Objects of My Affection

I found this to be a fun story to read, I appreciated the humor and haven't read anything quite like it. I would recommend it and I plan on reading any other novels by Jill Smolinski I can find. ( )

This book held my attention and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a fairly simple, formulaic book about a woman in her late-30s whose life has taken a turn for the worse in response to her teenaged son's drug addiction. Lucie has sold her house to pay for re-hab, has been laid off and her long-term relationship is over. She finds a work assignment to de-clutter the home of a hoarding, aging artist. She is working towards a deadline and will earn herself a bonus if she is able to finish the seemingly impossible task by that time. She, of course, encounters challenges along the way, the most prominent of which is the difficult client she is working for. Along the way, she also encounters important insights about herself and what has happened in her life.
What I think made this book work so well were the well sketched out characters who seemed multidimentional, flawed and fully human. As such, they were totally relatable, for me. Even the less prominent characters, like the artist's nurse, seemed fully fleshed out and real. I especially found some of the feelings Lucie had had in living with an addict to ring true.
One of the few improvements I could imagine for this book would have been to make the locale of Chicago come alive more, especially with more references to the changes in weather. The locale of the artist's house, a craftsman era home, was well drawn-out but I feel some opportunities were lost in making Chicago more of an on-going part of the novel's landscape. ( )

What is with our society's current fascination with hoarders? Multiple shows on TV, news reports, and now novels. This is the second book I've read this year, where the plot centered around a hoarder cleaning her house and dealing with the emotional issues surrounding the reasons for her hoard. This one was a bit different in that it was told from the point of view of the organizer in charge of cleaning up.

I liked Lucy, the organizer, who is dealing with some significant emotional issues of her own (her drug addict son, a recent break-up, a lay-off). And Marva, the reclusive artist/hoarder, was an interesting character as well. But the story was quite predictable, and some of the plot points were obviously contrived (the whole thing with a book being mistakenly sent to a warehouse; the search for Marva's most famous painting), to the point that I was pulled out of the story and just annoyed with author for going down those paths.
A light read for those days when you don't feel like thinking too much when you read. ( )

Jill Smolinski’s Objects Of My Affection is an entertaining story with more heart than I expected. Having read and enjoyed Smolinski’s The Next Thing On My List years ago, I’m familiar with the author’s humor — which is just the right amount of self-deprecating and laugh-out-loud silly. Though hoarding itself is not funny, Marva’s outlandish personality is. And the fact that Lucy has to grow a spine and stand up to her? Even better.

Though I occasionally sided with Daniel, Lucy’s estranged boyfriend, in the push-and-pull dynamics associated with parenting a teenager like Ash, I couldn’t help but feel for Lucy. She’s a single mother, a woman who has given up so much in return for so little — and I couldn’t imagine the feeling of suddenly finding yourself both unemployed and homeless. Now a thirty-something vagabond, Lucy is doing the best she can with her limited resources. And though it would be easy to cast “blame” on her regarding her son’s addiction, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do in a similar circumstance. It wouldn’t be pretty.

Objects Of My Affection isn’t a romance in any traditional sense, but there is quite a bit of love here: love between Daniel and Lucy, who I desperately hoped would work things out; love between Lucy and her son, of course, even when things are complicated; love between Marva and her son, who doesn’t think he’s ever measured up to the affection his mother feels for her paintings. And there’s Marva’s love affair with stuff — tons of it. And everywhere. As Lucy made inroads toward clearing Marva’s California estate, my stomach turned. The artist’s anxiety practically shimmered on the page . . . and I can’t imagine having to disperse my worldly possessions by a certain date. Even if it’s self-imposed.

Though some aspects of the plot are predictable, I loved the dynamic between Lucy and Daniel and feel like Smolinski’s novel is a grown-up version of the coming-of-age tale. For one who has had her blinders on for so long, Lucy waking from the ignorance of her son’s problems and subsequently creating a whole new life was inspiring. And it certainly got me thinking about what I need — and don’t need — hanging around. ( )

If there is one way to take your mind of what stresses you, it's cleaning! Oh how I would have loved to have been in that house with Lucy and to work with Marva. Lots of interesting characters and nice to see Lucy's character evolve into one of more confidence. A fun read! ( )