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Release Date: 2010-05-11
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| Features• ISBN13: 9780312554163
• Condition: New
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No easy answersI have never written a review before because I'm not too good at writing consicely. I wanted to try with this book though. I have been in this situation on Tess's side. I would think that I would automatically root for her and despise Valerie, but that is not the case. It speaks for Emily's talent that I wasn't sure who Nick should choose and even wanted him to choose Valerie a little more than Tess. I'm also amazed that I didn't hate Nick, he wasn't a bad person, just someone who made a bad choice. I am glad in the end though that he seems to have a good chance at getting his family back. I took my husband back which is not what all women would do, but there are no easy answers to these situations. It has many shades of gray. I loved the book and look forward to more by her. She tackles these issues and makes you think. I do need something light and breezy now, this was not typical "chick lit".
Delivers a lot more than I expected -- very, very goodSometimes you pick up a book expecting one thing and get something totally different. That is exactly what happened with this novel and I mean that in a very good way. A friend of mine had picked this up to take on vacation with her and when she got back she offered to loan it to me. I had never read anything by Emily Giffin before but have seen her books all over the place and viewed her as a chick-lit author. Knowing my friend's reading taste (usually light and fluffy), that just cemented my expectation of an easy, breezy novel. Wow, was I wrong!
"Heart of the Matter" is told in alternating chapters by Tessa Russo and Valerie Anderson. Each are smart, intelligent women who live in the same Boston suburb but live vastly different lives. Tessa is as stay-at-home mom of two children married to a successful and busy pediatric surgeon. She was on the tenure track at a university before making the decision to stay home with the children. The decision was loudly denounced by her divorced mother who thought it would cause her to lose herself and the marriage to stubble. These thoughts and fears are running around in Tessa's head as she struggles with play dates, "perfect" moms, getting into the right private schools, etc. Valerie is a whole different story. She is the mother of a young son and his father doesn't even know of his existence. She went to law school, joined a law firm upon graduation and is juggling single parenthood with the demands of a hectic career. The lives of these two women intersect when Valerie's son has an accident and Tessa's husband is the surgeon who takes care of him.
As I said at the beginning, I was expecting light and fluffy but ended up with an introspective, insightful novel. Both women second guess their life choices and honestly and openly examine the positive and negative sides of the journey they are on. The families of both these women are front and center (particularly their brothers) and how those relationships change over time and as tragedy and hurt impact these women. The author does a masterful job of examining how many people go through life showing a mask to the world that doesn't accurately reflect who they really are and what they are feeling inside. Two pivotal events cause the crisis that brings everything to a head and watching these two women deal with them is fascinating.
I was blown away by this book and the emotional depth it has. I think a more mature reader who has walked through a fair amount of life will appreciate the story that is told here.
Ugh... going downhillI loved her first two novels. LOVED them! Told everyone about them. How well the characters were developed, how I felt for both women in each story. The third Baby Proof was okay. The fourth was all right. This one was terrible. I hated the characters from the beginning. All of them. The wife was pathetic, the husband a jerk and the mistress was not likeable at all. I can't and won't recommend this to anyone. I think I am done with this author.
Entertaining performance by Cynthia Nixon with worthy materialIf you've wondered what "Sex and the City" lawyer Miranda Hobbes would be like as a single mother from Boston and a conflicted stay-at-home mom and former professor, both of whom share a passion for the same man after a tragic accident, this is the audiobook for you.
As Valerie Anderson and as Tessa Russo, and even Nick Russo (Tessa's husband, "Dr. Dimepiece"), Cynthia Nixon shows off her solo acting talents, inhabiting an ensemble of Emily Giffin's characters. She's most heartfelt in places as Valerie, an attorney, but her wryness as Tessa is laugh-out-loud, and she infuses Tessa's internal struggles about motherhood and nick's growing alienation with candor.
Nixon is most delicious in the roles of the child characters in the story, especially Valerie's son Charlie, the focal point of the book, and the strong-willed Ruby, Tessa and Nick's daughter. She skewers the overconcerned helicopter mom April but makes her loveable in a way. Even minor characters, such as a South Boston garage-door repairman, a pediatric burn nurse and an Italian restaurant owner, enter and exit the story seamlessly in Nixon's narration.
Excellent Read!This book was great from start to finish. I could not put it down. The characters that Giffin brought to life were remarkable. I felt like I was experiencing the same emotions as Tessa. The story intertwines 4 lives with love, infidelity, forgiveness and self awareness. Excellent book!!!!!
Product Description"Giffin excels at creating complex characters and stories that ask us to explore what we really want from our lives."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother's warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie--a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance--and even to some degree, friendships--believing that it is always safer not to expect too much. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined. In alternating, pitch-perfect points of view, Emily Giffin creates a moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.
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