Surprised there are no reviews for this on paperbackswap. A friend had read this book and liked it so I added it to my paperbackswap wish list and received it a few weeks back. I just finished it yesterday. It's 358 pages and took me 3-4 days to read so I found it engaging (the last book I read was the 359 page "Lord Grizzly," which took me about two months to read).
If half stars were allowed I would have given this book 3.5 stars. It is not (in my opinion) a four-star book so I downgraded to three stars. The two main characters are Ava, who is in her 40s, and her 20-something daugher Maggie. Neither is very likeable. It's been a year since Ava's husband of 20+ years dumped her for another woman. Ava has been depressed since then. She and hubs are divorcing. Ava finally decides to join her friend Cate's book club.
The book club in this novel comes across as stuffy and elitist when it comes to the books members choose. The choices for the upcoming year were (if I recall correctly) all classics (i.e., "The Great Gatsby," "Anna Karenina," "Catcher in the Rye," "To Kill a Mockingbird," etc.) except for Ava's choice. The members came from different backgrounds and a wide range of ages so I find it rather unbelievable that everyone would pick from the classics.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: The fling between Luke, a book club member, and Ava, who was at least 10 years older, didn't ring true. Maggie was a hard core drug addict who eventually started injecting heroin. She OD'd and, according to the docs who treated her, would have died had not an acquaintance called for help. Maggie spent a week in the hospital going through horrible withdrawal. Yet, once released she apparently had no cravings for drugs and stayed clean without any assistance (i.e., addiction support group).
SPOILERS (cont.): When Maggie is thought to be missing, Ava contacts Jim, her soon-to-be ex. At one point he asks if she would consider reconciling. That didn't seem genuine considering that he left Ava and there was nothing indicating there were cracks in his new relationship. About 20-30 pages from the end I figured out who owned the Ganymede bookshop in Paris. The author made it pretty obvious. The real topper, though, was the ending which was completely unbelievable and too tidy. END OF SPOILERS
Although I wasn't impressed with this book, I will give Ann Hood another try--I've put "The Obituary Writer" on my paperbackswap.com wish list.
If half stars were allowed I would have given this book 3.5 stars. It is not (in my opinion) a four-star book so I downgraded to three stars. The two main characters are Ava, who is in her 40s, and her 20-something daugher Maggie. Neither is very likeable. It's been a year since Ava's husband of 20+ years dumped her for another woman. Ava has been depressed since then. She and hubs are divorcing. Ava finally decides to join her friend Cate's book club.
The book club in this novel comes across as stuffy and elitist when it comes to the books members choose. The choices for the upcoming year were (if I recall correctly) all classics (i.e., "The Great Gatsby," "Anna Karenina," "Catcher in the Rye," "To Kill a Mockingbird," etc.) except for Ava's choice. The members came from different backgrounds and a wide range of ages so I find it rather unbelievable that everyone would pick from the classics.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: The fling between Luke, a book club member, and Ava, who was at least 10 years older, didn't ring true. Maggie was a hard core drug addict who eventually started injecting heroin. She OD'd and, according to the docs who treated her, would have died had not an acquaintance called for help. Maggie spent a week in the hospital going through horrible withdrawal. Yet, once released she apparently had no cravings for drugs and stayed clean without any assistance (i.e., addiction support group).
SPOILERS (cont.): When Maggie is thought to be missing, Ava contacts Jim, her soon-to-be ex. At one point he asks if she would consider reconciling. That didn't seem genuine considering that he left Ava and there was nothing indicating there were cracks in his new relationship. About 20-30 pages from the end I figured out who owned the Ganymede bookshop in Paris. The author made it pretty obvious. The real topper, though, was the ending which was completely unbelievable and too tidy. END OF SPOILERS
Although I wasn't impressed with this book, I will give Ann Hood another try--I've put "The Obituary Writer" on my paperbackswap.com wish list.
