Anna Quindlen

I love Quindlen's easy style, which reads as if you are sitting in her kitchen listening to a friend tell you a story. She weaves the everyday and the extraordinary into one package and makes us believe that this not only happened to someone, but that it could happen to any of us.

Her characters are strong and real. Mary Beth particularly has many dimensions and faces her life with all the mixtures of joy, angst, worry and indifference that I each of us does. Some of what is wonderful about show more her life she only sees in hindsight and some of what is frightening she chooses to ignore and hopes to pretend out of existence.

It is difficult to write the kind of review I would like to without giving away more of this story than would be fair to those who have not yet read it. I will say that Anna Quindlen is a remarkable writer who never includes the tiniest element in her story without infusing it with meaning. show less

The title of this beautifully written book says it all. When 37-year-old Annie dies suddenly, her husband, four children and best friend are forced to move on without their anchor. Her daughter, Ali, is 13 and takes on responsibility for her three brothers without her mom to guide her through the changes of adolescence and her loss. Annie's husband, Bill, struggles to keep his memories of Annie, his one true love, alive as he struggles with everyday life. Annemarie, Annie's lifelong best show more friend, is challenged to manage her drug addiction with daily reminders of all she learned from Annie's wisdom and love. Their grief collectively and individually is palpable and powerful in this novel that demonstrates the redemptive power of family and memories. show less

Anna Quindlen always hits the right notes for me. Her quiet voice is comforting even as it speaks to everyday joys and sorrows. This book is a love story of NYC seen through the prism of those who can afford to live well there and it is the slow unwinding of a good marriage over time Quindlen reveals her characters gradually right to the last page. When you have finished, you have a full view of those you have lived with throughout the book. There is very little action in this book beyond show more the everyday, but the relationships that her characters build tell the story of a lifetime. show less

This novel moved me because of how poignantly and subtly it captures family tragedy. But I came to care about this novel for its principles. In a time when relativism is all the rage in highbrow culture, I wish more modern fiction had the guts to be this honest. It nakedly captures the distance between what we overvalue and what we should value. Yet it never feels high-handed. No small feat.