The Ramblers

I used to race through walks, treating them as a purely exercise related thing. The older I get though, the more I ramble instead. Now when I walk outside, I am slower. I notice the budding trees. I appreciate the light, delicate birds that fly across my path. I stand and stare at the deer I come across so as not to startle them into running off. And while this all sounds idyllic, I also see the dog poop that no one has bothered to pick up. I notice the bits of trash and detritus that have blown out of garbage cans. I startle over snakes or small dead critters. I swat at mosquitoes. But these latter things do not take away from the beauty of the former. They are a part of the whole but they are not the whole. So when I ramble through show more nature and life, I can focus on the less pleasant experiences and allow them to drive me inside my house of my shell, or I can accept them as part of the makeup of a generally pretty wonderful experience. In Aidan Donnelley Rowley's beautiful novel, The Ramblers, her characters are learning to experience the whole of everything without letting the unpalatable or scary overwhelm the amazing, promising parts of their lives. Each has faced a loss that continues to mark them and to direct their reactions until they understand that the beauty of life is in the living of it, the opening up to experience, and the courage to risk your heart. As they ramble through this ode to New York City and their own lives, they discover that they may not be following the map they once planned for, but because of that they are finding that most wonderful thing of all: unexpected joy.

Clio is a respected ornithologist who also takes groups on bird watching walks through the Ramble in Central Park. After one of her walks, she met older, handsome hotelier Henry. The two seemed perfect for each other. Both are workaholics and neither are looking for marriage and family. Until Henry changes his mind and wants to build a shared life with Clio. But Clio hasn't been entirely truthful with Henry and her secret, the reason she doesn't want to commit, may scare Henry off. She can't decide if telling him or walking away from him would be worse. As she grapples with her fears, her roommate Smith is having to look head on at her own loss. Her younger sister is getting married and every aspect of the wedding reminds Smith of the ex-fiance she still loves. When she hears how he has moved on in his life, she is devastated. Couple that with the fact that she sees Clio on the cusp of a huge, potentially life changing decision and the fact that Smith is still living in the same building as her parents, still just a part of her extremely wealthy family rather than an individual standing on her own two feet (even her very successful organizing, life coach business was started with seed money from her father despite his disapproval), and she is feeling left behind and lonely. Tate, a fellow classmate of both Clio and Smith's at Yale, is back in New York and hurting. He developed and sold an app for a lot of money but that success didn't stop his wife from leaving him. So he's come back to the East Coast in order to pursue his love of photography, something that took a backseat to business for too long.

The novel is narrated from each of the three main characters' perspectives, showing their innermost fears and what holds each of them back. They are all complex and real feeling with distinctive voices. Clio, Smith, and Tate are all privileged but their problems are universal and they, as characters, are sympathetic despite their privilege. The novel is intimate feeling but with a satisfying depth to it. Rowley details mental illness and its toll delicately and respectfully. And she writes with an engaging, smooth adeptness that keeps the reader invested in each of these broken but healable people. This is a novel of loss and acceptance, fear and love, friendship and possibility, and it celebrates the power of finding joy in the small things around us, opening our hearts to trust, and the happy surprise of finding the unexpected. It was a delightful read. show less

4.5 stars.

Thanksgiving week proves to be eventful and life altering for the main characters in Aidan Donnelley Rowley's delightfully engaging novel, The Ramblers.

Clio Marsh is stunned when her boyfriend of six months, hotelier Henry Kildare, surprises her with an invitation to move in with him. Never having been in a serious relationship, her feelings for Henry run deep, but the realization their romance is more than just a fling highlights her inability to tell him about her dysfunctional past. Having let him intentionally misunderstand the cause of her mother's death, Clio panics at the thought of revealing her family's history with mental illness to him. She is also trying to navigate her troubled relationship with her father and show more when she learns he has sold the family home, Clio spends one last Thanksgiving with him and at the same time, makes peace with the ghosts of her past.

Clio's roommate and long time friend Smith Anderson has also had a difficult year after her fiancé inexplicably ended their engagement the previous Thanksgiving. Without warning or explanation, he broke things off and much to her dismay, married another woman not long after breaking her heart. Her heartache was further exacerbated by her younger sister's engagement and while Smith is happy for the couple, she cannot help feeling envious as she helps plan for the upcoming wedding. At the same time, she is still trying to prove to her wealthy father that her personal organization business is not a waste of her talents or education and that she is completely happy with her career path.

Smith's path unexpectedly crosses with one of her and Clio's former college classmates, Tate Pennington, who has newly returned to New York following the collapse of his marriage. At loose ends as he waits for his divorce to become final, Tate has recently sold his wildly successful PhotoPoet app to Twitter and now wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, he is pursuing his dream of becoming a photographer. Drinking a little too much as he tries to get over his soon to ex-wife and figure out what comes next for him, Tate is surprised by his attraction to Smith but are either of them emotionally ready for a new relationship?

Told through alternating chapters from each of the characters' perspectives, their individual stories spring vividly to life as they try to find their way through the unexpected changes in their lives. Smith and Clio's friendship has flourished over the years and they provide one another with unwavering support and offer valuable insight as they work through their individual issues. While Tate has his own group of acquaintances he interacts with socially, his new friendship with Smith helps him begin to truly move forward with the new life he is building in New York.

The Ramblers is an engrossing novel of family, friendship and love. Each of the characters are vibrantly developed with easy to relate to problems to overcome. Aidan Donnelley Rowley does an outstanding job weaving together the various storylines into a breathtaking journey of healing for Clio, Smith and Tate. An outstanding novel that I absolutely loved and highly recommend to readers of literary fiction. show less

The Ramblers was my favorite reading experience of 2016 so far (as of February).

Clio Marsh, Smith Anderson, and Tate Pennington were all classmates at Yale. Clio and Smith have been roommates for well over a decade–first in college, then in an apartment in the famed high-rise near Central Park where Smith’s family lives, and from which she runs The Order of Things, her personal-organizing business. Since earning her doctorate in ornithology at Columbia, Clio has worked as a curator at the Museum of Natural History and leads weekend bird-watching walks through the Ramble in Central Park. Tate wasn’t really on either woman’s radar back in their university days, but he’s recently returned to the East Coast after selling the photo show more app he developed with a college friend, and after he and Smith encounter each other at a Yale tailgate party one November weekend, they’re both on each other’s.

But both Smith and Tate are in relationship recovery mode–she’s still coping with the emotional fallout of a broken engagement as she prepares for her sister’s wedding, and his divorce isn’t exactly final yet. Clio’s got her own fallout to sort through. Her recent panic attack at the prospect of moving in with her boyfriend is the legacy of a lifetime of anxiety in dealing with her bipolar mother, who committed suicide a year earlier…and she has yet to tell Henry about any of it.

The preppy character names and Ivy League references might be a little off-putting to some readers–I’ll admit they made even me a little nervous, and fiction about privileged New Yorkers is literary catnip for me. But the people Donnelley depicts in The Ramblers are so much more than “privileged New Yorkers,” They’re struggling with complicated emotions and big, life-affecting choices. Their relationships both challenge and strengthen them, and the characters’ interactions and conversations ring true to life (well, mostly–Smith’s father is a bit of a caricature, but I get the feeling that was intentional on the author’s part).

The Ramblers was an engrossing and highly satisfying novel–fun, thoughtful, and not afraid to go deep.

MORE: https://3rsblog.com/2016/02/book-talk-ramblers-aidan-donnelley-rowley.html show less

As readers, we’re all looking for that magic.

The spark. The recognition. The connection. Whatever the special ingredient is that pulls us close, that makes it impossible to let go of a story and its characters . . . well, Aidan Donnelley Rowley’s THE RAMBLERS has it.

Set over the course of one autumn week in New York City, THE RAMBLERS tells the stories of Clio Marsh and Smith Anderson — longtime best friends both set adrift by lovers, family and circumstances, clinging to each other through life’s changes before finally realizing they’re ready to inch into whatever comes next.

Smith and Clio are flawed. They’re struggling. Leaving her roots with a mentally ill mother and distant father, Clio is now a successful ornithologist show more who also leads bird walks through Central Park in New York City. Smith is Clio’s college cohort, a life organizer — a fixer — who grew up in a blue-blood family . . . but her advantages come with many costs.

Clio is in love with Henry, a hotelier who desperately wants her to move forward — and in — with him; Smith is still smarting from the cataclysmic break-up of her engagement to a doctor her father didn’t deem “suitable.” Clio believes it’s time to confront her grief at her mother’s recent death, but it’s actually her life — their shared lives, disrupted and distorted — that she’s mourning. And Smith has to learn how to snap the gilded strings her parents wrapped around her wrists . . . just in time to attend her younger sister’s wedding.

Here’s the thing about Rowley: her writing is gorgeous, lyrical, intentional. Each word is carefully selected; nothing is left to chance. This could come across as stilted, even condescending — but it doesn’t. The result is a novel of fully-formed characters that endear and irritate. They make an impression.

Described in the publisher copy as a “love letter to New York City,” the setting certainly has a starring role. I knew nothing about the Ramble before diving in, but found myself picturing it beautifully as we moved along. I actually didn’t do any research until after I’d finished; I wanted to save my own mental pictures. They were pretty accurate, it turns out: the Ramble is a 36-acre “‘wild garden'” within Central Park where more than 40 species of birds perch year-round.

This is a love story, but not necessarily in a traditional sense. Though it gets steamy, even sexy, this is really a modern story of two women choosing to unshackle themselves from the past — and prior selves. There is growth, and when you finish? You feel like you’ve really gone somewhere. You’ve arrived.

Fans of thoughtful fiction, lush New York settings and lyrical writing will find much to adore in THE RAMBLERS. There is much more I could discuss, but it’s a novel best enjoyed on its own merits. And after adoring Rowley’s first work so much? Well, it was more than worth the wait. show less

The Short of It:

Rambling through life, two friends attempt to forget about the past with glorious New York as the backdrop.

The Rest of It:

Clio and Smith are two close friends from college. Like sisters, they’ve relied upon one another and have experienced both the good and bad that life has to offer. Now, successful and doing pretty well on their own, they’ve each found love and but no matter how comforting the idea of “love” is, they are guarded because of past hurts.

Everyone is reading this book right now and I’ll tell you why. Mostly, because of the glorious New York setting which doesn’t really get going until the last half of the novel but once you get to it, you can’t help but fall in love with the city. The other show more reason for its popularity, is that it’s a love story cushioned in-between some heavier issues such as mental illness. It’s not fluffy and light but I will admit that the first half had me doubting this. You really need to push through that first half to get to the good stuff.

What I liked a lot, is how the author made Clio and Smith the focus of the story and not the men in their lives. This gives them an independent edge which I think is missing in a lot of stories where love is the central focus. These two women have experienced loss and although hurt, they are cautious and yes, hopeful that there is something better just around the corner.

Final thoughts? The first half and the second half could have been more balanced, but if you stay with it, I think you will find it to be an enjoyable read.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelley Rowley is a recommended novel about three successful Yale alumni in their 30's experiencing angst in NYC. All the action takes place during one Thanksgiving week.

Clio Marsh is an ornithologist who works at the Museum of Natural History. A story about her weekly bird-watching walks through the Central Park Ramble is featured in New York Magazine opens up the novel. She is torn about having a committed relationship with 50 year-old hotel magnate Henry Kildare, a man who adores her. Clio feels unable to share information about her back ground and her mother with Henry.

Clio's best friend, Smith Anderson, comes from a wealthy, privileged background. Her parents, Bitsy and Thatcher not only have provided her show more with a million dollar apartment (that Clio stays in too), they have financed Smith's venture into her own business. She is recovering from her recently broken engagement to a doctor and is trying to pull herself together, with the help of a phone-in life coach, in time for her younger sister's impending wedding.

Tate Pennington has just sold his app PhotoPoet for millions of dollars to Twitter and is right in the middle of a divorce. He has returned to NYC from the west coast and just happens to run into Smith. Tate is at loose ends with no job, but more than enough money. He and Smith are attracted to each other immediately.

Rowley's novel is well written and includes bits of extra information about the characters (articles, papers, etc.) or epigraphs of people the characters revere, that add some interest. The setting is all Manhattan, from the Upper West Side, to Central Park, to Greenwich Village, and drops plenty of names of landmarks along the way for those familiar with NYC. The issues these characters are dealing with are nothing rare or earth shattering, but Rowley explores how these individuals are coping with their particular problems during this one week.

First, I will have to admit that I was expecting a totally different kind of book than the one I read, which puts me in a bit of a quandary. Rowley is an excellent writer and she did explore these characters and capture their feelings. However, I didn't enjoy this book and experienced more than my fair share of eye rolling at these angsty overly privileged characters and their whining. There, I've said it. Clio is all nervous because she's afraid to tell her billionaire boyfriend who just created a penthouse apartment for them in his brand new hotel that her mother was bi-polar. What is this - the 1950's? No? Then if you love him tell him. There is medication should you have the same problem in the future. Smith broke up with her fiancée and now her little sister, the doctor, is getting married. Goodness, no wonder you can't recover from that blow without the help of your call-in life coach. And poor Tate (figuratively speaking, literally he's loaded) is just looking for meaning and love in his life.

Concerning my rating, The Ramblers is recommended based on the writing and Rowley's ability to tell a story. Personally, it may not be a novel I would chose, but it is a very well written novel and very likely geared toward a (much) younger demographic than the one I represent. I guess I'm just too old to work up a lot of empathy for the problems these young adults are experiencing without wanting to tell them to just snap out of it. And don't get me started on their names.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes. show less

Clio is finally happy. She has Henry, an older, loving, hotel entrepreneur who adores Clio. She has a career as an ornithologist fulfills her. And she has friends who love her. Her life wasn't always like this. She felt invisible and vulnerable for a long time. She harbors a secret from Henry that she worries will come out. If he sees her for who she really is will he accept her or run away?

Smith does her best not to lose it. She can't help but feel overwhelmed and envious of her little sister's wedding when that should have been her a year ago. Although still dealing with her broken heart she still tries to be the perfect daughter. In reality, she feels she could never be that person and it weighs on her. Then comes along Tate who is show more going through a divorce. He went to Yale with her but they never really spoke to each other. All of a sudden she's revealing a hidden secret only her best friend Clio knows. Why she has opened up to him she doesn't know. All she hopes is that she won't be left broken hearted once again.

The Ramblers is a three person POV. I know some people don't tend to like books with multiple POV's but I love them especially if they work as well as The Ramblers. I really liked Clio more than any of the other characters just because I felt I could empathize with her more emotionally. Her mother was dealing with a mental illness all of her life and it wasn't really addressed within the family. Her father is a quiet sort of man and they have been strained since her mother died a year ago. When Clio described what it was like to live with her mother I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. It's really hard seeing a parent go through something and not understanding what's happening until you are older. Her story gave a glimpse of what it was like to have a parent with a mental illness and how it affects everyone around them.

Clio was genuine and kind. She was so afraid too. Afraid that she would lose a guy she never thought she could love so much. I understood her hesitancy and found her story to be very rewarding. Her best friend Smith, on the other hand, took me a moment to warm up to. I just didn't like that she was clearly jealous of her sister. When I found out the details of what happened with her ex then I really started to understand and appreciate her. I mean it does really suck to have family members think that the person you loved for so long really didn't mean anything. Her father particularly drove me nuts with his rudeness towards Smith's former relationship. He also wasn't very nice about her career aspirations. He's that typical rich guy who frowns on those who have less than him or don't 100% agree with him. So I could understand why Smith felt lost and couldn't really see her worth at times.

Tate is that oh so special guy that Smith opens up to. Tate's divorce is pretty difficult on him but then through all of that he finds Smith. He never wanted to get into a relationship so fast but with Smith, it feels different. He can't figure her out and she's so beautiful because of that. I liked that he was not like Smith's father at all. Basically, that was the standard he had to pass after I met her father and he succeeded in that.

There's one minor thing that I didn't think was particularly necessary which was all the sexual moments that were kind of crude to me but other readers might enjoy that aspect. Otherwise, I enjoyed how each story came together. I enjoyed getting to know Clio, Smith, and Tate and seeing where their journey took them. I'm really happy with how everything turned out and kind of wish I had a glimpse of their future to see how they are all doing. show less