Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
From the book jacket: For Emilia Greenleaf, life is by turns a comedy of errors and an
emotional minefield. Yes, she's a Harvard Law grad who married her soul
mate. Yes, they live in elegant comfort on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. But with her one-and-only, Jack, came a stepsona know-it-all
preschooler named William who has become her number one responsibility
every Wednesday afternoon. With William, Emilia encounters a number of
impossible pursuitssuch as the pursuit of cab drivers who speed away
when they see William's industrial-strength car seat and the pursuit of
lactose-free, strawberry-flavored, patisserie-quality cupcakes, despite
the fact that William's allergy is a figment of his over-protective
mother's imagination.
As much as Emilia wants to find common ground with William, she becomes
completely preoccupied when she loses her newborn daughter. After this,
the sight of any child brings her to tears, and Wednesdays with William
are almost impossible. When his unceasing questions turn to the baby's
death, Emilia is at a total loss. Doesn't anyone understand that
self-pity is a full-time job? Ironically, it is only through her
blundering attempts to bond with William that she finally heals herself
and learns what family really means.
Comment: Crossing Central Park to pick up her stepson once a week is a minefield of
emotions for Emilia. The women with their strollers and, worst of all the
playgrounds with their happy, playing children and watchful mothers, eat away at
her soul reminding her of Isabel, the daughter she lost to SIDS at just two days
old. She blows up at her sister, is at breaking point with her husband,
can't abide his ex-wife, and the final straw are the innocent but precocious
questions of 5-year-old William, son of her husband and ex-wife, who is her
responsibility one afternoon a week.
She knows she should love William, or at least attempt to like him, especially
considering that it is her affair with his father that has turned his
five-year-old life on end; but with Isabel dead she just can't stand the sight
of him, or pretty much anyone else for that matter. She pushes away all
who try to get close to her by liberally inflicting hurt on all around,
especially on little William, who despite being mature for his age is still just
a little kid desperately struggling with his own very real concerns.
How should the reader side? How much sympathy should we have for
Emilia? How much hurt is it acceptable for her to inflict in her pain, and
on who? The novel's turning point is when her husband's patience finally
gives in and they face off in a make or break moment; but the absolution that
allows her to start to rebuild her life and come to terms with her lot comes
from a different source. At the end of this heartfelt and well-paced novel
nothing tangible has changed; Emilia still misses Isabel, still finds William's
questions trying, still finds it a challenge to cope with the ex-wife; but she
has survived and grown through her grief, having been transformed into someone
who can appreciate the "accidental beauty" of life in both the good and bad
moments.
"A beautiful novel. If you are not moved to tears, then your heart is carved
from wood." -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in February 2006, and has been updated for the January 2007 edition. Click here to go to this issue.
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.If you liked Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, try these:
A deeply moving novel about a woman who thought she never wanted to be a mother--and the many ways that life can surprise us.
The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Rosie Project, starring the same extraordinary couple now living in New York and unexpectedly expecting their first child. Get ready to fall in love all over again.
Douglas Westerbeke's much anticipated debut
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this dazzlingly epic.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.