It's difficult to pinpoint what this book is really about. It starts with a focus on the struggle of navigating divorce, but from the man's perspective. Then, it shifts slightly. You realize the narrator isn't the man, but rather a female friend of his who really wasn't around during the failed marriage. Part three of the story then swings over to the ex-wife, transforming the book into a heavily feminist-tinted story about society's views and expectations of married women with children, and the damage that causes.
I've thought about it, and what I think the book is about is the toxicity of expectations. All the characters in this book, no matter whose story we're hearing, are in crisis because they've fallen victim to expectations.
Toby Fleishman is the first one in trouble. He's put everything into his family and his career as a doctor. Now it's all different. He's getting divorced. He has to date again. He has to continually put one thing in his life above another, never in the order that he wants. His heart is wounded from a failure of his partner to feel as much as did.
Rachel, his ex-wife is in crisis simply from overload. She works like a dog to make the money that keeps her family in the higher tier of New York City society. She invests so much time working, communicating with the nanny, and agonizing over her kids' schedules and social calendars. It all has to be perfect. Every exercise class she takes or lunch she goes on helps solidify their social standing. Why couldn't her ex see that?
Elizabeth, our narrator, is friends with Toby from college. They met on a semester abroad in Israel. Now, 20 years later as they're all entering their forties, she's back in his life, happy to have someone to distract her from her own issues. She's not happy as a stay-at-home mom. She struggles with the direction her career went, probably because she's a woman. She's a little tired of putting her family first even though she loves them.
All three characters, and a few others who jump in and out, are all trying to navigate the expectations of life and it's freaking hard. Who can't relate to that? Yes, it's convenient that I'm currently a forty-something with kids stuck at home on coronavirus quarantine, but still, I get it.
This book is complex and beautiful. It's not afraid to give into the rambling narrative that is the mind of a forty-something with kids, a job, and a million priorities. It's what a modern mid-life crisis really is. You no longer go out and buy a red convertible, but rather spend countless hours second-guessing your place in the rat race, whether you're screwing up your kids, or how to hide your aggravation and keep going. These characters feel the struggle in its most heightened way, but perfectly capture what happens when you need to be in five places at once.
In the end, without spoiling things, the outlook looks good for our characters. The crisis feels temporary, but that doesn't mean it wasn't intense. When the book ends, you feel like everyone is going to be okay. It won't be perfect, and it will take a lot of work, but they'll survive without imparting any lasting damage. It feels real.
This is a great book, and I really enjoyed reading it. I think it will speak to a lot of people for a variety of reasons, and highly recommend it.
Second book club book #9
Oh boy. This book is a brain dump of immense proportions. While I liked a few parts, overall, this was not a favorite. I saw the humor, appreciated Waters' signature shock value, but was bothered throughout.
Don't get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into. I'm no stranger to this guy. I think I was about 12 the first time I saw Cry Baby. It wasn't the topics he covered, it was the structure that drove me nuts. This book was a mess of unconnected paragraphs, mismatched thoughts, and disjointed tangents that didn't always circle back. The mental strain of processing this book consistently put me to sleep as I tried to read it.
There's also a complete lack of wisdom. No nuggets of insight, no real 'aha moments.' He may call it tarnished, but it's not wisdom. It's more like speculation or daydreams. Sharing what your ideal home would look like or how you want your remains dealt with does not impart wisdom. Obsessing about your Reborn baby doll or what Warhol was like isn't helpful and it was only kind of interesting.
Being a Waters fan seems to be diametrically opposed to being a professional writer. I like some of his movies. After the first time I saw Cry Baby, I wanted to watch it over and over. Hairspray is a great musical if you watch the original with Ricki Lake. While never seeing Pink Flamingos, it was most definitely a hot topic of conversation in my freshman dorm. As a filmmaker, Water's offbeat vision is in my wheelhouse, but write an entire chapter with only run-on sentences, and you've lost me.
At one point in the book, Waters says, "I am a man, a damaged, self-involved man..." This is very obvious in how he writes, so that's a warning to you. If you love the unusual, shocking, and crass, this might be your cup of tea. Otherwise, even if you're a fan, stuff might sneak up on you, so watch out.
You may think this is a strange choice for a book given the world today, but what better time to read the sequel to a book about the possibility of a pandemic than now? The story is also so different from our current reality. I guarantee it's not in poor taste to pick this up if you're a Crichton fan.
The Andromeda Strain takes place in 1967. It's about a microbe that kills everyone but two people in a small town and the scientists who go investigate, and ultimately stop nuclear devastation from happening. It was a really fun book. Catching up to now, The Andromeda Evolution is happening 53 years later. The microbe has undergone serious study. We know it's still in the atmosphere. We know it's extraterrestrial and able to mutate. In its current state, it's most dangerous to a specific material used on spaceships. Military offices and detailed operational plans are in place for the sole purpose of watching Andromeda for any new anomalies that could lead to an attack, and reacting to them.
Nobody expects a giant structure to plop down in the middle of the Amazon. Spewing out a dark and deadly smoke, the threat of global extinction returns, but it's so much more than an invisible microbe this time.
Four scientists, one with direct ties to the first Andromeda incident, head into the dense jungle to investigate and hopefully neutralize the threat before more serious action is taken. In true Crichton style, the tense moments come rapid-fire along with a quick succession of informational nuggets that keep you in the loop as the story develops. The picture of what's going on and who's doing what comes into focus at the perfect time. You, as the reader, have all the necessary pieces alongside the heroic efforts of the main characters.
The combination of diverse characters with unique motivations, technology and some great science fiction makes this book such a fun read. You're in the thick on things on the ground, but you also head up into space in order to face this alien microbe that seems hell bent on keeping humanity from leaving the planet. At the heart of all the action and terror, even Andromeda itself is a developing character.
Like most Crichton books, this is a fast and exciting read. It's an adventure set in a reality that's not ours, but could be. Reading it is a different kind of escape than something romantic or funny, but the message within the story seems fitting. It's a situation where humanity triumphs against those forces that would try to destroy us, and that's nice to read right now.
This book reads like a movie. What's better is it reads like a highly stylized, Victorian-era, Sherlock Holmes style movie. Jess Kidd does a great job of commiting to the genre, presenting a fun thriller with just the right amount of oddities and nefarious characters.
You think you're getting a cast of characters too large to keep tabs on, but that's only because some pull double duty. You think you're getting too much backstory about Bridget Devine, our lead, but just wait. The interconnectivity of characters and the motivation behind all the action fits together perfectly. It's great.
A crime makes it all work. The kidnapping of one young girl with some curious traits sets everything in motion. Bridie is on the case, but she's not alone. A ghostly companion has recently manifested who prefers to not leave Bridie's side. He's a mystery on his own, but adds just the right supernatural element to make Christabel, the missing girl, plausible.
Victorian England is really the only setting for this book as science, medicine, and the mythical merge along the city's sooty underbelly. Cruelty is commonplace and easy to hide, thickening the mystery Bridie deftly pursues. Will she find Christabel in time?
A little cliche, this is just an exciting read. Pacing is excellent. Like I said, it reads like a movie. I enjoyed this book as a great escape. Very much outside my regular genres, this is a good book for people who aren't typically drawn to mysteries and thrillers. It's a nice side-step, but be prepared for gore and the macabre. They're not shy.
