Saturn's Return to New York

Loved it. Beautifully rendered relationships and perhaps the truest rendering of modern New York I've read.

Anyone who loves NYC would probably get a kick out of this book. I give it 4 stars because there were so many moments that I really enjoyed, where it really engaged me or where it called to mind my relationship with my mother, or my family's New York. And though the mother/daughter relationship was quite different from my own experience in many ways, there were many similarities, too. I think this is Gran's debut novel, but haven't checked it out thoroughly.

Things I liked about this book:

1. Descriptions of New York City. My bet is that if I went looking, I'd find most of the places or find that the old spots did exist -- even the leather store on Christopher Street.

2. The New Yorkers in the book were true New Yorkers -- not the NYC show more people that seem to populate chick lit (which I wouldn't call this book). Near chick lit, maybe but not chick lit.

3. Even though there's a magazine editor involved, it's a magazine of substance (literary review) vs fashion.

4. Beautiful portrayal of Evelyn, (the mother), both in back-story and in present, living with illness.

5. Correct interpretations of astrological practice, straight from the get-go. In astrology, the 29th year is recognized as significant and as the year you become an adult. Mary's path to adult-hood was one that was realistic, and probably would only be recognized in hindsight. She grew as a character, but still carried some of her foibles with her (hence the last scene in the book.)

6. Depiction of mother-daughter relationship. I appreciated it was not perfect, but that it continued to grow and develop, mostly as Evelyn stayed steady and Mary really became an adult.

7. The loss, love and loyalty that was woven through the plot.

8. Mary recognizing she had caught the "the" disease when they went back to Brooklyn: "She died because she had the congenital heart."

9. Description of living with memory loss.

10. Relationships (and characters) were not tied up with pretty bows, but were real, with their ups and downs.

What I didn't like:

The abruptness of the ending. It took us time to get into Mary's world -- I felt the author just dumped us out on the sidewalk very abruptly at the end. I do promise to go back and read the last bit again and see if I change my mind. show less

A daughter deals with her mother's illness and life as a young single woman in New York. Sara Gran's novels are compelling and as with her others, you won't want to put it down. Intelligent literature is always welcome.