Fly Away Home: A Novel
by Jennifer Weiner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jennifer WeinerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-07-13
ISBN: 0743294270
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Atria Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780743294270
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Fly Away Home: A Novel
Book Review: Return to what Weiner does best
Summary: 4 Stars
Jennifer Weiner's last couple of books have, in my opinion, departured a little from the formula that made her so well-loved. Best Friends Forever struck me as flat, and lacked a little of the charm I'd come to expect from Weiner's writing. Goodnight Nobody, while being a totally engaging murder mystery, depicted a woman's growing distance from her family and friends and couldn't help an undercurrent of bleakness just between the surface.
But family is what Weiner does best, and in Fly Away Home, she interweaves the stories of one family's very different members the way she did in her more successful Certain Girls and In Her Shoes. And while I have never read a book by Jennifer Weiner that I did not like--even BFF was OK by me, though it's my pick for weakest in her oeuvre--I have to say that I am so happy you are back, Jenny! (I can call you Jenny--can't I?)
Weiner promises us that this story was begun ten years ago, but it has a ripped-from-the-headlines aspect that feels eerily prescient. Sylvie Serfer has been married to Senator Richard Woodruff for over thirty years when it leaks that he's been having an affair with his young staff assistant. Since Sylvie's life has been devoted almost entirely to Richard and her marriage, she isn't sure what to do with herself now that she's lost both. She would turn to her daughters, but Diana, an emergency room doctor, is in the middle of a secretive affair of her own, and Lizzie, a recovering drug addict, is distrustful of her mother, based on traumatic events in their shared past. Sylvie decamps to the family beach house in Connecticut, and is shortly followed by each of her daughters, as their own lives buckle under their feet. There, over the course of a few months, the women try to come together in an honest, open way and forge stronger relationships than existed between them before.
That's classic Weiner, am I right? There's even a persnickity Jewish grandmother who delights in shocking her child and grandchildren with snappy references to sex and drugs and Apple iPhones. Maggie and Rose's salty grandmother in In Her Shoes is one of my favorite of Weiner's characters, and Judge Selma Serfer, Sylvie's mom, can definitely give her a run for her money.
Weiner doesn't do everything perfectly--I don't think she's completely able to capture the viewpoint of a sixty-some year old woman--but mostly, she's the best writer of womens' fiction out there today. What amazed me the most about this book, from a fellow (albeit less successful) writer's point of view, was how seamlessy Weiner melds character with plot. It's hard, sometimes, to get your characters to do what you need them to do, plotwise, while still having their actions feel organic to who they are. The fact that Diana would despise her father for cheating at the same time she cheated herself made perfect sense. And I understood why Lizzie wouldn't want to let her family in on a secret about her health given their reactions to her drug use in the past.
The only thing that fell a little flat for me in this whole novel were the parts that focused on Sylvie and her newfound interest in cooking. Weiner writes glowingly about food, making my mouth water for curry and cranberry sauce. But I'm an easy sell, and it is sort of a cliche by now, women in novels setting bread and stirring that sorrow out of their hearts. Isn't it? Damn it, Sylvie's whole life was given over to being the perfect wife for her husband. And cooking is such a perfect wife-y thing to do. I know her domesticity is supposed to show that now she's focusing on being a good mother and nourishing her children. But I wouldn't have minded seeing her focus on a little more on nourishing herself.
All in all, though, this is fun, fast-paced read, with a little heaviness to weight it down--the perfect beach book even though it is weirdly set in November. Weiner brings the funny. She also brings the weepy. But when you've got your huge sunglasses on, nobody can see that. And I hear that the act of dissolving into tears can be very cooling in these long dog days of summer.
Constance Reader reviews books at [...]
Summary of Fly Away Home: A Novel
Sometimes all you can do is fly away home . . .
When Sylvie Serfer met Richard Woodruff in law school, she had wild curls, wide hips, and lots of opinions. Decades later, Sylvie has remade herself as the ideal politician?s wife?her hair dyed and straightened, her hippie-chick wardrobe replaced by tailored knit suits. At fifty-seven, she ruefully acknowledges that her job is staying twenty pounds thinner than she was in her twenties and tending to her husband, the senator.
Lizzie, the Woodruffs? younger daughter, is at twenty-four a recovering addict, whose mantra HALT (Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired?) helps her keep her life under control. Still, trouble always seems to find her. Her older sister, Diana, an emergency room physician, has everything Lizzie failed to achieve?a husband, a young son, the perfect home?and yet she?s trapped in a loveless marriage. With temptation waiting in one of the ER?s exam rooms, she finds herself craving more.
After Richard?s extramarital affair makes headlines, the three women are drawn into the painful glare of the national spotlight. Once the press conference is over, each is forced to reconsider her life, who she is and who she is meant to be.
Written with an irresistible blend of heartbreak and hilarity, Fly Away Home is an unforgettable story of a mother and two daughters who after a lifetime of distance finally learn to find refuge in one another.
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