The Three Weissmans of Westport

by Cathleen Schine

Betty Weissmann has just been dumped by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled from her elegant New York apartment by her husband's mistress, she and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. In Schine's playful and devoted homage to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the impulsive sister is Miranda, a literary agent entangled in a series of scandals, and the more pragmatic sister is Annie, a library director, who feels compelled to move in and watch over her capricious mother and sister. Schine's witty, wonderful novel" ""is simply full of "pleasure" the pleasure of reading, the pleasure of Austen, and the pleasure that the characters so rightly and humorously pursue....An absolute triumph" (The Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Adult Fiction, Family

299 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

Cathleen Schine is the author of The New Yorkers, The Love Letter, and The Three Weissmanns of Westport among other novels. She has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review.

Reviews

[Elisa M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could only get halfway through this book. I found that I didn't care about the characters at all, and the plot was not exactly riveting either. Parts of it are funny, especially the way that Betty refers to herself as a widow and her (soon-to-be-ex) husband as dead ("may his soul rest in peace"). It wasn't enough to keep me going.

[Malena Watrous · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I love about this book is (to use an Austen catchphrase) the author's sensibility, comic and divine. The same subject--an older woman abandoned and badly treated by her husband of half a century, left to make do with her middle aged and maladjusted daughters--could have been treated as a tragedy. But Schine sees the frailty and self-deceptions in all of her characters, and she manages to smile upon them nonetheless, or because of their all too human (and all too familiar) weaknesses. She's wickedly perceptive, too. One of the very middle aged daughters, spotting a handsome younger man, reflects, "It was difficult to imagine a young man being so very much younger when you could never quite see yourself as old." I'm already there, I'm afraid. On the same page, when she spots the exact man she wants to see, Schine deals with the unlikely coincidence with this brilliant and hilarious explanation: "Somehow, she knew he would be there. She couldn't have told you how, and like so many premonitions, this one could so easily have not been true, in which case she would have forgotten that she ever had a premonition. But she did have one, and it was sure and accurate: she was a sybil, a prophetess, a seer..." Gently mocking lines like these made the endless comparisons to Austen apt, and had me cackling with glee. I only shaved off one star because I found the book a little slow as a whole, in spite of the pleasures to be had page by page. I particularly like how she delves into the minds of all of the characters. Everyone gets the same treatment of partial illumination (they think they know themselves better than they do) and loving mockery.

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book suffers from being overpraised in the New York Times. It also suffers from Schine's use of Sense and Sensibility for her plot. Even though Sense and Sensibility is the weakest of Jane Austen's five major novels (not counting Northanger Abbey), it makes a lot more sense than this book does. In Austen's world social order was established through marriage. Here in Schine's the romances of middle aged and elderly people are of consequence only to themselves, creating more of a solipsism than a social commentary.

The library where Annie works is a clue to how meaningless this world is - it is a useless museum of rare books kept up by rich people with literary pretensions. So is Schine purposely poking fun at her readers? The lazy and careless use she makes of Austen's plot and point of view (in contrast to Austen's careful control)does suggest contempt for her characters and perhaps her audience as well.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

You should never pay attention to a blurb that reads, "...homage to Jane Austen." It will invariably set you up for a big letdown. Because the truth is, nothing is as good as Jane Austen.

In short: Modern day Upper West Side AARP husband, dumps dutiful wife for younger, VP from his company. Dumped wife moves with two aging daughters to a cottage in Connecticut while divorce is finalized. Wife, daughters meet a hodgepodge of characters; advanced aged daughters constantly whine about the state of their professional and personal lives; and it all unravels at the end into a random, confusing, weird mess.

The only reason I gave this two stars was the first 40-50 pages were quite witty – to the point I actually guffawed out loud a few times. But the farther I read, the more I was reminded on living on Long Island – which happened to be the WORST two years of my life (except for the WORST two years I spent in Provo). It was a collection of a bunch of whiny New York elitists who have nothing better to do, while the author was trying to make it resemble a modern, East Coast version of Sense and Sensibility.

This book was rated as a New York Times Notable Book – notably unpleasant maybe.

Probably not the worst book I’ve ever read, but do yourself a favor – watch Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet instead.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very intelligent, poignant, and hilarious book that has parallels to Jane Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility'. Whether or not the reader is familiar with Austen, this is a book to love and relish. It is a thinker's book and a reader's book, a book written by an author who respects her readers' intelligence and knowledge of culture.

The book begins when Josie, 78 years old, tells his 75 year old wife, Betty, that he wants a divorce. They have been married for over 40 years. You guessed it - there's a younger woman in the picture. Josie has raised Betty's daughters, Annie and Miranda. She was married once before and widowed when her two daughters were very young. Annie is a librarian, serious and often fearful and protective. Miranda is the histrionic one, given to flights of love and fancy. As the story begins, Betty is thrown out of her upper West Side apartment and invites her two daughters to live with her in a 'cozy' cottage in Westport, CT that Cousin Lou has offered her. She wears black, preferring to act like a widow rather than an "irrelevant" divorcee.

Miranda is on the verge of bankruptcy and is being sued by various publishers. Her literary agency has represented what she calls 'awful authors', authors who lied about their lives and Miranda has sold these stories to publishers such as Knopf. She's even appeared on Oprah to explain the situation. (Does this sound like Nan Talese to anyone else? Remember the memoir, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey?) As Miranda says, "My whole career was built on cheesy lurid tragedy. Cheesy lurid tragedy that turned out to be fake cheesy lurid tragedy." Annie is trying to raise two sons on her own and money is really tight for her. She figures that if she were to sublet her apartment and move in with her mother and Miranda in Westport, the three of them could use the sublet money and survive financially. Thus begins the story of the three women and their lives and loves in Westport.

There are many cultural and artistic references in the book. Schine references Shakespeare and Dickens as easily as she does D.H. Lawrence and Rex Stout. She talks about Keith Haring and Richard Serra. The Brontes and Erskine Caldwell get some airtime as well. What is so delicious is that she expects the reader to be along with her on the ride. Do we know who The Rat Pack is? What about Orlando Bloom or Jake Gyllenhall? Are we familiar with Skype and Costco? E.B. White and Alex Katz also join the crowd. It's such a fun group and this is only the tip of the iceberg. If one is perspicacious enough, other artists, authors, and writers will speak up to you in these pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At times, I belly laughed and at other times, I had tears. It's a book to cherish for the long haul and a wonderfully rare treat. It is a fantastic romp through our culture.

[Lnaimark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this book up at the Nashville airport for my trip back to San Jose. It does work as an "airplane book" but I found myself continually being annoyed by the characters. The amazingly self-centered father Joseph, his manipulative new girlfriend Felicity, the "wronged" mother, Betty, and her two daughters.

Betty gets banished to a shack in Connecticut and gets every single penny of her funds cut off, while Joseph and Felicity get to stay in the fantastic apartment on Central Park West. And no one raises holy hell? They've been married for five decades and he cuts off every penny??? Totally didn't make sense. The younger daughter has public (on Oprah!) embarrassment over her lying clients, but never quite recovers---except when she's sleeping with a guy 20 years younger. Her way of dealing with her bankruptcy and shane is to harass her colleagues on the phone. The older daughter, Annie, chides her mother and sister over spending too much money---but somehow she always seems to have enough from her librarian salary to cover expensive suits and "I just had to buy it" $200 bracelets that her mother buys.

Also unbelievable: Felicity's brother Frederick is a possible love interest for Annie, and she has no idea he is Felicity's brother. In fact, it takes them an inordinate amount of time to find out about Felicity. Later in the book, Frederick gets involved with a 22-year-old "home sitter" that Annie meets while visiting Cousin Lou and Rosalyn in Palm Springs. Really????

Most unbelievable is that they would all three agree to leave New York and live in the beach shack.

I did love the owner of the beach shack - Cousin Lou - whose hospitality seemed to know no bounds. Cousin Lou's wife, Rosalyn, and Rosalyn's dementia-stricken father, Mr. Shpuntov were great comic relief. In fact, they were the only funny thing in this book. I never ever saw humor or "sense and sensibility" in the main characters.

Also, it seems that something call "forensic accounting" saves the day, but we're not really told what that is.

This book got me most of the way back to San Jose, but how it got a great review in the NYT is beyond me.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the fantastic review of The Three Weissmanns in the NYTimes Book Review a couple weeks ago. I've read Cathleen Schine before (The Evolution of Jane) and was not thrilled. But this review was stellar and made it sound like it was totally up my alley. And it was. Schine is really quite funny in The Three Weissmanns, especially in her characterizations of the protagonists, Betty Weissmann in particular. There is something about the way that Betty engages with the world without having caught up with it in the last twenty years that makes for real comedy. But Schine is also poignant as well, about Betty's impending divorce (she is 75) and about the somewhat less-than-anticipated lives of the other two Weissmanns, her daughters Annie and Miranda. In her depictions of the Weissmanns' social milieu she reminded me of a 21st-century Jewish American Jane Austen and in her ability to mix real humor with pathos, she was not unlike Elinor Lipman. And this is high praise, because I love Austen and Lipman. There are also a whole host of fantastic supporting characters: watch out for Amber and Crystal, especially.

[Jen Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel really failed on all levels for me. The blurb on the back of the book held such promise and I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into it. The first page was really exciting, but from then on it suddenly all went downhill for me.

I failed to find a connection with the three main leading ladies Betty (Mother), Miranda (Daughter) and Annie (Daughter). They had traits which I found both annoying and nauseating; this spoiled the whole book for me. I felt very unsympathetic towards them.

At times I really felt like giving up on this book, but I persevered. I now wonder why, the ending was flaccid and I was sorely disappointed. The story never really took off.
Modern days take of Sense and Sensibility that doesn’t quite make the grade. A good book for reading groups who want to make a comparison between the two books.

Will I be reading anymore books by this author, I very much doubt it!

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a play on Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” I never cared for Jane Austen…put the rocks down folks… but have to admit that this was slightly more tolerable. The two daughters followed their mother to Uncle Lou’s cottage in Westport. CT. It wasn’t the Ritz by any stretch of the imagination but the three women started to try to put their lives back together. Annie…the librarian…tries to help the women sort things out. Miranda…the literary agent is under siege because the "memoirists" that she has taken on have turned out to be frauds and she must figure out what to do with her life now. Needless to say this may turn out to be a bigger worry than her mother having been abandoned since she has had a tendency in the past to make some very foolish choices. As they search to rediscover who they are…they are surprised at what they find. The three women processed all the flaws and strengths of real people… and at the end, were some surprises. I believe you could call this a “beach read”. Good enough story…but I found I quickly tired of it.

[Book Concierge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book on CD narrated by Hillary Huber
3.5***

Betty Weissmann is seventy-five when her seventy-eight-year-old husband, Joseph, announces he wants a divorce. Of course, he’ll be generous; he has loved Betty and her two girls from a previous marriage for over forty years, and he wants to do right by them. But his mistress, Felicity, has other plans for the elegant West-side apartment, and Betty is evicted from her only home with little notice. Her cousin Lou comes to the rescue, offering her his beach-side cottage in Westport. So, Betty and her two middle-aged daughters, Annie and Miranda, move in together and try to make sense of this new life.

This is a charming re-telling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (my personal favorite Austen novel). I had great fun trying to match Schine’s characters with Austen’s, and trying to figure out how certain plot elements might play out. Despite my familiarity with the original, Schine surprised me more than once.

I was immediately caught up in Betty’s story, and these characters seemed very real and recognizable to me. Their situation was both funny and poignant. There were times when I laughed out loud, or groaned in sympathy. I loved Betty; she went from confused and frustrated, to steely-spined and self-sufficient. Annie was the typical oldest child, taking charge and trying her best to “fix” what was wrong, while ignoring her own emotional needs. She presents a strong, calm façade, but does her crying in private. Miranda … well … she’s the “Marianne” character here, and I wanted to throttle her several times. Still, she is a sympathetic character despite (or perhaps because of) her flaws.

Hillary Huber shines in her performance of the audio book. She has the timing and tone to perfectly deliver this comedy of manners, and, as a skilled voice artist, she is able to differentiate the large cast of characters.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back book blurb states that this is an contemporary homage to Jane Austen. No surprise it doesn't hold a candle to the incomparable Austen, no charm, wit, biting sarcasm or satiric take on the manners of the day. There are two scenes that are ripped right out of Sense & sensibility between Miranda & Kit which I could visualize the original easily with Maryanne & Mr. Wickham.

Putting the comparison aside, it stands on its own as an interesting easy read of family dynamics and a cast of characters, some lovable, some not. Unexpectedly Betty is sued for divorce and as proceedings ensue, she has no money of her own. Her two middle-age daughters are dealing with their own stressors but decide to pool resources and accept accommodations (a beach cottage) from cousin Lou. Thus starts the ball rolling on how each copes with this change in lifestyle, deal with new people entering their lives and juggling the relationships of new and old.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine is just about a perfect book. It begins with Betty Weissman, 76, and her husband, Josie (short for Joseph) in their upper West Side apartment. Josie tells Betty he wants a divorce. Soon Betty and her two middle-aged daughters, Annie (single mother of two grown sons) and Miranda (book agent recently ruined when two of her authors are discovered to have invented their memoirs) find themselves clinging together on a lifeboat in the guise of a small ("cozy") cottage owned by their generous Cousin Lou.

We follow the trials of our three unlikely heroines in their quest for love and/or financial security. They may struggle with loneliness but their lives-and this book-teem with the lives of others. Scheme has created a rich world, culturally resonant while simultaneously ringing true for many women in 21st century America. How do we live when life seems to have become increasingly improvisational? And, at the same time how do we deal with the very traditional issues of love, loss, betrayal, and aging? In this story, it seems with emotional storms, perseverance, exasperation, humor, and, above all love.

Schine's writing is clear and vivid, her story moving. I loved this book. I recommend it, even if you're not middle-aged or from the upper Upper West Side. It's a wonderful novel.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern day version of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility", absolutely delightful read. I could identify with all of the characters: the mother, whose husband decides at the ripe old age of 75 that he wants a younger wife, after 50 years of happy marriage; the 2 daughters, who are both on the cusp of being past their "sell-by" dates; and all the delightfully colorful characters who populate this book. Though it's mostly tongue-in-cheek funny, there are some very sad parts to the book, including the following description of older women, which struck my heart like a spear.
" He had seen a hundred such women, a thousand. They flocked to his readings, to the workshops and classes he sometimes taught. They were an identifiable class of citizens, America's lost souls, like the lost boys of Africa, but they were not boys, they were women, older women, still beautiful in their older way, still vibrant in their older way, with their beauty and vibrancy suddenly accosted by the one thing beauty and vibrancy cannot withstand-irrelevance."

ARGH! Am I ready for the red-hat ladies' club?

[Ginny_1807 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Drammone al femminile in odore di soap, che, per ragioni diverse, coinvolge un terzetto di mature signore della buona società newyorkese, la madre e due figlie sulla cinquantina, in un patetico esodo dalla città al fine di dare una svolta alla propria vita e in una macchinosa serie di escursioni amorose nelle direzioni più disparate e infauste. L’idea del divorzio tardivo dei genitori mi era sembrata interessante, ma mi hanno infastidito il clima artificiosamente spensierato, il tono frivolo dei dialoghi e l’assurdità di certe situazioni, più appropriate ad adolescenti ingenue che a donne ormai più che adulte. Anche la schiera di personaggi che affianca le protagoniste non è esente da una banalità stereotipata che alla lunga annoia, e l’ironia che la scrittrice vorrebbe adottare per descrivere lo sviluppo degli eventi finisce talora per sfociare nell’insulso o nel grottesco.
Soltanto alcune pagine, specie nella parte finale, sfuggono alla mediocrità ed è per questo che il giudizio non è completamente negativo.

[Susan Sherwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I vacillated between giving this novel two or three stars.

I do think that I expected more from this book after reading reviews on the book flap and from book sellers, and I generally enjoy character-driven narratives. Sure, I sympathized somewhat with Betty, the 75 year old woman who is dumped by her 78 year old husband for a younger woman (how cliched) and forced to move from a life of luxury to one quite different, and her two daughters, each with her own baggage. However, I was disappointed with this read, and I couldn't help but feel that the plot was too derivative, the characters too annoying, and the ending too pat. A psychologist or psychiatrist would have a great time analyzing the characters, and I suspect book group discussions will have also much to discuss, but Schine's novel just did not float my boat (speaking of cliches!).

[Jocelyn Coe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that sections of the book were contrived and the ending wrapped up to quickly and I did not think the direction the characters were taken was believable.

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[Bobbie Serensky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept thinking something was going to happen… but it never did.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read. I, of course, identified with the worry wart, librarian Annie (out of the two sisters) for many reasons. Found her musings on her children growing up very poignant. Characters were interesting and/or appropriately annoying, infuriating, or interestingly "out there." And one does not need to have read Jane Austen to appreciate its sense and sensibilities.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on a recommendation from my mom. She billed it as a modernized Sense and Sensibility, with a very different twist at the end. I felt like Sense and Sensibility would be a very difficult Austen novel to modernize - would we not, now, just demand explanations from the vanishing suitors? Do people still have secret engagements? I did not know.

But this novel comes off surprisingly fresh, which is not an easy thing in the oversaturated Austen niche market. I liked that the author aged all of the women to their fifties. Being penniless in your twenties these days is more expected than frightening, but making the sisters older and in financial distress lent the story more resonance.

It is also interesting to see an Austen story play out in a world of modern sexual mores. The 'Edward' character is lured into an engagement because he has unwisely had sex with (and allegedly impregnated) his house sitter. And yet, the fact that he once slept with the 'Elinor' character is one of the ways in which she knows that her feelings for him were returned, at least in part.

Some of the characters transfer very well from the original Austen novel. Felicity is a spot on update of Fanny. Cousin Lou is a wonderful incarnation of Sir John Middleton and Kit Maybank is as unscrupulous a rake as Willoughby ever was. Betty, as the matriarch of the family, has a larger role but stays true to type. And the modern day Brandon, a semi-retired lawyer named Roberts, is very nicely done indeed.

Overall, the characters are extremely faithful to their archetypes, even while the ending of the book diverges wildly from the original. I love that the 'Marianne' character falls in love with and decides to marry a woman. And I am willing to accept that in this version, an Annie and Roberts pairing makes more sense than an Elinor-Brandon match would have in the original. Having Annie eventually reject Frederick after all his ridiculous drama seems a bit of a feminist victory. I think the ending is where the book really succeeds in telling its own version of a clasic story.

[Bobby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit there were many pages within the covers of this book that I considered not worth reading, yet as a whole it was a decent read.

The beginning of the novel captured me as I read about the woman who I believed would be a central character, a woman whose husband of 48 years was divorcing to be with a younger woman. The writing was enigmatic, drawing the reader in to feel the same confusion as this woman and drawn to her wholly. Alas, since this was a modernization of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" in come the daughters who need to be presented as vulnerable as their mother. This is where the novel falls off. The same characterization, so strongly applied to the development of the mother, never occurs for the daughters. Each is described as the reader is to perceive them, but the richness of language usage by the author is absent and the actions of the women, for they are women not girls, never rings true to the ongoing descriptions of what the reader is supposed to perceive. The daughters are to be successful women, one near and one in her 50's, with crisis of their own. As a woman of that age myself, I believe that the premise is strong, but it falters quickly and never regains promise.

On the other hand, the novel does succeed in it's impetus to be a modernization of Austen's novel in it's characterization of a society yet unfair to women and of men, who make foolish mistakes, hurting themselves and others. I think this aspect kept me reading and gave the book value. I think that the author was quite successful in designing a situation where you want to hate the man, but cannot. This character, like the wife he is divorcing, is well developed as a man who is not facing himself or the truths of his actions, let alone the suffering he causes. I also find his other woman to be a perfect modernization of her match in Austen.

Many may enjoy this novel, especially if you like modernization of classics. For me, however, the promise of the first chapter did not prove itself, and I found myself minimally interested and sometimes disappointed at times as I read the novel.

[Maxine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this novel is really the end of sorts. Joe, asks his wife of 48 years, Betty, for a divorce. He cites irreconcilable differences. Betty says, “Irreconcilable differences? What does that have to do with divorce?” The rose colored glasses are off and we are shocked and upset with Betty. How can this be?

While trying to be a gentleman, Joe, on the advice of his lawyers, has cancelled all his wife’s credit cards and suggests she leave their upper scale apartment. This irreconcilable difference is beginning to rear her ugly head.

Mourning her new life and longing for the old, Betty accepts an invitation from cousin Lou to stay in an empty cottage in Westport, Connecticut. She does not go alone, her two middle-aged daughters with a host of issues of their own tag along. Will these three single Weissmann’s find comfort in looking after each other?

A member of my book club recommended this novel to me and I enjoyed it. The beginning was witty and entertaining. I found Betty’s decision to ‘mourn’ the loss of Joe amusing. In fact, I thought Betty would turn into this wonderful adversary for Vivacity or Capacity…whatever her name is. However, this character seemed to fizzle out. I did not understand Frederick Barrow. Did I feel sorry for him or did I just not care? Was this grown man really such a push over and don’t get me started on his daughter. All in all the variety of eccentrics we meet to tell the story are superficial spoiled brats. I would have liked to know more about Roberts, Barrow, Annie, Joe and Felicity. The surface was merely scratched; I wanted to dig deeper. While I did get a few giggles the subject matter is a sad one. Too often we say, shoulda, coulda, woulda or why? I had much to ponder trying to answer these questions.

[JoAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern adaptations of classic novels seem to be everywhere lately and The Three Weissmanns of Westport, inspired by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, is one of the best I've come across. It's nearly as smart and witty as Jane herself, plus it's teeming with literary references.

I snapped it up (for only $1.50) at the library book sale last summer for two reasons. First and foremost, I love Jane Austen. Second, in the late 80's I lived near Westport, CT and was drawn to the setting. I was not disappointed on either account - Schine's novel would make Jane proud and it perfectly captures Westport, too. I nodded in recognition at traffic references on Old Post Road, the rapidly redeveloping beachfront, and the general description of Fairfield County's suburban lifestyle. I certainly got more than got my money's worth here!

The Three Weissmanns of Westport is the type of intelligent beach read I find myself craving each summer. Let me emphasize that the novel absolutely stands on it own. You do not need to be familiar with Sense and Sensibility in order to enjoy it.

However, I would recommend at least watching a movie adaptation (either before or after) to get a true sense of the novel's cleverness. It's been at least ten years since I read Sense and Sensibility, so recollected only the broadest plot details. I watched the old BBC adaptation a few days after finishing and it really added to my appreciation of what Schine has accomplished. It also made me want to reread Sense and Sensibility.

[Sheila DeChantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Three Weissmann’s Of Westport is a book I pulled off my shelf for our recent trip to Mexico. It looked like just the type of read I would enjoy while sitting at the pool. I was right. The book I found right from the start shocking, a 78 year old man after spending more than 50 years of his life with a woman decides to throw it all away for a younger, prettier, and quite honestly…. gold digger. I found myself flying through the pages waiting for Joseph to come to his senses.

Does he?

Well…. I can not tell you that. I can say the ending was not as I had thought it would be. It left me thinking. That’s not a bad thing.

This book has been compared to a modern day Sense and Sensibility. I will let you be the judge of that. Over all a pleasant enough read. The characters are not always likable, the story line at times is frustrating, and still…. there is something about the Weissmann’s.

Beach read worthy? Yes.

For my full review: http://bookjourney.net/2016/01/27/the...

[Kassandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh boy...I really wanted to like this one. It came highly recommended to me but it was a total miss for me. I wish I was able to abandon books, I would have let this one go long before I made it to the 50th page. Unfortunately I can't so I had to slog through it and it was tough going. It was as though Schine created a promising story with some mediocre characters and then realized halfway through that she couldn't salvage the characters. Instead of going back to the drawing board, she flipped their situations on their heads, hoping to distract the reader from the character flaws with trendy topics and cliches. A very disappointing read for me.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so I really liked the part where one of the characters described the feeling of being on Connecticut commuter trains (lovely and true), and the freaked out New Yorkers' reactions when they come to "the country". Oooh, so accurate.

The rest irritated me. I reap my just rewards for ignorning Elizabeth's review.

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have trouble understanding why there are so many negative reviews of this book. I thought it was extemely well written -- full of great expressions and effectively and rapidly changing points of view. Also the playful and ironic reference to Jane Austen worked for me. Perhaps those most critical were those who expected it to be true to Jane Austen. I don't think that was the point.

[Delia Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I liked the fact the characters were thrown together under extraordinary circumstances in their lives, and the characters themselves were amusing and likeable. The story was pretty good, too; it had structure and a satisfying conclusion. The writing style was pleasing and all in all, this book was a good, girly (but not frothy) read.

[Perkimom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun romp--a hoot, involving families, particularly the women in families--as they discover each other again in adulthood in unfamiliar surroundings and circumstances.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised myself by really liking this book...the author has such a "calm writing style" which contrasts well with the chaos her characters are experiencing.