Delia Ephron

I love you dearly, Delia Ephron. But I’m re-naming your novel “White People Problems.”

I’ll be honest. Initially, I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be like. I’ve just finished two books where all the characters are objectively horrible people. I know this is more realistic and very hip and in right now, but aye-yai-yai, can we get a little more sunshine, please? Because really that’s the main draw to this book – everyone is more and more awful as the book progresses. show more But much like the proverbial train-wreck, you can’t look away. So while this is sometimes problematic for me (see: I can’t stand Game of Thrones because everyone is far worse than the last, and I need one person – just one individual – to be decent for fuck’s sake)giphy
I loved hating these characters. Much like an over-the-top reality show, the privileged people’s antics and seeing them learn their lessons is one of the most satisfying things I can think of. Think of your favorite reality show or TV drama, and this is it: sexy, scandalous, and ominous.

Siracusa is a story of a couples’ vacation – Lizzie & Michael are writers from New York, Lizzie is a journalist who is trying to find her writing voice again, and Michael, her husband, is a Pulitzer winning playwright who is trying and failing to write a novel. Lizzie invites her old boyfriend, now married and living in Maine, Finn, his high-maintenance wife Taylor, and their creepy ten-year-old daughter Snow. Lizzie suggests Rome, then Siracusa. Siracusa, as you might expect, is much less of a tourist destination than Rome is – a bit off the beaten path. For some, that’s part of its charm. For others… 😬 Not So Much. (It’s worth noting that I’d never want to spend any amount of time with any of these people, except for Lizzie who seems ‘ight.) Well… the thing about couples vacations – as my Mom always said, you can only stay with someone who isn’t your family for up to 3 days. Any longer and the charm wears thin.
Each chapter is narrated by a different adult, Round-Robin style, and… let’s just say everyone’s wrapped up tight in their own shit and call it a day, shall we? The kinda interesting thing about this story is that, because we have everyone’s mixed point of view, we get the perspective and the justifications for their behavior. Even if they are jerks, creeps, narcissists, and entitled control freaks, you may not like them, but you can at least understand where they’re coming from.
Lizzie is not only struggling to reignite her writing voice again, she’s trying to reignite her husband’s interest in her. Michael, similarly, is trying to finish (start?) his much-anticipated novel, but he’s distracted by a secret he’s hedging on telling his wife – trapped like a rat over it. Finn is a restauranteur and is using this trip to Italy as an excuse to imbibe in some of his vices, namely wine and smoking and ignoring his wife and daughter. Finn is, honestly, a shmuck – relatively harmless, but as I like to say “I’m so glad I’m not the one married to him.” His wife, Taylor, is equally as harmless but somehow a much worse person: entitled, controlling, and despicably shallow – she’s exactly the type of woman who does end up married to men like Finn in real life. She hates Lizzie; is probably jealous of the relationship she & Finn once had decades before. Taylor is devoted to her daughter Snow – Snow is her twin, except that she’s “painfully shy”… or manipulative? Snow is creepy. SHE’S obsessed with Michael – Taylor, who thinks Snow can do nothing wrong, is just charmed by Michael because he’s so great with her.

Honestly, this novel is a thrill – it starts off innocent enough, but goes from like a kiddie ride to a 20-storey cardiac arrest roller coaster. Y’all, I was not prepared. You grow up with Delia Ephron’s movies: You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, fucking Micheal – you think you understand her. You only think she’s a sweet lady who makes these quaint stories come to life, and you’ll rent them from Blockbuster to watch at a sleepover party with your friends from your softball team. You think she’s incapable of going dark. You guessed wrong. Delia, who are you? Who are you really? I understand artistic license, and that a good writer thrills at putting their characters through the wringer – but Delia? MY Delia?
So this book was way more soapy than my usual taste. Still really excellent, but not my usual preference. It wasn’t what I expected, and it’s a quick read with a lot happening. If you’re looking for something to read on vacation or while at the pool this summer, you might pick this one up. Just… don’t go on any couple vacations. You don’t know what will turn up.

review originally posted on my book blog found here show less

The lesson here is to never go on vacation with your ex-lover, his wife, and their daughter. And you're assh*le of a husband. That's my takeaway.

Ephron gives us two couples, four people so well-drawn with faults, weaknesses, quirks, and strengths that you quickly feel like you know them. You may not *want* to, because they are kind of loathsome, but they are very, very real. Each chapter is told in an alternating voice - all 4 adults get to tell the story, or a piece of it (maybe a show more perception of it?). The central character, though, is Snow, one couple's ten year old daughter, and she has no voice. At least not at first.

We follow these people for a few days in Rome and a few days in Siracusa, and we know almost right from the start that something goes wrong. We're just waiting for the train wreck, anticipating it, hoping and dreading it. The book was, for me, a compulsive read. Multiple narrator/POV books often are, but this one was especially good. I just loved the characterizations and interactions, and I appreciated Ephron's talent in giving each character a very strong and unique voice that made them equally compelling.

4.5 stars show less

Yes, I've seen and enjoyed both SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE and YOU'VE GOT MAIL, and both films were collaborations by the Ephron sisters, Nora and Delia. But up to now I'd only read a couple of Ephron books, one was sister Amy's novella, A CUP OF TEA (very good), and the other was Nora's essay collection, I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK (which I loved). There is also a fourth Ephron sister who writes, Hallie, but I've read nothing of hers.

And now there's this, Delia's essay collection, SISTER MOTHER show more HUSBAND DOG (ETC.). And I find Delia to be every bit as talented and funny as her older sister Nora, who died of leukemia in 2012. The truth is Delia writes a lot like Nora, displaying the same quirky sense of humor, probably the result not just of being sisters, but all those years of collaborating. The introductory essay, "Losing Nora," is equal parts funny and sad, remembering the good times as well as the sorrow of losing her big sister and co-conspirator in writing. The other pieces here are mostly very funny, although the ones in which she talks about her husband, Jerry, were, for this reader, tinged with the sadness of knowing that he died just a year after this collection was published.

For me, however, the centerpiece was "Why I Can't Write About My Mother." In it Delia tells us how her mother, always unconventional and career-minded (both the parents were very successful screenwriters and playwrights, who often collaborated), descended into alcoholism from when Delia was about eleven. In fact, both parents drank to excess, but Delia always felt at least some closeness to her father, while there was always a distance between her and her mother. This piece is NOT funny. It is not even remotely amusing. In fact it nearly broke my heart. It is that disturbing and that sad. But it is unmistakably in Delia's own voice. Here are a couple samples -

"I believe having an alcoholic parent is not only something to write about, but that there is an obligation to do it. Growing up as that child is lonely, isolating, confusing and damaging. There are lots of us ... Besides, I don't believe in protecting parents who drink ... Tell everyone. You might never get past it otherwise. The obligation of a child is not to protect their parents. Obviously. Obviously. A mom is supposed to protect her kids. Which doesn't happen when she drinks."

and -

"With me, she was never cozy or intimate. I never remember her hugging or kissing me ... One of her rules - your homework is your own problem. I will never get involved."

Enough said. Despite the heartbreaking, sad parts - or perhaps BECAUSE of them - I loved this book, for its humor, for its candor, for its honesty. Delia Ephron is a fine writer. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Two couples, both with rocky marriages, travel to Rome and Siracusa on a joint vacation. Michael and Lizzie live in New York City, while Finn and Taylor hail from Portland, Maine. There's also a 5th wheel on their Italian holiday - Snow, 10-year old daughter of Finn and Taylor, and a child I can only describe as peculiar. Actually, the whole group is odd, and downright unlikable, yet I couldn't put this book down. Lots of secrets, lies, and betrayal, and as each of these characters tells his show more or her side of the story, you have to wonder who's reliable and what it is all leading up to. There was always an ominous feeling that something bad was just around the corner. This was my first Delia Ephron novel, and I enjoyed her writing style very much. Complex, messed up characters and a nice build up of tension.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Penguin's First to Read Program. show less