were ever to live in New York City that I wouldn't own a car.

Alternate side of the street parking doesn't really factor into this novel by Anna Quindlen much at all. But aspiring to get a parking spot in a private lot on the dead-end block where Nora and Charlie live does play a huge role. And what happens in the parking lot is the climax of the plot.

Alternate Side is about Nora's love affair with "the city." Nora's daughter, Rachel, is in college in New England. She brought up the fact that New Yorkers call Manhattan "the city" as if it's the only city in the world. And it's not. Yet Nora loves New York City, even as she acknowledges things about it that are not so lovable. Although she keeps those things to herself. Why? Because Alternate Side is about Charlie's desire to leave New York City and to live somewhere else. He's got a list of grievances a mile long and Nora didn't want to give him more reason to want to leave New York.

Rachel, when talking about her father and the places he'd like to move to, says, "I also think if you move to the places he's talking about moving you'll scarcely see me because why would I go there?" O-U-C-H! Is that how my children and stepchildren feel?

I left New York City shortly before the time Nora moved to Manhattan as a young college graduate. She loved it for all the reasons that I fled. And she stayed because of those reasons, and because in the interim, New York City became a much more pleasant place to live, as long as you had the money. She and Charlie had the money.

Most of the people that Nora knew were transplants like herself and Charlie, who moved into the city as young adults because that was the place to be to succeed. But her kids, her kids were able to say that they were born in New York City!

"You should get her mac-and-cheese recipe, Mom," Ollie had said once.
"Oh, my goodness, honey, that whole party is catered."
"Really?" Rachel said."It doesn't feel like it is." Which was perhaps the nicest thing a born-and-raised Manhattan child could say about a meal.

Nora and Charlie lived on a dead-end street with mostly old Victorian houses. Their house had been owned for almost ninety years by a single family. (Did I ever tell you that the family house I sold last December was my family's home from 1935 until 2014?) Some of the folks on Nora and Charlie's block still called their house The Taylor House, even though Nora and Charlie Nolan had lived there for many years.

Other themes explored in the novel are neighborhood dynamics, professional ambition, marriage, motherhood, friendship. Be sure, these are no less important than Nora's love affair with New York City. And these are universal themes But after reading reviews on goodreads, I do believe that you have to be very, very familiar with New York City, what you sacrifice and what you gain, in order to find the book realistic at all.Taken out of New York City, most of the characters are one-dimensional, but within the context of the city, they seem much more full-faceted.

I would not recommend this latest from Anna Quindlen to most. But I have recommended it to a certain friend. And I can't wait to hear what she has to say about it.