Name: Standard Deviation
ISBN: 9780008105525

Katherine Heiny

The celebrated author of Single, Carefree, Mellow, returns with her debut novel - a rueful, funny examination of love, marriage, infidelity, and origami. Simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking, this sensational debut will appeal to fans of David Nicholls, Nick Hornby, Nora Ephron and Lorrie Moore Graham Cavanaugh's second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son's Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting. In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger's, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham's life. Former spouses are hard to categorize - are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?

Standard Deviation

Cindy Lieberman

Humorous observations about marriage and parenting in NYC with a son “on the spectrum” yet the book fails to deliver satisfaction in characters or plot.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

I received a free advance copy of this novel in return for an honest, unbiased review.

Graham is currently married to Audra a woman to whom 6 degrees of separation is an insult. She always knows someone with the wherewithal to help you out and thinks nothing of calling the man who delivered her child (and happens to sit on the board of the building where you would like to live) and asking him to do you a favour, even if you’re her husband’s ex wife. Audra is the quintessential extrovert and optimist and she can extract the life story of a perfect stranger with a few choice questions. Graham loves her for this but in a world-weary, resigned fashion that speaks clearly of an established relationship where even the most charming (and useful) of personality quirks, if not downright exasperating, have become rather par-for-the-course. It is at this stage of their relationship that Graham reconnects with Elspeth, his first wife and a woman a different from Audra as can be imagined; cool, calm, collected and quiet Elspeth is always is complete control. When Audra’s connections helps Elspeth move into a new apartment and learns that she is in a relationship this leads to a series of double dates, a situation alien and bewildering to everyone except Audra for whom nothing could be more natural. This bizarre and slightly uncomfortable situation allows Graham to ponder the two important women in his life and how it can be that he has loved (and wed) two such polar opposite characters. Audra’s impulsiveness and scatter-brained approach to life and love are driving Graham to distraction and closer and closer to his ex with whom he can talk quietly and coherently (or, luxury! Not talk at all) and cook complex, sophisticated meals without reference to forbidden colours and textures. He begins to wonder, did he make the right decision to divorce Elspeth and marry Audra?

It’s a frankly bonkers situation but it allows Heiny to write an insightful, funny and moving story about how people can change, how love and relationships shift almost imperceptibly over time and the need to accept and recognise this is at the heart of any lasting marriage. She brings to glorious life the truth in the cliches “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and “familiarity breeds contempt” and the characters’ (sometimes flawed) attempts to come to terms with shifts in their feelings and emotional connections. Can they remain faithful when the old attractions have lost their lustre and when the relationship has settled into a less exciting, established groove?
Alongside the central three-way relationship Heiny introduces us to a varied and lovable cast of eccentric characters. Most importantly the origami-obsessed ten-year old son of Audra and Graham. Matthew is on the autistic spectrum, anxious about change and lacking social confidence. When he is invited to join an exclusive origami club his parents hope that the socialisation will be a positive influence, that is until they meet socially-awkward, OCD-tending elderly members. Graham and Audra’s loving concern for Matthew is quite touching and Heiny manages to make his forays into unsuitable friendships (including the incorrigible proto-criminal Derek “Rottweiler) funny without being insensitive. In addition we meet Elspeth’s dapper and much older partner Bentrup, Graham’s hopelessly naive young secretary and the many impromptu guests to whom Audra opens their home at a moment’s notice from the doorman to a neighbour whose husband is on “sabbatical” and Matthew’s long-distance friend and his unbearable. intrusive grandfather Papa Stan.

It’s the kind of whimsical, gentle comedy that could easily be cloying and overly-silly in the wrong hands but Heiny manages it superbly. Her characters compliment each other perfectly , never relying on quirkiness alone to make them interesting. The dialogue is excellent and often hilarious and there is just enough sadness and anxiety in the story to give it real life and heart and lift it above its more madcap elements.

Brady

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Andrea Hak-Kovacs

'I have rarely seen modern marriage reproduced so faithfully in print. It's about love once the early romance has subsided. Hilarious' Jojo Moyes, Woman and Home 'Standard Deviation is a marvel' Kate Atkinson 'Addictive reading' Mail on Sunday 'A comic masterpiece' Observer