Name: Alternate Side
Rating: 3.333333333333333 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9781471174438

Anna Quindlen

Alternate Side

One morning, Nora returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the enviable dead-end block turns into a potent symbol of a divided city. The fault lines begin to open: on the block, at Nora's job, especially in her marriage

A Novel

Cindy

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Upper West Side NYC meets with petty neighborhood jealousy. A supposedly well educated and classy group of people squabble over a parking space and what results is a horrific act of violence. This is the premise of Anna Quindlen's  new book.

This tale is told beautifully , the author does not disappoint in her writing of this book. The story is so well written in prose that went down like a fine red wine. With that said the book was slow moving for me and while I did enjoy the book and the characters, especially Nora, it just took a while to get into. Nora was my favorite character, I would love to have her job, my dream job has always been to work in a museum and live in NYC. Would I love to be married to Charlie? No thanks ! The author examines and delves into the heart of this family and what it takes for Nora to keep it all together as a wife, mother and working woman. As Nora's life unravels her character becomes stronger and this is what I took away from this story; as women we are separate beings as well as mothers and wives.

While this book was about a tragic incident it was also a story about a woman who finds out whi she really is and what she really wants in life.This review was originally posted on My Fiction Obsession

For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler comes a brilliantly provocative novel from the Richard and Judy Book Club and Number One bestselling author Anna Quindlen. 'Mesmerizing. Quindlen makes her characters so richly alive, so believable, that it’s impossible not to feel every doubt and dream they harbour . . . Overwhelmingly moving’ New York Times Anna Quindlen follows her highly-praised novel Miller’s Valley – ‘reads like a companion to Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge’, Elisabeth Egan – with a captivating novel about money, class and self-discovery set in the heart of New York where the tensions in a tight-knit neighbourhood – and a seemingly happy marriage – are exposed by an unexpected act of violence. There are days when Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life – except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? Nora has never stopped loving New York, and their street has become a safe harbour, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The residents watch one another’s children grow up. They trade gossip and gripes, and they manoeuvre for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block’s small parking lot. Then, into their secure, privileged midst comes an unexpected act of violence and their enviable neighbourhood turns into a potent symbol of a divided city. This is a novel of domesticity, of the jarring cacophony of city life and of daily routine and conversation and expectation being suddenly, awkwardly disrupted. It is about the change of dynamics wrought within a family when children leave home and the fading of love within an outwardly settled marriage. Utterly absorbing and impeccably observed, Alternate Side explores, too, what it means to be a mother, a wife and a woman at a moment of reckoning. ‘Qualities and shades of love are this writer’s strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much truth and heart that one is carried away on a tidal wave of involvement and concern’ Elizabeth Jane Howard 'I’m a big fan of US author Anna Quindlen’s sharp writing. Her latest novel, Alternate Side, is a clear-eyed look at a long marriage, written with wit and warmth' Good Housekeeping 'A book about being a mother, a wife and a woman at a moment of reckoning, this is an acutely observed story' Stylist Books ‘Middle age proves treacherous ground in this smart comedy of manners… Insightful, acerbic and pleasingly tinged with melancholy’ Mail on Sunday

Samantha Seeman

I had to really think about both what I liked, and disliked about this book. Honestly, I don’t think I got very much out of it, but somehow, I know that I would pick up another one of Quindlen’s books if the synopsis sounded good enough. Maybe one day, when I am less distracted, I will go back and reread this, and have a greater appreciation for the story as a whole.

I was excited to review my very first eARC, and look forward to getting into, and posting more in the near future. I think I have about 8 more from Netgalley that I haven’t opened yet. I am trying to offset my reading by getting to one physical book, and then one on my kindle (so that everyone gets a turn).

I did manage to pull a quote out of the story that I liked though- and with my handy Kindle, I can simply just highlight it, and it stays on there for as long as I’d like :]

People go through life thinking they’re making decisions, when they’re really just making plans, which is not the same thing at all. And along the way, they get a little damaged, lots of tiny cracks, holding together but damaged still.

The first half of that quote really resonates with me right now. It is something that made me pause, and think about the “decisions” I have made.

You can find my thoughts on this book here:
https://modernwitchsbookshelf.wordpre...

Darren S. Layne

In contrast to many of the reviewers here who were unable to connect with or care about Anna Quindlen's main characters in her newest novel, Alternate Side, I instantly found them to be interesting, intriguing, and incredibly real. Maybe the problem some are experiencing is that there is nothing larger than life in this story; that it is, in fact, a somewhat voyeuristic peek into the everyday existence of a gaggle of regular New Yorkers packed tightly into a dead-end block in the middle of nowhere important. It is essentially a story about relatively mundane relationships in a positively normal city and how the seemingly run-of-the-mill decisions that we make affect us and those around us – decisions each with a hundred trailing branches, only some of which will bring us happiness and fulfillment. The others, the roads not taken, continue to haunt and sting and show us who we might otherwise have become. Not larger than life, then, but most definitely life. It might not be everyone's jam, but it sure is mine.

Quindlen has a fantastic grasp of the human condition and her storytelling construction is masterful; it teases and unfolds slowly as we get to know the characters, not following any kind of consistent, predictable timeline. Instead, the protagonists reveal themselves through mid-scene reflections and memories, precious opines of could-have-beens and delicious similes that charm and destroy all at the same time: "The truth was that some of their marriages were like balloons: a few went suddenly pop, but more often than not the air slowly leaked out until it was a sad, wrinkled little thing with no lift to it anymore.” She repeatedly demonstrates a real knack for contrasting the immediacy and hugeness of life with the fact that in the end, our pursuits, our accomplishments and failures, are simply illusory drops in the bucket of a much larger lineage of memory – or the lack thereof: "The price so many of them had paid for prosperity was amnesia. They’d forgotten where they’d come from, how they’d started out. They’d forgotten what the city really was, and how small a part of it they truly were."

What we learn from Quindlen is that her crisscrossing, God's-eye micronarratives are pretty well-packed with wisdom and empathy across a sophisticated, puzzle-like tableau that says as much with idiosyncrasy and musing as with traditional plot dynamics. We time-skip back and forth within the inevitable progress of the novel to uncover all-too-human secrets and missed chances, futile connections and proud, quiet moments of fulfillment. In this way, we learn so much about these characters without the author having to bore us with plodding set-up or gratuitous drama; rather, the development is often inline and inferred, and we piece it together from the bits that Quindlen and her characters leave behind.

I suspect that the lack of connection or "care" expressed by many readers might be a product of this novel representing a quick, fleeting snapshot of one tiny microcosm of life in the big city. There's barely enough time to hold on to anyone, or to settle upon a judgement of them. That is, of course, intentional; the story's coda deals directly with the premise of impermanence and the layers of life which are heaped upon each and every inhabited city block through time. There's no serial to it, and there won't be a sequel. It is entirely possible that some people would instead prefer an easy, ongoing romantic tale of New York with Carrie Bradshaw at the center of it all. That's not what you'll be getting in Alternate Side. But you'll certainly be getting some poignant, humanistic storytelling in a petite yarn that relatively questions our values, our needs, and how we confront the problems that we face.

This is the first book I've read by Anna Quindlen, and I'm just about to pick up another. Can't wait to dig right in.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Captures the angst and anxiety of modern life with . . . astute observations about interactions between the haves and have-nots, and the realities of life among the long-married.”—USA Today A provocative novel that explores what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a woman at a moment of reckoning, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miller’s Valley and Still Life with Bread Crumbs. Some days Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life—except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The owners watch one another’s children grow up. They use the same handyman. They trade gossip and gripes, and they maneuver for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block’s small parking lot. Then one morning, Nora returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the enviable dead-end block turns into a potent symbol of a divided city. The fault lines begin to open: on the block, at Nora’s job, and especially in her marriage. Praise for Alternate Side “[Anna] Quindlen’s quietly precise evaluation of intertwined lives evinces a keen understanding of and appreciation for universal human frailties.”—Booklist (starred review) “Exquisitely rendered . . . [Quindlen] is one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life. . . . [Alternate Side] has an almost documentary feel, a verisimilitude that’s awfully hard to achieve.”—The New York Times Book Review “An exceptional depiction of complex characters—particularly their weaknesses and uncertainties—and the intricacies of close relationships . . . Quindlen’s provocative novel is a New York City drama of fractured marriages and uncomfortable class distinctions.”—Publishers Weekly

Alternate Side

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