Lori M. (lormac) reviewed on 6/12/2011 + 120 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 5

If you are expecting this book to be a novel, forget it. Think of this book as a collection of short stories which happen to have some of the same characters in them at different points in their lives. This sounds confusing, but it is the best I can do. For example, Sasha, the main character in the first chapter is a ancillary character in the second chapter which takes place earlier in her life, and later in the book there is a chapter about college life in NYC in the 80s narrated by a friend in which she is a main character, and later a chapter about her life as a teenage runaway prior to college, and later a chapter which is a power point presentation (yes!) by her daughter, and in the final chpater, her former boss and someone who had a blind date with her realize that they both knew her. But Sasha is not the main character in this book - there are other characters which are given the same pop-up treatment from chapter to chapter. For this reason, I would compare this book to "Olive Kittredge" but without the choronological order to the chapters in that book.

In any event, it was a fascinating book. Actually I listened to it on CD which I would not recommend because it prevents you from being able to flip back to see if someone you meet in Chapter 7 is the same as the drummer you read baout in Chapter 2(in addition to which I did not think the reader was really that good). Many of the chapters are set in the music industry which created a disconnect for me since music is not very important in my life. Egan also hops around a little stylistically - sometimes first person, sometimes not, sometimes a chapter is completely satrical, while another chapter is subtle in its emotional perspective, a hero in one chapter may be a villain in another. There is really something for everyone in this book.

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