Adelle Waldman

This is the first time I have read Adelle Waldman and I greatly enjoyed the book. The subject matter is one that needs to done more often. That is about the working poor in our country. The story takes place now and is in Potterstown New York which is a an upstate town that has seen better days. It used to have IBM but they left and now jobs etc are scarce. Town Square is a big retail Walmart type store that contains all the negative things we think of about modern big store retail. The employees of the "Movement" group which is a cute corporate name for logistics and a group of people just trying to keep their lives together. They are low wage non-union people that due to managements policy of keeping hours down to prevent overtime and having to pay benefits need food stamps, second jobs, and hopefully living in their parents spare rooms to make life go. There are adults with kids, ex-spouses, absent parents etc. All the negative things that can go wrong at this end of economic hierarchy are dealt with in the book. Waldman introduces the team and gives the reader a real look into this lives of people that have to deal with each day being a struggle. She does this with humor and insight. You really get to learn about life in this environment and how even a glimmer of hope is grabbed on to in order to get them through the day. This is a worthwhile read, both funny, sad, and educational. I will be sure to get her first novel and am glad to be introduced to this author.… (plus d'informations)

I found this story of New York writers offensive and boring. I did not appreciate Nathaniel's negative characteristics as being described as typically Jewish. I read the whole book expecting a surprise ending, which did not appear. I was guided by one reviewer who said she was not familiar with pop culture (nor am I), but the surprise ending made the experience worthwhile. I felt the final page was more of the tedious same. I was sorry to learn of the negative aspects of book publishing. The author obviously enjoyed her experience much more than this reader did.… (plus d'informations)

Nostalgia is a powerful force. I say this by way of preface to my review of this book because I am not able to say with any certainty how much of my positive reaction to this book is based on nostalgia and how much is solely based on the book individually, but in the end I don’t really care. I really enjoyed this book a lot, way more than I expected to. It reminded me of a bunch of books I read back in the late 80’s and early 90’s (hence the nostalgia warning) by authors like Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInnerney, and Tama Janowitz about not entirely (or even marginally) likeable characters, usually living in NYC, and often in the publishing industry. I especially devoured those when I lived in NYC in the early 90’s.

This book had that feel and tone but had it in a fresh, new, and up to date way. I do not read fiction to read only about nice people who act PERFECTLY and do nice things (it’s nice to be nice to the nice!). I read fiction to be immersed in characters, situations, and plot, and this book did that wonderfully. Yes, the narrator is a somewhat immature 30-something who (gasp) does not treat the women in his life as well as one might want. However, I didn’t find him nearly as objectionable or horrible and advance chatter lead me to expect. I would say that if one looks at the women in this book and then wrote from their point of view, they would not come off all that much better. This is a book about flawed people folks, in other words realistic human beings.

I thought that all the characters were nuanced and well rounded, the scene was set very well, even though it has been 20 years now since I lived in NYC I was able to understand and visualize where the action was taking place. The story isn’t one that covers a lot of ground, but to me that is integral to the feeling of the book. The characters, especially Nathaniel P., are somewhat aimless and still figuring it out. I can identify with that!

Anyway, my review is my review. To me, this was easily a five star book and my final conclusion is that this is based on the book, not just on the nostalgia value. If you get incensed at people behaving like people in your books and not being perfect, then you should probably avoid it and read some Disney book.… (plus d'informations)