Separate Beds

June 27, 2011
Buchan's novel about a family unraveling, then putting itself back together, has mixed results on audio. The dramatic scenes that move the plot forward are very effective: Tom painfully revealing to Annie that he's lost his job and, later, that he lost thousands in the stock market; Jocasta abandoning Jake and their baby; Emily finding long-lost sister Mia. But the many long, wordy sections in which backstory is exhaustively explained, or in which Annie repeatedly ponders her relationship with Tom, become tedious. This is one audiobook that could have benefited from judicious abridging to tighten it up. On the positive side, Sarah Le Fevre is an able narrator; she voices the characters with emotion and empathy, and creates distinctive voices, particularly for sharp-tonged Jocasta and quavery, elderly Hermione. A Viking hardcover.

October 1, 2010

The already iffy equilibrium of a couple in mid-marriage distress comes under new pressures when the British economy crashes in Buchan's good-natured domestic dramedy (Wives Behaving Badly, 2006, etc.).

Although 40-something Londoners Annie and Tom have slept in separate bedrooms ever since their daughter Mia stormed out five years ago never to return, they maintain the façade of a comfortable marriage. Then comes the recession. Tom, who has always put career before family involvement, loses his prestigious job at the BBC World Service. Nurturing Annie, a moderately paid hospital administrator, must carry an increasingly heavy financial burden. Next Mia's twin brother Jake, whose high-end furniture-making business has tanked, moves back home with his baby daughter Maisie when his coldly ambitious wife Jocasta leaves him for another man and a lucrative job in NYC (one that seems unlikely given the banking crash). To make matters worse, Tom's difficult mother Hermione can no longer afford assisted living and moves into the bedroom Tom's been using so he must move back into the master bedroom with Annie. Dormant sexual tensions waken between saintly Annie and sympathetic Tom despite long-simmering resentments, mostly surrounding Mia's estrangement from the family (another plot point lacking credibility: The original argument seems rather mild and one wonders why no one has checked for Mia on Facebook or Google, given the prominence of the Internet in the plot—Tom gambles disastrously with day trading). Soon the family is pulling together. Younger daughter Em, who previously lived at home supported by Tom while trying to write fiction, is surprised how much she enjoys the job she finds in PR. And when Jocasta announces that she wants to take Maisie to America, devoted father Jake mounts a solid campaign to retain custody. Tom becomes more self-aware about the mistakes he's made as he and Annie slowly reconnect. As for the long-lost Mia...

The comforting message here seems to be that the family that loses its money together stays together.  

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2010

Annie enjoys her career and nice home, but her marriage to Tom has been in decline for years. In addition, their elder daughter is estranged, their son is married to a cold woman who restricts access to their only granddaughter, and their younger daughter is almost 30 but living at home, subsidized by Annie and Tom while she tries to write a novel. When Tom wants to have a serious talk, she expects to hear he wants a divorce, but he drops a real bombshell: he's been laid off. A number of circumstances, including their son becoming a single dad and not being able to afford the retirement home for her mother-in-law, draw the family members closer as they negotiate living under the same roof. Buchan focuses on a different character in each chapter, allowing them all to speak for themselves and letting the reader see all of the angles as the family rebuilds in the face of financial adversity. VERDICT Buchan follows earlier works, including the best-selling Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, with another well-written, humorous, and poignant look at the contemporary lives of adult women that will appeal to those who appreciate Jennifer Weiner, Jennifer Crusie, and Marian Keyes.--Elizabeth Blakesley, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2010
Tom and Annie are an unhappy, middle-aged British couple whose emotional and physical connection has dried up due to repressed resentments and secrets, both usual and unusual. Their three children are in various stages of independence, and Toms mother is in the early stages of dementia. When the economy starts to fail in 2008, Tom loses his job, and both his mother and son move home. His sons marriage is also failing, and the contrast between the relationships is one of the novels most intriguing elements. Central to the couples unhappiness is their missing daughter, Mia, whose disappearance is at first treated so mysteriously that the reader has the feeling of having started the book in the middle. As the scenes shift between past and present, the trajectory of a marriage is effectively illustrated. Several very recent novels, including Lynn Schnurbergers The Best Laid Plans (2011) and Carol Edgarians Three Stages of Amazement (2011), use the current economic collapse as a starting point for looking at modern marriage. Like chick lit and mommy lit, perhaps the trend will soon deserve its own name: recessionist lit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)