Modern Lovers

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a good novel after reading a bunch of nonfiction business books. I felt the ending was somewhat abrupt and unsatisfying. But overall an enjoyable book to read about two families that live next door to each other in Ditmas Park Brooklyn and how their relationships intertwine.

A fun book to read, perfect to take along on a holiday. Or in my case, reading it at night before bed.

It's a delightful book, really. It doesn't portend any grand ambitions to change the human spirit or redefine the zeitgeist of our age. Instead, it paints a lovely and intricate portrait of how millennials and their parents are uncannily good at messing up their lives (or maybe the world is good at messing them up). That shouldn't imply that the book is devoid of meaning or insight, just surprise. It was easy to see where this novel would go, but the ride was still a lot of fun and contained some great points of discussion about the various ways in which we identify ourselves and define ourselves to others, and the strength that comes when we seize control of our identity. But for all of the fun and identity insight that this novel provides, it has the fatal flaw of feeling distinctly white. There's plenty of diversity in the cast, but there is an unshakeable feeling of safety and sameness that casts a shadow of knowing that the author of what your reading is definitely white. That's not a dealbreaker, since the novel never tries to pretend that its perspective reaches beyond its limits, but it also means that this novel was limited from the beginning. Regardless, I would suggest this novel if you're looking for a modern update to the work of Franzen or Carol-Oates, and I look forward to what Straub writes next, knowing that her ambition will grow with each novel.

I picked this up from my local public library, despite having disliked The Vacationers by Emma. Even though I was hesitant, I'm glad I picked this up. Emma Straub's writing has approved dramatically since her first novel, and I can see that she will only continue to improve. This novel is modern and had realistic glimpses of love and how it fades- balances idealism and realism perfectly. The plot did have structure, more so than a lot of books at least, but it did feel a little all over the place at some points. I liked that one of the main couples were lesbians and that this didn't have much to do with the plot, but at the same time I didn't like how Straub dabbled with the other characters sexuality and then kept them as straight. Everyone gets confused and everyone experiments with their sexuality, but the catalyst that causes that should not be that one is surrounded by homosexual relationships. Being gay is not contagious. I had a similar issue with this concept when reading "Stir-Fry" by Emma Donoghue in which a young lady becomes very confused about whether or not she's a lesbian simply because she's living with lesbians. I liked the way Emma represented the teenagers in this book, they had the same concerns and flighty attitudes and feelings of insecurity as most real teenagers do. However, she made the same mistake that John Green often makes in overestimating teenage intelligence. Teenagers are wistful and resilient and brave and compassionate, maybe more so than at any other time in life, but they do not possess the wisdom of adults. They do not possess the wisdom of having lived through many years and many struggles, and I find that authours tend to throw their own deep adult perceptions into the minds of young characters who couldn't possibly be expected to comprehend such concepts. Ruby and Harry, aside from this, seemed very realistic and representative of a lot of young people from small towns. I would recommend this book to a small handful of people, and I will remember parts of it for a long time, but overall it was just a three star read for me.

Modern Lovers is that perfect summer read that manages to feel both familiar and ultimately exciting. Really enjoyed it.

Cute but nothing special.

A fascinating character study of three college friends, now middle-aged, who were once were in a grunge band that created exactly one hit song that their former (and long deceased) band-mate purchased from them and made famous. Now raising children, navigating mid-life crises, and figuring out whether they should sign the release form to allow the song to be used in an upcoming biopic about their dead band-mate, this was a captivating read of some not so likeable people. I still enjoyed The Vacationers more, but Emma Straub is now on my auto-read list.