The Generosity of Women

February 9, 2009
Eldridge's first novel (after the collection Unkempt
) grinds its sparse plot into the ground by revisiting the same incidents over and over again from the points of view of six women. Joyce, “one of New York's most successful and controversial art dealers,” and Bobbie, a gynecologist who sometimes performs abortions, have been friends since college. But their friendship is sorely tested by the events of one long weekend when Bobbie's adopted daughter, Adela, arrives in New York to meet Paul, her mother's new boyfriend, and to reveal some secrets of her own. At the same time, new mother Lisa, one of Joyce's former assistants, helps her older sister, Lynne, after Lynne's teenage daughter, Jordan, goes to Bobbie for an abortion. The rotating first-person narration underscores the characters' profound narcissism, but the gaggle of voices becomes tiresome as it moves among the women's self-centered ruminations and justifications of their questionable behavior. The way Eldridge obscures the story's critical details until the waning pages feels manipulative, while how she repeatedly explores the periphery of a few key events is, at best, tedious.

May 1, 2009
Short-story author Eldridge (Unkempt, 2005) gives distinctive voice to six very different characters in her challenging debut novel.

Joyce is a curator whose abrasive personality is a perfect match for her provocative art shows. Elegant, beautiful Bobbie, her first-year roommate at Barnard, is now a gynecologist and still Joyce's best friend. Bobbie's patient Lisa, Joyce's aggrieved ex-assistant, is adjusting to life as a banker's wife, mother and reformed bad girl. Lisa's sister Lynne is her temperamental opposite. Lynne's teenage daughter Jordan, who has always been fascinated by her aunt's wild ways, is now in trouble herself. Then there's Adela, Bobbie's adopted daughter and Joyce's goddaughter, a young woman whose close relationship with her mother might not survive a big revelation. Each character has a story to tell, and it's not entirely easy to keep track of these intersecting first-person narratives. Eldridge does not use any typological signs to designate dialogue, and she employs an elliptical style that forces the reader to approach each woman's story from the outside. It takes a while to fully grasp the various overlapping conflicts that compel the plot, but readers willing to do the work will be rewarded with a rich, emotionally and intellectually engaging experience. Eldridge's craft enhances the verisimilitude—quotation marks and long passages of exposition tend not to occur in real life—and there's something exciting about a book that combines technical daring with concerns generally relegated to the nongenre known as"women's fiction." The author takes her characters seriously, she takes her work seriously, and she takes her audience seriously too.

Brave and accomplished.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2009
Eldridge ("Unkempt: Stories") carves up the sacred cows of women's experience and leaves the bloody corpses on the slaughterhouse floor for readers to view. Marriage and motherhood take the most punishing blows, but career ambitions and the ever-complicated roles of friend, daughter, and lover are up for dissection as well in this juicy, messy romp through the lives of six middle-class women who struggle to define and articulate their identities and desires. Readers who appreciate vivid characterization will find figures like feisty, foul-mouthed Joyce and her best friend, the ever-so-perfect yet slowly crumbling Bobbie, impossible to forget. The writing style is episodic and fluid, moving freely through time, and designed to appeal to those readers who prefer to have key plot points and relationships revealed gradually. However, the fan of the "problem novel" will benefit most here, as Eldridge forces her readers to take a good, hard look at family planning from every possible angle, not just the ones they might personally agree with. Visceral and stunning.Leigh Anne Vrabel, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
Six women tell their interconnected stories, in their own voices. At first, the snippets come too quickly to keep track of the different characters, but as the book progresses, each character becomes clear and her story compelling. Joyce and Bobbie are lifelong best friends and dedicated professionals. Their friendship and Bobbiesob-gyn practice stand at the hub of the storys wheel. When Bobbies daughter, Adela, confesses to an almost unforgivable transgression, the women must struggle to keep their friendship and their relationship with Adela. Meanwhile, perfect suburban mom Lynnes facade is slowly cracking as her teenage daughter Jordan struggles with her own identity. Lynnes once-wayward sister, now a new mom, ties the two plotlines together. Giving each woman her own voice has some mixed results. For example, Lynne and Lisa are clearly defined, but Jordans teenspeak quickly wears thin. Still, most readers will find someone to identify with in this perfect book-club read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)