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â??Itâ??s â??Friendsâ?? meets â??Almost Famousâ?? meets the beach read youâ??ll be recommending all summer.â?ť â??TheSkimm
From the author of the New York Times bestsellers All Adults Here and This Time Tomorrow, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from collegeâ?? and what it means to finally grow up, well after adulthood has set in.
Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.
Back in the band's heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing fifty, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adult lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let looseâ??about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without themâ??can never be reclaimed.
Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passionsâ??be they food, or friendship, or musicâ??never go away… (more)
Modern Lovers is one of those novels that doesn’t deal with anything new or over the top exciting, but is still very difficult to put down. It’s full of domestic drama – relationships, work life and teenage angst – that takes place over the summer. There are multiple characters with their own issues, big and small. I found it fascinating, perhaps due to Emma Straub’s skills in crafting the world and concerns of her characters.
The story is about three old university friends; Elizabeth, Andrew and Zoe who live within a stone’s throw of each other in a neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Elizabeth and Andrew are married to each other and live with teenage sone Harry. He’s very well behaved; Andrew is a drifter, unable to stick with a job likely due to family money. Elizabeth is a real estate agent – it’s not a forever job, but she’s good at it. Zoe works with wife Jane at their local restaurant and tears her hair out at their daughter Ruby, who is rebellious and doesn’t look like she’s going to college in the fall. What binds the three together is not only their friendship, but that they co-wrote a song that defined a generation. Now a movie is being made of former bandmate Lydia’s life and they are being asked to sign over the rights. But this summer, that’s not their biggest problem. Harry and Ruby fall in love and get in trouble. Jane and Zoe are on the brink of divorce. Andrew falls in with a yoga group slash cult and Elizabeth tries to hold it together for everyone until secrets from the past spill out. It’s messy with big and small dramas.
The characters of Modern Lovers aren’t always endearing. In fact, they all have something that is irritating on various levels. Rather than detract away from my enjoyment of the story, it added to it. The characters (and their creator) aren’t afraid to act foolishly, stupidly or be obstinate just because. There are some complex interactions, made more tricky because of each character’s inherent biases and nature. I quite liked Elizabeth and Zoe, who both had different ways of dealing with things. Andrew, with his aimless wanderings, unhindered by a job or money worries, was grating because of his lack of knowledge of how the world actually worked. He came across as more of a caricature than the other adults.
At the heart, Modern Lovers is about relationships. Old love and new love, love that’s wearing thin and love that’s growing. It’s never constant, with the characters getting frustrated with each other and their younger selves. Brooklyn also acts as an anchoring character, with each character having strong ties to their local area and reluctance to move on. It’s not a book with a fast paced plot, rather a gentle exploration of interactions between and within generations.
I enjoyed this story of two couples who are approaching 50 and having mid-life/mid-marriage crisis. Three of the four people have known one another since college and lots of things come up from their past to confuse their present. Meanwhile their very different children start to get very close to one another.
I was expecting a funny romance because of the cover (and I knew nothing else about the book) but it's nothing like that but it's probably better. ( )
It was a tone down or fluffy version of Daisy Jones and the Six. I listened to the book and was interested, but not as good as one of her other books I just read Time After Tomorrow, I believe. ( )
If I could settle down Then I would settle down. ---Pavement
You can't help yourself, but neither can we. Together, mighty past, we dominate things. ---Kenneth Koch
Dedication
For Nina, who made moving to Ohio sound like fun, and for the Rutland Readers, with gratitude for seven years of neighborly affection
First words
In June, the book club was at Zoe's house, which meant that Elizabeth had to carry her heavy ceramic bowl of spinach salad with walnuts and bits of crumbled goat cheese a grand total of half a block.
Quotations
Life was just happenstance and luck, bound together by the desire for order.
People didn't take turns having difficult moments; they came all together, like rainstorms and puddles.
Last words
The air smelled like fall, and Harry watched the firefly go all the way under the canopy of leaves before turning back around.
â??Itâ??s â??Friendsâ?? meets â??Almost Famousâ?? meets the beach read youâ??ll be recommending all summer.â?ť â??TheSkimm
From the author of the New York Times bestsellers All Adults Here and This Time Tomorrow, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from collegeâ?? and what it means to finally grow up, well after adulthood has set in.
Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.
Back in the band's heyday, Elizabeth put on a snarl over her Midwestern smile, Andrew let his unwashed hair grow past his chin, and Zoe was the lesbian all the straight women wanted to sleep with. Now nearing fifty, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn, and the trappings of the adult world seem to have arrived with ease. But the summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adult lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let looseâ??about themselves, and about the famous fourth band member who soared and fell without themâ??can never be reclaimed.
Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passionsâ??be they food, or friendship, or musicâ??never go away
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(3.5)
Wikipedia in English
5
The story is about three old university friends; Elizabeth, Andrew and Zoe who live within a stone’s throw of each other in a neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Elizabeth and Andrew are married to each other and live with teenage sone Harry. He’s very well behaved; Andrew is a drifter, unable to stick with a job likely due to family money. Elizabeth is a real estate agent – it’s not a forever job, but she’s good at it. Zoe works with wife Jane at their local restaurant and tears her hair out at their daughter Ruby, who is rebellious and doesn’t look like she’s going to college in the fall. What binds the three together is not only their friendship, but that they co-wrote a song that defined a generation. Now a movie is being made of former bandmate Lydia’s life and they are being asked to sign over the rights. But this summer, that’s not their biggest problem. Harry and Ruby fall in love and get in trouble. Jane and Zoe are on the brink of divorce. Andrew falls in with a yoga group slash cult and Elizabeth tries to hold it together for everyone until secrets from the past spill out. It’s messy with big and small dramas.
The characters of Modern Lovers aren’t always endearing. In fact, they all have something that is irritating on various levels. Rather than detract away from my enjoyment of the story, it added to it. The characters (and their creator) aren’t afraid to act foolishly, stupidly or be obstinate just because. There are some complex interactions, made more tricky because of each character’s inherent biases and nature. I quite liked Elizabeth and Zoe, who both had different ways of dealing with things. Andrew, with his aimless wanderings, unhindered by a job or money worries, was grating because of his lack of knowledge of how the world actually worked. He came across as more of a caricature than the other adults.
At the heart, Modern Lovers is about relationships. Old love and new love, love that’s wearing thin and love that’s growing. It’s never constant, with the characters getting frustrated with each other and their younger selves. Brooklyn also acts as an anchoring character, with each character having strong ties to their local area and reluctance to move on. It’s not a book with a fast paced plot, rather a gentle exploration of interactions between and within generations.
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