Shari Goldhagen

Anybody can write a book about four characters and their interactions over a twenty year period. But Shari Goldhagen, a new-to-me author, manages to create four beautifully flawed but sympathetic individuals who weave in and out of each others' lives in ways that are often coincidental but always moving. I knew I was hooked when one of the female characters was making decisions that would lead her to meet up with either one of the male characters or the other, and I felt like I was reading a show more suspense novel, the kind that keeps you turning pages while holding your breath and yelling at the characters "don't open that door!" The author emphasizes large and small decisions we make every day that can change our lives in innumerable ways, and reminds us that every choice we make in a relationship to hold back or let angry words stand between us can have devastating consequences. Highly recommended. show less

What a coincidence - I just finished "Station Eleven" before starting "In Some Other World, Maybe" and they both focus on graphic novels interweaving the plot which involves quite a number of protagonists. "Station Eleven" focus more on the apocalyptic setting which is echoed in its' graphic novel while ISOWM focuses more on the possible, parallel worlds the characters could have chosen by their actions which also echoes the parallel world shifting that is a feature of its' graphic novel.

The show more nature of contemplating what other possibilities the characters face sometimes is grating and repetitious. The plot covers 30 years from the release of the film version of the graphic novel to its' anniversary and there are several epoch marking events along the way. The authors of both of the novels I believe are younger and the best characters are young in both. This novel has quite a bit of the contemporary entertainment world flavor-of-the-week, cable series stars, Hollywood scene and has a shallow feel to it, which I guess is appropriate. To me, there was a bit too much melodrama, soap opera quality to the ending but I was satisfied to keep readling. show less

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. It's one of the types of story lines that I tend to really like and it's particularly well done. A disparate group of characters are portrayed starting in late adolescence into their late thirties. They are connected in various ways, and we see their lives intersect as the few plot lines evolve. The concept is similar to Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings and a few other books I have read over the years. What pushed this show more one into a relatively rare 5 star rating for me is that I found myself really liking the characters -- despite all of their flaws and obvious blind spots -- and also enjoying their various stories and how they were connected. And the writing was lovely -- simple but elegant with its occasional clever repetitions, 2nd person narrative and reliance on the link to the Star Wars like movie all characters had seen--or not seen--in the opening chapter. I had the luxury of being able to read this book in a day while spending much time in airplanes and airports, and it was a great way to enjoy a book I would have had trouble putting down. Highly recommended for anyone who likes books in this genre. show less

I reckon this is a pretty good piece of writing. OK, its context is very much middle class America in modern times, and it doesn't attempt to say anything about any other situation, so that might be seen by some as a limitation. Not me though - I'm happy to do my own extrapolation - and besides, my world is very much middle class and not very far from American in terms of values. It seems to me that the book has two goals: to paint a picture of the relationship between two brothers; and to show more say something about the reality of marriage-type relationships. I don't know about the brothers bit - my brother and I don't relate like Goldhagen's brothers, and I don't know any other men well enough to know how they relate to their siblings. But the general description of the relationship issues is entirely believable to me. Goldhagen describes marriage-type relationships which are imperfect from the start; which break up incompletely; in which sex plays an important but very confusing part; and which tend to be patterned from parent to child. That's pretty accurate to me and reading her description does help me reflect on my own life (which is, after all, why I read fiction). show less