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erica_reads_itall 's review for:
Mrs. Everything
by Jennifer Weiner
I expected to love this book. I've been a Jennifer Weiner fan since her very first novel, and while I knew this was a "bigger" book than is standard for her, I thought there would just be more to love. But something in it fell flat.
It can't be easy to cover seventy years from two points of view while remaining grounded in the details of the characters' lives. And sometimes - frequently, even - Weiner succeeds. When she pauses in an era long enough to really get into it, her writing is just as absorbing and powerful as always. But just as the reader gets comfortable she skips forward a decade, or to the other sister's point of view, and these transitions are jarring.
The tradeoff, of course, is meant to be a compelling vision of what it is to be a woman in America now. But... I didn't feel compelled. Jo and Beth are fairly privileged white women of the Baby Boomer generation, that isn't an underrepresented demographic. The characters are unique in significant ways - they're Jewish, and Jo is gay, - but because of the novel's epic scope, Weiner doesn't have time to linger in the details of characterization, and both of the novel's main characters remain sketches.
There was plenty to like in this novel. It's highly readable and the cast of supporting characters is vivid and interesting. But Mrs. Everything had ambitions of greatness, and to realize those it needed more and less. More editing and less grandiosity; fewer sweeping pronouncements and more of the details that bring readers into the story and make its conclusions resonate.
It can't be easy to cover seventy years from two points of view while remaining grounded in the details of the characters' lives. And sometimes - frequently, even - Weiner succeeds. When she pauses in an era long enough to really get into it, her writing is just as absorbing and powerful as always. But just as the reader gets comfortable she skips forward a decade, or to the other sister's point of view, and these transitions are jarring.
The tradeoff, of course, is meant to be a compelling vision of what it is to be a woman in America now. But... I didn't feel compelled. Jo and Beth are fairly privileged white women of the Baby Boomer generation, that isn't an underrepresented demographic. The characters are unique in significant ways - they're Jewish, and Jo is gay,
Spoiler
and Beth experiences sexual assault and illegal abortionThere was plenty to like in this novel. It's highly readable and the cast of supporting characters is vivid and interesting. But Mrs. Everything had ambitions of greatness, and to realize those it needed more and less. More editing and less grandiosity; fewer sweeping pronouncements and more of the details that bring readers into the story and make its conclusions resonate.