Living Room

by Rachel Sherman

The follow-up to her highly praised debut story collection, The First Hurt, Rachel Sherman’s Living Room is a beautiful and disarmingly direct portrait of a family in trouble. With the tone of a modern-day Jewish The Ice Storm set in Long Island, imbued with Alice Munro’s fascination with personal history, Living Room is a deep exploration of the ripple effects of mental illness on a family, as well as a look at generational differences in mating and marriage, and a wry, wise look at suburban angst.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story told from three different perspectives, spanning three generations, this book was just OK. Even though the daughter ends up in the hospital, the mother faces sexual ambiguity and questions about where her life went off track, and the grandmother dies... it felt like nothing really happened.

Where Rachel really dropped the ball was voice. The three female characters were so different, yet their seperate chapters were all writen in the same style, with the same attitude. I feel like she had a great opportunity to really dig into these women's psyches and transport the reader; instead, the entire book felt like it was written by a 20-something artist. Which it was. Which didn't really do much for me.

[eb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ability to write in an unsentimental, truthful way sounds like a prerequisite, something you'd have to get good at to publish novels, but in fact, hardly anyone can do it. Rachel Sherman can. This novel about three women (a grandmother, a daughter-in-law, a high school kid), contains so much truth it almost hurts to read it. I could have done with a *little* bit less of the grandma crawling around on the floor; I dreaded her chapters after a while. But I was fascinated by Livia and her chips, and Abby and her smokes. I cared about these characters and worried about them and got upset when they did.

[Vanessa A · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75/5. I would probably rate this book much higher if the 3rd person perspective didn't get annoying. I didn't fall in love with Sherman's choice to repeat people's name constantly and being simple. There are a few quotes that I fell in love with while reading. I also empathized with the characters a lot no matter how unlikeable they could be.

[Amanda Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 rounded down to 4

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish it had been about 200 pages longer

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book review for the Saroyan Prize. This book had potential.

This novel, set in Long Island, tells the tale of three generations of women, all with a certain level of social dysfunctionality. As the novel shifts back and forth from the perspectives of each woman, you can see the flaws and strengths of each character as reflected by the other characters. The author does a passable job at capturing the voices of these three women all at different stages of life -- the moping teenager, the unfulfilled housewife, the senile grandmother. What is equally intriguing is that the narrative for each character is not cohesive, so secrets are left unanswered, actions left unknown. However, there is no resolution at the end, which was confusing and unsatisfying. Was the mom really a lesbian? What happened in the woods?

What is the point of intrigue if you don't find out! Uggh.

[Gene Hult · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book at a fiction reading, at which Rachel Sherman was reading, by answering a question about The Breakfast Club: What does Ally Sheedy's character reply when Emilio Esteves' character asks what her parents do to her? And the answer, of course, is, "They ignore me." So free book, woo!

I enjoyed Rachel's reading at the event, and very much enjoyed this novel, which is about real people and their real problems. The story is told with much humor and clear-eyed insight, with a refreshing lack of melodrama. It's not the most exciting book ever written, but the characters are well-drawn and believable, and there was more than enough intrigue to keep me interested. My favorite character was the grandmother, and unsurprisingly, hers was also my favorite plotline.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great title.

But this book didn't have any life. The characters are flat and so obviously assembled, not complex or mysterious human beings. It felt almost like a worksheet novel to me. Each character has her list of qualities (Livia = unsatisfied housewife; eating disorder) and is duly assigned her conflict (attracted to lesbian client) and moves through the arc that her conflict demands, and yet these things don't add up to anything remotely interesting. It was so predictable that I began to dread the next chapter (oh yes, here we are at the inevitable sex scene with the Swedish exchange student) and therefore quit halfway through.

[April]

I'm halfway through the book & feel guilty for giving up since I've already invested time to finish half of it. I rarely give up on a book; however, I just don't care about any of these people. Grandma lays on the floor all day, mom is unhappy & has an eating disorder, & the teenage girl is going teenage girl stuff. I just don't care & none of these people are interesting. I'm not invested in what happens to them which is too bad because this book could have been so much more.

[Johanna DeBiase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. The characters are average women dealing with the complexities that occur at different stages of life. I was easily drawn into their dramas as the author did a good job of trusting the reader to draw their own conclusions, instead of over-explaining or sentimentalizing the story. Just as in real life, things don't simply conclude, but instead, begin to evolve and I was content to let the characters go, certain that things were changing for them for the better.

[Marjanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this novel though I can't quite pinpoint why. The characters were complex and matured throughout the novel. I liked the way the three lead female characters set each other apart, but also tied into each other as well. In ways this book was difficult to read, but the author kept my interest and I was curious to see what happened with each character.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought it was a slow read not very gripping, but easy to read. The characters in the book were also very sad from the grandmother who was dying with many regrets, to the mother with her ongoing depression, and the adolescent daughter who was just alone going through her teenage years with this weird foreign young adult au pair in the house. I would not recommend it.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It's about 3 women; a mom, her daughter and her mother in-law. They are all dealing with their place in life and while the mom's character was completely unlikable, the story was engaging and interesting. Headie, the grandma is at the end of her life, Abby, the daughter is a teen dealing with adolescent issues, and Livia the mom, is just pathetic all the way around.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but didn't. I put it down after 125 pages or so. I found too much of it too silly, in particular the way Sherman wrote about the old character, who rolls around on her floor, noticing ants.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate reading a book and getting some what involved in the characters(even though they are quite boring) and not getting any sort of resolution. The stories had no conclusion, the story got vauge in the end, ie, what happened in the woods, was the mom a lesbian? Dissapointed in this read.

[Kady Bone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this was a total waste of time. How do some books get published?

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

maybe a 1.5
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[Jen Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting characters (2 out of 3 of them) but a really scattered ending

[Jason Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ice Storm-esque

[Mary sipp rigby · Rating 3 out of 5]

so so

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. On Long Island. Grandmother - old and dying. Lives alone. Son Jeremy married to Livia who secretly binge eats. Daughter Abby drinks too much.

[Dysmonia Kuiper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about a bunch of miserable women connected by familial obligation. Not chick lit. As a miserable woman, I could relate.