Outside the Ordinary World

In her impressive debut novel, Dori Ostermiller weaves dysfunctional families, stressed marriages, and midlife crises into a story that is impossible to put down. Johanna Parker's broad vocal range allows her to hit all the emotional notes with authenticity while delivering the author's lyrical prose and vivid imagery in a natural manner. Using understated intensity, Parker deftly captures Ostermiller's finely drawn characters and unaffected dialogue. That same subtlety is carried into Parker's smooth pacing, which keeps the story moving forward and the listener engaged. The pairing of author and narrator will leave the listener wanting a repeat performance from both. M.O.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

June 21, 2010
A wife and mother burdened with a painful past and a dull marriage considers an affair in Ostermiller's derivative debut. Sylvia Sandon, a New England landscape painter of declining reputation who now teaches art workshops, has always been haunted by her mother's infidelities, and yet, during a period of frustration with her marriage—dormant sex life, the pressures and stresses of raising two kids—she become smitten with Tai Rosen, the slick New Yorker father of one of her students. Through a tiresome series of flashbacks, Sylvia relives her mother's long-running affair and sanctimonious religiosity, her father's brutality, and the final tragedy that tore the family apart. From this foundation, she tries to keep her own marriage intact and figure out what she wants. Unfortunately, Ostermiller never builds up much reader sympathy for Sylvia, and the depictions of faith, violence, and domestic unhappiness feel naïve.