Mrs. Everything

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (2019)

This decades-long family saga opens in 2015, with just a couple of pages letting you know that Jo's breast cancer is back and it's probably not good this time. You learn little else, except that she has a wife who isn't named, and a few daughters, who are. After the opening, it begins again in the 50s when Jo is a kid living with her parents and sister, Bethie. Jo is the difficult one who doesn't quite fit in and wants to be a writer rather than a wife and mother. Bethie is practically perfect in every way, always behaving the way her parents expect her to.

We go through formative events in both sisters' lives, and watch how it changes them and the resulting directions their lives take. They both have complicated relationships with their mother, Sarah, whose own life appears very confined. Jo wrestles with her sexuality and Bethie struggles with the effects of sexual assault, neither of which are easy to deal with, especially in the time period in which they first come about. Both women have relationships that are unconventional in some way, and of which their mother is not supportive.

As the novel spans decades we see various cultural movements and trends, including hippie flower children and the proliferation of 1980s home exercise videos. Some criticize the timing of certain styles and other cultural references, saying they weren't showing up at the right time, but I didn't notice that and I'd be surprised if Weiner didn't research styles and trends while writing this. Another criticism was the inconsistencies - for example, early in the book the girls' father worked for Ford and bought the latest model every year, but later in the book when this is referred to, it says Chevrolet. There were a couple of things of this nature, but this is about the editing not the writing so they felt pretty minor.

Overall, it was a pretty engrossing family saga and I was fascinated by the twists and turns that Bethie's and Jo's lives took and how their relationship changed and grew over time. Despite complications and fights and setbacks, the sisters really took care of each other. One of my favorite things was how, when they were growing up, Jo would tell Bethie fairy tales in which Bethie was the heroine and it gave her self-confidence that she was able to draw on later when she really needed it. I just felt like there was a lot of thought put into this book and in turn it gave me a lot to think about.

All Fall Down

All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner (2014)

Allison Weiss has become a successful blogger, but the pressure of deadlines is getting stressful, especially when you add it to her daughter's tantrums, her father's Alzheimer's, and her crumbling marriage. She doesn't see a way out from under her crushing responsibilities, but she has found something that makes it much more bearable: Vicodin. And Percocet. And then Oxycontin. When she runs out of prescription pills she needs to find another source and the money to pay for them, and now that too is added to her stressors. But she's not a drug addict...or is she?

Traditionally, I've read every Jennifer Weiner novel as soon as it's published, but then when I read The Next Best Thing, I was so disappointed that I vowed not to run out and immediately read her next book. When All Fall Down was released last year, I heard from a friend that it was much better than her previous novel and thankfully, she was right.

I found Allison to be a realistic character with problems many women can identify with. Her daughter was extremely sensitive and although she was lovely in many ways, she was a lot of work. Her relationship with her parents was not helped by her father's rapid decline, and Allison had to assume most of the responsibility because of her mother's own set of problems. She became convinced that her husband was having an affair and didn't know how to handle it, but knew she didn't want to lose him.

So when she began refilling prescriptions for pills she no long technically needed, it was easy to see how the situation could escalate. She was careful in her own way, but still began taking pills more and more often. There were times that I thought "Come on, Allison, surely you can see that you have a problem?" but it wasn't bad writing, it's the reality of addiction. She kept justifying her behavior and making excuses and I wanted to slap her sometimes, but I also felt sympathetic. There was a lot going on in her life and while taking pills didn't actually make any of those things better, I could see how it could make her problems a little easier to deal with. But just temporarily, of course. There was a point at which the scales tipped drastically in the direction of harm.

You know, I hope I never have to go to rehab, because I would not be able to stand the patronizing attitudes of the counselors who Allison had to deal with, never mind how God-centric the program is. Although I know that Allison did have a problem and needed help, this rehab did not sound especially helpful or fair. It did, however, sound realistic. She described the drab furnishings and the bland food, and the under-qualified staff who were being pulled in too many directions at once. (Don't even get me started on how awful the library was.) That has all got to make it harder to stay and get better.

Weiner seems to be in top form again with this tale of suburban middle-class addiction.  I kept thinking about Ann Leary's The Good House - there are so few books about addiction, especially in professional women, and I suspect it's more common than many of us think. It was also nice to again read Weiner's familiar, funny voice, and now that I've heard her speak a few times, I do sort of hear her voice in my head when I'm reading her books. All in all, I really enjoyed this story!

The Next Best Thing

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner (2012)

Ruth Saunders, orphaned and disfigured in an accident when she was three, has moved to Hollywood with her grandmother in hopes of making it big. But when the sitcom she's written gets chosen for production, she soon finds that many forces are conspiring to crush her dreams. The actress chosen to play the lead is nothing like Ruth pictured, the grandmother in the show is portrayed most unflatteringly, and the end result is completely different from what she wrote. Meanwhile, she is pining away for her boss and feeling helpless and hopeless.

The premise was pretty good, the beginning was promising, and I liked the ending. But I struggled with what came between. I'm not the best person to judge a book that revolves around Hollywood and tv since I view them both pretty unfavorably (though I share Ruth's love of The Golden Girls), but I found the shallow, spoiled characters and bad behavior all rather boring and annoying. Of course people in Hollywood are shallow, of course the network wants a skinny actress, of course you don't have complete creative control over your show. I know that and I haven't even visited that city; you'd think Ruth would know it after working there for several years.

Being unbelievably naive is only one of the ways in which Ruth was difficult to like. I quickly tired of her pathetic mooning around Little Dave who also wasn't appealing at all. For the longest time I didn't even think he was the real love interest because he was portrayed in such an unflattering way; I thought he was there temporarily until Ruth met her real love interest. In fact, I think the only character I liked was Ruth's grandmother.

Poor editing was also a problem, the inconsistencies proving distracting. In one scene, Ruth's outfit for a party is described as pants and a top, but later in the evening she is wearing a dress. Similarly, a character described as being in her early 40s got pregnant when she was 39 but her son is already 8 years old. I'm not the most observant reader when it comes to details, so if I'm noticing these things, there's a problem.

Occasionally, I spotted traces of the Jennifer Weiner I know and love. This description of Ruth's grandmother made me smile: "She shrugged, muttering to herself, and went to her bedroom to begin moving clothing from one plastic bag to another, a trick that served as the Jewish woman-of-a-certain age's version of meditation."

But these moments were too few and far-between. Jennifer Weiner can do better than this. I know this because I've read every single one of her books, and every single one is better than this. I expected more, especially since the novel is based on Weiner's own experience in Hollywood making her short-lived sitcom "State of Georgia." What I've liked most about Weiner's writing is how consistently good it is, so I'm especially disappointed in this half-hearted effort.

It really does take a village

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner (2011)

Beautiful, lonely Jules is fresh out of Princeton, working hard for little pay, but wants more than anything to send her father to rehab. When she is approached by a man representing a fertility clinic asking if she would consider selling her eggs, it seems like the perfect solution. Annie, a housewife married to her high school sweetheart, is struggling to raise two young sons and pay the bills. Though she yearns for the college education she never had, she decides that what she is good at is having babies, and being a surrogate would pay very well. Thirty-eight (or forty-three?) year-old India has changed her name, her face, and her life and has finally snagged herself a rich man. A baby would financially seal the deal, but India and Marcus are unable to conceive and turn to surrogacy. However, India's plans are threatened when her step-daughter Bettina, a young woman as poor in social skills as she is rich in money, decides to hire a private investigator to dig up dirt on India's background.

As always, Weiner's clean writing flowed well, propelling the story along. Compared to her other novels there was more sex and, unfortunately, less humor. But having four main characters and frequently switching perspective meant that I didn't get to know any of the four women as well as I would have if the book were more focused. They were interesting women though, and I'd be happy to read an entire book about any one of them.

Although I didn't like it nearly as much as her other books, I still enjoyed it well enough. Her style is engaging and easy to read and I always enjoy her plots. This was no exception - the issues brought up with egg donation and surrogacy are complex and I like how she drew everyone involved into the story. For Jules, donating her eggs was a simple process, but there were other interesting aspects of her life explored in the novel. On the other hand, Annie's marriage was affected by her decision to be a surrogate. I've always wondered about this aspect of surrogacy and I'm so glad someone wrote it into a novel. She was also a fascinating character because she married so young (arguably too young) and missed a lot of things that many of us experience in our youth. Her whole situation was rather touching and I felt more sympathetic towards her than the other characters. At times I was surprised at Bettina's actions as they didn't seem to fit with her character, but it was hard to tell as I found her to be the least developed of the four women. India was complicated and somewhat surprising and could easily be a book unto herself.

As an interesting aside, the cover shot is an exact scene from the book, right down to the outfit Bettina wears as she perches atop her father's desk with her cup of coffee. This was surprising and refreshing in an age when most book covers are stock photos with only tenuous relevance to the content of the book.

Bottom line: Then Came You is a fun read and I absolutely think it's a great choice to take to the beach this summer. But if you're new to Jennifer Weiner, I'd recommend starting with one of her other books.

Fly Away Home : a review

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner (2010)

It happens all the time: a famous person’s affair is exposed, the media has a field day, and then the story fades into the background as the nation’s collective attention turns to the next scandal. Just such a story provides the backdrop for Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel, a firm departure from the chick lit genre that she is almost always relegated to but of which she was arguably never really a part.

Senator Richard Woodruff owes much of his political success to his wife Sylvie who has sacrificed her own career, interests, and even style of dress to be part of his team. Nary a gram of fat has passed her lips in decades, ensuring that she continues to fit into the designer suits required of a senator’s wife. Their two grown daughters, Diana and Lizzie, were raised largely by a nanny, and developed an understanding that their parents were public figures and couldn’t be expected to deal with the minutiae of everyday family life. Now a successful doctor, Diana is nevertheless troubled in her marriage, whereas Lizzie has had the more public distinction of being a drug addict.

When the nightly news reveals that Richard had an affair with a much younger colleague, their - albeit imperfect - family is turned upside down. More vulnerable than ever, each women struggles to make sense of her own problems while the future of her family becomes increasingly uncertain.

More serious than Weiner’s previous novels, it retained traces of her humor while exploring the very private side of the kind of situations that are usually dwelled upon only long enough to be made the butt of jokes. Every character in this book was imperfect and complicated. I felt very invested in their problems and their futures, and wanted to spend more time with them.

Jennifer Weiner is like Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to me. Each flavor is not only creative, but well executed and delicious. Weiner’s writing is impressively consistent, and that is unfortunately rare. With a debut like Good In Bed, Weiner had a lot to live up to, but she has risen to the occasion and proven herself again and again. I look forward to her every book with unguarded glee because I know it’s going to be good, and Fly Away Home is one of her best.