Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... It All Comes Down to This: A Novel (original 2022; edition 2022)by Therese Anne Fowler (Author)
Work InformationIt All Comes Down to This: A Novel by Therese Anne Fowler (2022)
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book is about three sisters dealing with the death of their mother. There was too much philosophical rumination and introspection from these women and not enough action. It got very boring at times. Everything was wrapped up neatly - and perhaps unrealistically - at the end. Not as good as some of the author's previous books. It All Comes Down to This is the story of three very different sisters who come together after their mother’s death. Beck is a freelance writer with kids and a seemingly happy marriage though she suspects her husband might be gay. Claire is a doctor in Duluth who was recently divorced by her husband and is navigating this new life with their child splitting time with her and his dad. Sophie is single and an influencer in the art world, traveling and living the high life, posting it all on social media, and glossing over the hard facts of her life. When their mother dies, they come together for the funeral. They love each other but distantly, separated not only by distance but by age and interests. Their mother wrote in her will that the family’s cabin in Maine had to be sold. Beck imagines going there to write, but Claire and Sophie just went to sell. Before they can do that, though, they have to spend a weekend there together. And that’s when a lot of truths come out. I was surprisingly disappointed in It All Comes Down to This. I loved Fowler’s A Good Neighborhood. I just think everything was a bit too pat. I know from her past books she can leave things unresolved, but she chose not to this time and that felt very wrong. I liked the people who felt well-developed at first. But it was just too neatly done. I also think the situation with Beck and Claire is not very credible. Not that I think two sisters cannot overcome what might feel like a betrayal, but overcoming it so quickly makes people feel emotionally shallow, as though they didn’t care. Sophie’s resolution felt too perfect. It all felt too nice. I received an e-galley of It All Comes Down to This from the publisher through NetGalley. It All Comes Down to This at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan Review of A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler Therese Anne Fowler https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2022/09/04/it-all-comes-down-to-this... no reviews | add a review
"Therese Anne Fowler's It All Comes Down to This is a warm, keenly perceptive novel of sisterhood, heartbreak, home, and what it takes to remake a life at its halfway point, for fans of Ann Patchett and Emma Straub. Meet the Geller sisters: Beck, Claire, and Sophie, a trio of strong-minded women whose pragmatic, widowed mother, Marti, will be dying soon and taking her secrets with her. Marti has ensured that her modest estate is easy for her family to deal with once she's gone--including a provision that the family's summer cottage on Mount Desert Island, Maine, must be sold, the proceeds split equally between the three girls. Beck, the eldest, is a freelance journalist whose marriage looks more like a sibling bond than a passionate partnership. In fact, her husband Paul is hiding a troubling truth about his love life. For Beck, the Maine cottage has been essential to her secret wish to write a novel--and to remake the terms of her relationship. Despite her accomplishments as a pediatric cardiologist, Claire, the middle daughter, has always felt like the Geller misfit. Recently divorced, Claire's secret unrequited love for the wrong man is slowly destroying her, and she's finding that her expertise on matters of the heart unfortunately doesn't extend to her own. Youngest daughter Sophie appears to live an Instagram-ready life, filled with glamorous work and travel, celebrities, fashion, art, and sex. In reality, her existence is a cash-strapped house of cards that may crash at any moment. Enter C.J. Reynolds, an enigmatic southerner ex-con with his own hidden past who complicates the situation. All is not what it seems, and everything is about to change"-- No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
Beck is an unhappily married freelance journalist married to Paul, an editor for 25 yrs with 2 adult children and a granddaughter. She has aspirations of writing a novel in the scenic Maine cottage. Claire is a pediatric cardiologist who is recently divorced but still holds a torch for an unrequited crush for years. Sophie is living the Instagram-ready life spending more money than she has to fit in with the glamorous, fashionable celebrities. She struggles to keep her IRS "irregularities" a secret. The Geller sister all seem to have drifted apart from each other and this reunion just adds stress to their already chaotic lives. They each have "secrets" or situations for which they feel embarrassed and try to present themselves as successful adults.
The façade is soon exposed when CJ Reynolds, a southern with a hidden past of his own, appears as the buyer of their family Mount Desert Island, Maine cottage. The sisters never expected their mother would want them to sell it when she died. It becomes more complicated when his relationship with one of the sisters is exposed. Again, the family need to share their secrets and lives in order to move forward and possibly reunite the family again. ( )