Games to Play After Dark

April 1, 2011

A first novel about marriage.

Told from Kate's perspective—mostly while she's in her 20s and 30s but also her early teens—the book moves from her lust-at-first-sight drunken meeting with Colin right into their wedding. After some spot-on interludes of a marriage, the narration continues its chronological roll through the eventual birth and early childhood of Kate and Colin's two daughters, dipping at irregular intervals back to Kate's first sexual experiences and, interestingly, her father's awakening to it. "He does not want Kate to become this sort of woman: a wife. He anticipates better things for her...Anything less will hurt him, expose him, and generate shame: his and hers." Kate understands this strange bifurcation as she watches her daughters grow up. This is a complicated subject, one that Borden tries to untangle through lovely writing, smart and bawdy humor, the elevation of ordinary detail into extraordinary meaning and characters who are sharply honest even when they're telling each other, and themselves, lies.

If a phrase or scene jars, push through, as those bumps are few in this novel—this is a page-turner that will both haunt and spark discussion.

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April 15, 2011
Bordens debut examines the complications of love and the way love can erode over time. Kate and Colin, a young and stylish couple in Manhattan, fall in love and marry quickly. They move out of the city and work somewhat meaningless jobs, but their affection for one another keeps them happy. Throughout the novel, Kate has flashbacks to a childhood fraught with early promiscuity, an overbearing professor of a father, and the abuse always running under Stepford-like levels of family perfection. After Kate and Colin have two daughters, their marriage begins to deteriorate. Kate becomes a stay-at-home mom and feels crushed by domesticity and enraged by the bickering and teasing of her daughters. Colin ignores her plaintive behavior, expressing the desire that she return to her earlier, more amorous self. Frustrated by stereotypical pitfalls, the couple struggles to save their marriage with last-ditch efforts while Kates history of abuse looms up from the past. Though the novel ends somewhat abruptly and weakly, it strongly elucidates marital struggles and offers a startling glimpse into contemporary family life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)