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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Goodreaders, what are you thinking?! A 3.71 average? This was a shit show. I, admittedly, have not read Brown's debut, The Weird Sisters, but I've heard it's a good one. This certainly isn't. Let's call it a case of the Sophomore Dump.
In Mike Birbiglia's new film, Don't Think Twice, the plot revolves around an improv troupe who start each show by asking the audience if anyone had a particularly rough day and riffing off of that. In one scene, Gillian Jacobs (of Community fame) skewers an audience member's plight of having to return from France early. "Whaaaahhhhh! I had to come back early from France! Whaaahhhh!"
This is what I kept coming back to while reading this. Two incredibly privileged white women crying like babies because their lives are so difficult. There is some decent writing here and Brown at least kept me engaged with her prose. The rest is absolutely insufferable. If this were made into a movie, it would air on the Hallmark Channel. The plot is so thin you can you see enraptured old ladies raving about this at their book clubs through it. The dual narratives are so boring that the only thing that kept me from throwing this out the window is the fact that I was getting paid to review it. If you like compelling narratives with well-drawn characters and beautiful prose, avoid this at all costs. Whhhaaahhh!
In Mike Birbiglia's new film, Don't Think Twice, the plot revolves around an improv troupe who start each show by asking the audience if anyone had a particularly rough day and riffing off of that. In one scene, Gillian Jacobs (of Community fame) skewers an audience member's plight of having to return from France early. "Whaaaahhhhh! I had to come back early from France! Whaaahhhh!"
This is what I kept coming back to while reading this. Two incredibly privileged white women crying like babies because their lives are so difficult. There is some decent writing here and Brown at least kept me engaged with her prose. The rest is absolutely insufferable. If this were made into a movie, it would air on the Hallmark Channel. The plot is so thin you can you see enraptured old ladies raving about this at their book clubs through it. The dual narratives are so boring that the only thing that kept me from throwing this out the window is the fact that I was getting paid to review it. If you like compelling narratives with well-drawn characters and beautiful prose, avoid this at all costs. Whhhaaahhh!
Madeleine feels empty in spite of being married to the "right" man and living a life of wealth. She discovers her grandmother's journal whilst visiting her mother and finds they had much in common. I very much enjoyed this novel and it had my wishing for a trip to Paris.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This is the book club book for January, and was SO my speed. I enjoyed Margie's story MUCH more than Madeleine's, but it was sort of interesting. This could totally be a movie.
There were some times when I thought each woman just needed to buck up and ask for what she wants. But as always, it isn't that easy. I would have loved to learn more about Margie's storyline.
There were some times when I thought each woman just needed to buck up and ask for what she wants. But as always, it isn't that easy. I would have loved to learn more about Margie's storyline.
I just finished chapter fourteen where Madeleine wonders why her grandmother left Paris for a conservative life. And I've known for two or three chapters what happens. But I suppose she is just way to wrapped up in herself and too busy whining about how she was never perfect like the other girls (join the club Maddie) to put a little bit of thought into it. Both narrators are insufferable. This book could hav been a delightful novella if it weren't stuffed full of repetitive descriptions about feelings of inadequacy and suffering at the hands of rich husbands and indulgent parents. The only light on this book so far is the realization that Madeleine has about her high school friends; that they too have been pushing aside dreams and feelings of inadequacy to function in their society. I too am suffering as I listen to this book but I will finish if only to see if my hunch about Margie is true.
I didn't dislike this but I didn't love it.
There are a few lines from the book that best summed up the story to me.
"Stories about people who were broken and then had to make themselves whole again"
"The children were nothing but pawns....so it had always been, and so if no one had stopped it, it would always be"
There are two generations of women in this story.
Madeline is an unhappily married woman, in her 30's, in 1999.
Margie is in her twenties in the 1930's,she is at her parents' mercy and wanting more out of life than what she expects she'll get.
Madeline is visiting her mother and she finds Margie's diaries. They tell a very interesting story about Margie living in Paris. It's everything Margie dreamed of and Madeline wonders how Margie wound up the grandmother she had actually know instead of the vibrant young woman in the diary.
Sometimes in a story I wonder how the author can write a husband/boyfriend/etc who is a big jerk but his their always super intelligent wife has never realized it until recently. I give the author credit here because Madeline knows what she's gotten herself into. She married Phillip knowing he was a bit of a jerk and she kept her expectations low.
Now, the reason for that is what a lot of the story deals with.
Madeline has really low self esteem because her mom always tried to change her. She wasn't thin enough, pretty enough, hadn't found a husband young enough, had the wrong passion in life (art), etc. So Madeline is pretty broken. She doesn't find it that hard to put up with Phillip because her mom treated her the same way.
When she begins reading her grandmother's diary, she starts focusing on what she really wants and how she can be happy herself.
The book was pretty heavy a lot of the time. I was hoping for magical Paris in the story.
There are a few lines from the book that best summed up the story to me.
"Stories about people who were broken and then had to make themselves whole again"
"The children were nothing but pawns....so it had always been, and so if no one had stopped it, it would always be"
There are two generations of women in this story.
Madeline is an unhappily married woman, in her 30's, in 1999.
Margie is in her twenties in the 1930's,she is at her parents' mercy and wanting more out of life than what she expects she'll get.
Madeline is visiting her mother and she finds Margie's diaries. They tell a very interesting story about Margie living in Paris. It's everything Margie dreamed of and Madeline wonders how Margie wound up the grandmother she had actually know instead of the vibrant young woman in the diary.
Sometimes in a story I wonder how the author can write a husband/boyfriend/etc who is a big jerk but his their always super intelligent wife has never realized it until recently. I give the author credit here because Madeline knows what she's gotten herself into. She married Phillip knowing he was a bit of a jerk and she kept her expectations low.
Now, the reason for that is what a lot of the story deals with.
Madeline has really low self esteem because her mom always tried to change her. She wasn't thin enough, pretty enough, hadn't found a husband young enough, had the wrong passion in life (art), etc. So Madeline is pretty broken. She doesn't find it that hard to put up with Phillip because her mom treated her the same way.
When she begins reading her grandmother's diary, she starts focusing on what she really wants and how she can be happy herself.
The book was pretty heavy a lot of the time. I was hoping for magical Paris in the story.
A brave and refreshing fictional take on the breadth of relationships a women has with herself, her husband, the society she lives in and the expectations they all have on her.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic relationship
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes