Reviews

Sharp and tight. I'm pretty prejudiced against the whole straight woman has one affair with a woman in youth and it is explosively roller coaster passionate but ultimately unsustainable thing, but even so I enjoyed this. It was, to me, almost white-knuckled suspenseful most of the way through, but what really blew me away was the way she handles the passage of time at the ending. I wish we had spent less time with the 21 year old Regina and more with the thirtysomething Regina. Sequel maybe?!

Also, a side thought, but I liked to imagine this taking place right alongside Ann Cvetkovich's Cornell experience as described in [b:Depression: A Public Feeling|13588711|Depression A Public Feeling|Ann Cvetkovich|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344608951s/13588711.jpg|19176123]. I guess that was late 80s and this was early 90s, but I still like to think they could have been pals.

skellz's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

lorenare's review

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reflective

4.0

kayschwander's review

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

The summary does not give an accurate description of what this book is about. The language is too much.

janetll's review against another edition

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1.0

I'm not generally good at suspending my disbelief and this book went way beyond my limits. The characters get money thrown at them, as a result of their brilliance, when they're not even trying, when their parents die. They are SO insightful, and can fill each other in on, well, each other and themselves after years and decades apart. They become alcoholic and then cease to be alcoholic without benefit of any kind of recovery. There is not an overweight one among them. And they live happily ever after. Yuck.

beastreader's review against another edition

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2.0

Regina Gottlieb is no stranger to the rumors about one of her professors, Nicholas Brodeur. Rumors that talk about Nicholas giving himself a hand job to the reading of couplets by his female students or that Nicholas laughed so hard he fell off his chair in the movie theater watching a film about rapist, Roman Polanski.

None of these rumors deter Regina from Nicholas. Not even his pregnant wife. If anything it just makes Regina more interested in him. Things get crazy when Regina gets close to Nicholas and his wife. Regina’s actions and the education she receives in life and the bedroom will make her the person she turns out to be in fifteen years.

I wanted to check this book out because it sounded outside of my norm and I like expanding my reading genre. Plus I was not offended by the fact that this book might falter on a heavy/dark reading material and some deep sexual experiences. If these two things are not your cup of tea than you should not check this book out.

Ok, so I really, really wanted to like this book more then I did. It looks like lots of people enjoyed this book. Unfortunately, this book did not do it for me. There were a lot of descriptive details in the beginning that I really struggled to see past. So the book was a slow read for me. After a while I had to put the book down and throw in the towel. I do however appreciate the raw, stripped down look that the author gave to Regina, even if I did not care for Regina.

nmorin's review against another edition

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4.0

First half was challenging to get through but I ended up really enjoying this and the second half especially. Love a novel set in academia and about bad people making bad choices (that you still sort of like them in despite of!). What was very impressive I think was that Martha was written in a way that made me believe in her mystique/coolness, which I think is hard to achieve!

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