Good on Paper

Disappointing. The narrator is so self-absorbed that her journey of discovery and healing about her mother's abandonment never strikes the right chord given SHE ALSO HAS A DAUGHTER SHE IS NEGLECTING.

Also, just about every detail of NYC apartments felt inauthentic and unrealistic.

Meh. Might have enjoyed this more if I were an English Lit grad student - it had lots of literary allusions that I didn't quite understand. But even skimming over those parts, the main plot and characters didn't quite work for me. I guessed the Big Secret quickly and spent most of the book wondering how the heroine could be so clueless. Speaking of which, Shira was a difficult character to root for - way too self-centered considering she was the mother of a young daughter - and I couldn't see the appeal for Benny the bookstore owner/literary journal editor/intellectual rabbi who courts her. For all of its literary pretensions, the book's lessons come down to simply "forgive" and "take a chance on love."

Finally WARNING for any show more prospective readers who are also Cat Ladies - several cats die in a horrible manner. The tragedy brings Shira and Benny closer together, but I couldn't get past the image of the poor dead kitties. show less

The characters in this book were complex enough to be interesting, but overall the book left me wanting more