Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough
I love to read. I have been a voracious reader since I started reading in kindergarten and remember walking to the library everyday after school since the library at school did not contain enough books to keep me busy. I would read the 2 or 3 I checked out and the next day I would walk back again. My favorite stories are with female characters set in today’s time. When I heard about this book and read the synopsis, I knew I wanted to read it.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough (January 2011), by author and New York Times contributor Ruth Pennebaker, is a story that depicts a mother, daughter, and grandmother financially forced to live together under one roof:
* Joanie is a recently-divorced fiftysomething, shakily re-entering the work force;
* Her daughter Caroline is an angry teen in high school, who believes the best way to express herself is with hot pink hair (and “specially” prepared brownies);
* Ivy is Joanie’s 78-year-old mother, who has recently taken up shoplifting.
And to top things off, Richard, Joanie’s ex-husband, has just announced that his much younger girlfriend is pregnant.
Now that is my kind of read! True to life, a bit quirky and something I can relate to in my own life LOL
The Author, Ruth Pennebaker says “WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKTHROUGH is about the complexity, craziness and humor of the mother-daughter relationship. It’s about how you can live very closely with other people – even people you love – and still have no idea what’s going on with their lives since you’re so focused on your own hopes and sorrows and private dramas.”
My Review:
One of the things that I love about this book is that the characters are real. You find the someone in this story that you can relate to and several times I was agreeing with the conversation, thinking how just like me that was. The book is very well written in today’s language with some swearing and lots of humor and some sarcasm. It is lighthearted at times, with drama and the normal chaos our lives seem to have. A single mom taking care of her mom and trying to be a mom as well is just too much sometimes in real life and as portrayed in this fun, quirky book.
Joanie, the mom, feels out of place in her job, hates it and hates knowing that she is going to turn 50. Grandma Ivy who is out of place and used to hate immigration issues, now wants to help a friend who is having those same issues. Depression and a stint at shoplifting just for grins doesn’t help much either. And Caroline, the daughter… Awkward as a teenager, she is trying to fit in somewhere, live with a huge crush on a guy and just deal with mom, dad and step mom to be who is pregnant and wants a friend. Throw in all of the emotions 3 women can have living together in one house and you have a great read.
The story flowed very nicely and I like the author writing style. I am a very fast reader and if I have to go back and re read a section it means that it did not flow nicely or it was really a good part of the book. I found myself re reading a couple of parts because of the story line, so that’s a good thing.
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