Marie Aubert

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Exhilarating, funny, and unexpectedly devastating, Grown Ups is for anyone who has ever felt the fear of being overtaken by a sibling, who feels almost—but not quite—grown up, and who's struggled to navigate a new future for themselves.

Ida is a forty-year-old architect, single and starting to panic. She's navigating Tinder and contemplating freezing her eggs, terrified that time has passed her by, silently, without her ever realising it.

All she show more sees are other people's children, everywhere.

Now stuck in the idyllic Norwegian countryside for a gathering to mark her mother's sixty-fifth birthday, Ida is regressing. She's fighting with her younger sister, Marthe, and flirting with her sister's husband. But when some supposedly wonderful news from Marthe heightens tensions further, Ida is forced to mark out new milestones of her own.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: It's sharp, pointed, honest and not a little discomfiting:

I hadn’t believed it, not really. My friends have all overtaken me, each and every one of them, but now Marthe too, somewhere inside I had always believed that nothing would come of it, that things wouldn’t ever change, that Marthe would always be there in need of consolation, that she wouldn’t ever overtake me. She can’t overtake me.

Ida's forty, single, in the part of life where nearly everyone asks themselves "Is this it? if it is, am I okay with that?" Ida, like so many unhappy people, answers no. That leads her to behave reprehensibly, to exact a revenge (for Life Being Unfair) on the people she resents. Spoiler: they deserve it. A mordantly amusing midlife crisis novel that's too bleak to be a real comedy.

Pushkin Press needs you to fork over $9.99 for an ebook. Pretty grim, but the right mood.... show less

Sisters Ida and Marthe have planned to spend some days together at their cabin close to the sea where they will be joined by their mother and her partner. Ida is reluctant to go there, with her 40th birthday only a couple of weeks ago and still no father for prospective children in view, she knows that her window of becoming a mother is getting closer and closer. This is why she decided to freeze some of her eggs. Yet, it does not hinder her from negative feelings towards Marthe who, now show more pregnant and stepmother of beautiful 6-year-old Olea, seems – as always – to get everything she wants. Hard feelings accompany Ida and slowly turn their holiday together into a catastrophe.

I totally enjoyed Marie Aubert’s novel as I could easily sympathise with her narrator and protagonist. Additionally, there is some fine irony and humour in the text which make it a great read. The relationship between sisters quite often is all but easy and even as grown-ups, hard feelings and emotional injuries from the childhood can sit deep and hinder them from ever having a healthy bond.

Ida obviously is envious, her sister not only has a living husband but also a lovely stepdaughter and she’s pregnant. Even though Ida is a successful architect, she has never managed to establish a functioning relationship with a partner and feels lonely and somehow failed in life. Always being second, this is how she has grown up, no matter which achievements she reached, there was always Marthe who was ill and thus spoilt those rare moments of joy for Ida. Their mother does not seem to be aware of the difference she makes between the girls – yet, one has also to take into account that we only get Ida’s point of view which quite naturally is not only limited but highly biased.

“It’s not right That it should be so easy for others and so hard for me, I don’t get it, if there’s some sort of formula, a code that others know about, one they’ve known since they were young but which I’ve never quite grasped.”

Ida gets worked up about her sister and is willing to destroy her sister’s life when she is drunk one evening. This is rather tragic to observe and Ida turns into a pitiable character who does not realise that she will be even lonelier if she loses these last persons around her. She is aware of this but cannot act differently.

Marie Aubert’s debut is elegantly narrated, yet, the story leaves you with mixed feelings. It is joyful at times but the dysfunctional family is also an emotional challenge. show less

Dieser Roman war wirklich hart zu lesen. Eine Familie trifft sich zur Feier des 65. Geburtstags der Mutter in ihrem Sommerhaus. Die beiden Töchter sind sehr verschieden und haben seit ihrer Kindheit nicht aufgearbeitete Konflikte miteinander. Beide haben einen starken Kinderwunsch, allerdings ist Ida Single, während Marthe verheiratet ist und eine Stieftochter hat. Ida muss sich langsam der Tatsache stellen, dass sie wahrscheinlich kinderlos bleibt, während Marthe auf dem Treffen show more verkündet, dass sie schwanger ist.

Der Leser darf hier ein kompliziertes Netz familiärer Beziehungen beobachten. Ida ist neidisch auf Marthe und verbittert, weil diese in ihren Augen immer mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommen hat; tatsächlich scheint Marthe ihre chronische Krankheit auszunutzen, um ihren Willen durchzusetzen. Marthe ist auch nicht zufrieden mit ihrem Leben, weil sich die Beziehung zu ihrer Stieftochter kompliziert gestaltet; außerdem gibt es unausgesprochene Konflikte mit ihrem Ehemann. Die Mutter hat kürzlich noch einmal einen Mann lieben gelernt, mit dem sich die Kinder nicht besonders gut verstehen.

Der Roman ist aus Idas Sicht erzählt, sodass der Fokus auf ihren negativen Gefühlen und bösen und kleinlichen Gedanken liegt; allerdings lässt sich gut erkennen, dass auch Marthe kein Unschuldslamm ist und ihre Krankheit durchaus zu ihrem Vorteil ausspielt. Wirklich sympathisch kommt eigentlich nur die 8jährige Stieftochter von Marthe rüber. show less

Ida es arquitecta, no tiene hijos y está en su mejor momento, pero últimamente las señales de advertencia se han vuelto cada vez más diferentes para ignorarlas. Para estar segura, ha explorado las posibilidades de congelar sus óvulos para su uso posterior, en caso de que conozca al hombre adecuado. Ahora está aquí el verano, e Ida va en un autobús rumbo al sur hacia la idílica cabaña familiar junto al mar, donde su madre celebrará su 65 cumpleaños con su pequeña familia. Todo show more parece preparado para un fin de semana de verano perfecto, pero luego Marthe, la hermana menor de Ida, da una maravillosa noticia. Adultos es un relato estimulante, divertido e inesperadamente devastador sobre una familia moderna disfuncional. show less