All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

April 7, 2008
In Brown's withering Silicon Valley satire, a family wakes up on a June day to realize that patriarch Paul's company has hit the big time with a phenomenal IPO. But instead of rejoicing about being newly rich, the family's three women each find themselves in the throes of a major crisis. Paul has fled with his new amour, who happens to be wife Janice's tennis partner. Desperate housewife Janice discovers the soothing power of the pool boy's drug stash and sinks into addiction and denial. Meanwhile, 20-something daughter Margaret learns the price of living a Hollywood lifestyle on an artsy hipster's budget—gargantuan credit card debt. Finally, 14-year-old Lizzie wades deeper and deeper into a sea of adolescent trouble without an adult to confide in. From the ashes of their California dreams, the three must learn to talk to each other instead of past each other, and build a new, slightly more realistic existence—but not without doses of revenge and hilarity. Brown's hip narrative reads like a sharp, contemporary twist on The Corrections
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May 26, 2008
An unexceptional reading makes the audio version of this satiric work of women's fiction a pleasantly neutral experience. Paul Miller's announcement of his intent to divorce his wife leaves his accomplished housewife-socialite feeling empty and purposeless. Meanwhile, 28-year-old daughter Margaret attempts to hide from the catastrophic failure of her feminist magazine, and 14-year-old Lizzie deals with the consequences of believing that having sex with six guys in three months will make her cool. Rebecca Lowman reads expressively and unobtrusively: she doesn't detract from the text, but she doesn't enhance it, either. This smooth abridgement is acceptable, if not particularly diverting. A Spiegel & Grau hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 7).

On the day her husband's pharmaceutical company goes public, Janice Miller is having difficulties. First, she can't find the right melon for her special appetizers anywhere in Silicon Valley, and then an email from her husband announces his plans to divorce her, taking everything for himself, including her tennis partner. The story's satire is evident in its situations and in Rebecca Lowman's tones even before Janice gets the fateful email. Irony mounts as Janice's eldest daughter races home, pursued by creditors, while her youngest earns a reputation as "school slut." Janice's purchases of methamphetamines from the pool guy build tension and black comedy, both skillfully rendered by Lowman. Problems clear up late in the story, but it seems right for the absurdities to dominate. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine