Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen
Let me start by saying have read all of Anna Quindlen's books and loved them. So I was delighted to see that she had a new one out. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed in Alternate Side. Nothing much seemed to happen and I didn't find most of the characters that interesting, with the exception of the housekeeper, Charity, who was a hoot.
Alternate Side is about a group of families living comfortably on a cul de sac in New York City. Nora works for a jewelry museum. Her husband Charlie works for a big company and is dissatisfied with the progress of his career there. And after 25 years of marriage, Charlie is starting to get on Nora's nerves. They have two college-age kids. The big excitement in the first 50 pages is that Charlie scores a parking space. (And okay, I live in a big city and was equally excited to score a space in the parking garage here, so I get that. But it's not really exciting in book plot terms.)
Anyway, all the reviews talked about a traumatic experience that changed everyone's lives. I was several pages past the traumatic event before I realized that I had already encountered the traumatic event and it didn't register as being the traumatic event that would change everyone's lives. Then the story sort of winds down with several characters heading off in different directions.
If you're new to Anna Quindlen--and she is a great writer--try one of her other books: Black and Blue, Object Lessons, Miller's Valley. I felt they all had better characters and better stories.
Alternate Side is about a group of families living comfortably on a cul de sac in New York City. Nora works for a jewelry museum. Her husband Charlie works for a big company and is dissatisfied with the progress of his career there. And after 25 years of marriage, Charlie is starting to get on Nora's nerves. They have two college-age kids. The big excitement in the first 50 pages is that Charlie scores a parking space. (And okay, I live in a big city and was equally excited to score a space in the parking garage here, so I get that. But it's not really exciting in book plot terms.)
Anyway, all the reviews talked about a traumatic experience that changed everyone's lives. I was several pages past the traumatic event before I realized that I had already encountered the traumatic event and it didn't register as being the traumatic event that would change everyone's lives. Then the story sort of winds down with several characters heading off in different directions.
If you're new to Anna Quindlen--and she is a great writer--try one of her other books: Black and Blue, Object Lessons, Miller's Valley. I felt they all had better characters and better stories.
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