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There Will Never Be Another You
“Carolyn See has written a novel alive with wit and love and energy–a book about things falling apart that turns out to be a day at the beach. . . . Pure joy.”–Joan Didion
Accomplished author Carolyn See triumphantly returns to fiction–seven years after her last novel was published–with this provocative, vibrantly written new novel. Set in a security-obsessed world that eerily mirrors our own, There Will Never Be Another You captures the paranoia and propaganda of a volatile time and place in which humanity’s divisions run deep and society sits on edge–and one Southern California family faces profound crises from within and without.
It is a moment in the near future when the global threat of terror has cultivated rage, apathy, and panic across the country. People fear that “anybody could be armed, or have a bomb. Or a disease. Or all three.” For Phil, a dermatologist at the UCLA hospital, it is a time of unease and uncertainty, in stark contrast to the days when he coasted through life on his good looks, a modicum of charm, and only haphazard effort. Now Phil must deal with his mother, Edith, who’s been grieving over the death of her husband for several years and only recently has thought to reconnect with a family that seems to have other priorities. Phil’s energies are already divvied up among his belligerent children, his wayward wife, and his unreliable mistress.
Then Phil’s life takes a dramatic He is recruited for a top-secret team whose task is to act quickly in the event of a biological or chemical attack. The assignment just may provide him with a renewed sense of purpose. Yet dire circumstances force Phil to make profound decisions that will affect not just himself and his loved ones but the entire country. It is a chance for an ordinary man to rise from mediocrity to heroism–and at which failure would prove to be catastrophic.
Foreboding and all too plausible, There Will Never Be Another You is a cautionary novel of family and society, where a naïve past is replaced by a menacing future in which distinguishing between reality and imagination proves to be more challenging than ever.
Accomplished author Carolyn See triumphantly returns to fiction–seven years after her last novel was published–with this provocative, vibrantly written new novel. Set in a security-obsessed world that eerily mirrors our own, There Will Never Be Another You captures the paranoia and propaganda of a volatile time and place in which humanity’s divisions run deep and society sits on edge–and one Southern California family faces profound crises from within and without.
It is a moment in the near future when the global threat of terror has cultivated rage, apathy, and panic across the country. People fear that “anybody could be armed, or have a bomb. Or a disease. Or all three.” For Phil, a dermatologist at the UCLA hospital, it is a time of unease and uncertainty, in stark contrast to the days when he coasted through life on his good looks, a modicum of charm, and only haphazard effort. Now Phil must deal with his mother, Edith, who’s been grieving over the death of her husband for several years and only recently has thought to reconnect with a family that seems to have other priorities. Phil’s energies are already divvied up among his belligerent children, his wayward wife, and his unreliable mistress.
Then Phil’s life takes a dramatic He is recruited for a top-secret team whose task is to act quickly in the event of a biological or chemical attack. The assignment just may provide him with a renewed sense of purpose. Yet dire circumstances force Phil to make profound decisions that will affect not just himself and his loved ones but the entire country. It is a chance for an ordinary man to rise from mediocrity to heroism–and at which failure would prove to be catastrophic.
Foreboding and all too plausible, There Will Never Be Another You is a cautionary novel of family and society, where a naïve past is replaced by a menacing future in which distinguishing between reality and imagination proves to be more challenging than ever.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 16, 2006
About the author
Carolyn See
37 books77 followersCarolyn See was the author of ten books, including the memoir, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America, an advice book on writing, Making a Literary Life, and the novels There Will Never Be Another You and The Handyman.
She was the Friday-morning reviewer for The Washington Post, and she has been on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle and PENWest International. She won both the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Getty Center fellowship. She lived in Pacific Palisades, California.
See also wrote books under the pen name Monica Highland, a name she shared with two others, her daughter Lisa See and her longtime companion, John Espey, who died in 2000.
See was known for writing novels set in Los Angeles and co-edited books that revolve around the city, including a book of short stories, LA Shorts, and the pictorial books Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea: A Pictorial History of Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga & Malibu, and The California Pop-Up Book, which celebrates the city's unique architecture.
She was the Friday-morning reviewer for The Washington Post, and she has been on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle and PENWest International. She won both the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Getty Center fellowship. She lived in Pacific Palisades, California.
See also wrote books under the pen name Monica Highland, a name she shared with two others, her daughter Lisa See and her longtime companion, John Espey, who died in 2000.
See was known for writing novels set in Los Angeles and co-edited books that revolve around the city, including a book of short stories, LA Shorts, and the pictorial books Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea: A Pictorial History of Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga & Malibu, and The California Pop-Up Book, which celebrates the city's unique architecture.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 10, 2009
As a student of Carolyn See, and an admirer who has followed her stories since first meeting her in a dilapidated UCLA classroom in 1996, its incredibly difficult to separate this novel from her life. Readers are not supposed to judge a piece of art based on the author's life. We should be able to look solely at the work itself to form astute criticisms, but there are just some creations that allude too much to what could be autobiographical, and the writer's personal stories can't be overlooked. They practically scream off the page. There Will Never Be Another You, published in 2006, is not only set on the UCLA campus, but the novel starts with two pivotal moments. The narrator, Edith, grieves the recent loss of her husband and soul mate while the TV in the background replays images of the Twin Towers disintegrating into flames and rubble. Each incident strikes home. The last time I saw See, she was caring for her companion, John Espey, while he bout with a terminal illness. He died in 2000. In class and at local readings, See was very open about the declining health of her beloved, and we felt with her as she shared her stories. There Will Never Be Another You is deeply personal, and See's voice and spirit illuminate every page.
Edith's voice as first person narrator is as anyone would expect from See. She is wry, funny, and her words cut to the bone and marrow. Her love for her son is fierce: "He's sad. That's what makes him pale. I hardly ever see him laugh. Maybe he does when he's at home or when he's at work, but I can't imagine it. I don't see the lines there, the lines in his face from laughing." The novel switches between first person, Edith, and close third person, zeroing in on her son, Phil, as well as Danny and Andrea, two UCLA students who meet in an English Literature class and whose ethnic backgrounds clash against family and community. Danny is Chinese. His family recently arrived in the States. We, along with Andrea, take a painfully uncomfortable and embarrassing trip to his cramped east side apartment, where his sister, uncles, and cousins, pressure Danny to stay true to family and culture, which loosely translates to "dump the white girl." Meanwhile Andrea, an upper middle class Euro American struggles with her own father's illness. With Danny discreetly at her side, our privileged Sleeping Beauty awakens to the cruel realities of a racially fractured and unstable world. Danny's, Andrea's and Edith's families are united at the UCLA hospital, where life, despite the trauma of 9/11, hangs in the balance daily. Coping with family illnesses, the families cling to each other while the rest of the world seems to implode around them.
An ordinary tale turned creepy and sinister, See exploits the shadier side of UCLA. I used to hear spine tingling tales from Bio Chem majors about strange south campus practices occurring in the radioactive labs and experiments gone awry while testing animals. Anyone who's ever forced to find their way through the Modernist labyrinths of the Sciences buildngs can attest to the shocking number of foreboding signs that warn non-authorized persons not to enter certain hallways. Yellow hazard lights warn people not to stray too far or too close. Chilling notices sprout in the most surprising places warning of "Radiation in Use." The weight of revolutionary scientific research, with all its insidious consequences, is palpable throughout South Campus. See wraps an ordinary tale of an American middle class family unraveling under a cloak of political and scientific mystery.
As the nation arms itself and grapples with hysteria and paranoia, Phil, our main character, the father, son, and husband works as dermatologist on campus but gets recruited by the government to prepare for some unforeseeable disaster. Though his higher ups never tell him what kind of disaster looms next, his life, in all aspects, is soon governed by a "need to know basis." He doesn't know what to expect from his boss or his adulterous wife, and he certainly can't predict the temperamental moods of his spoiled teenage children. As the centrifugal force of the story, he lulls us into antipathy. Phil just doesn't seem to care about the welfare of his family, or perhaps he cares too much yet is absolutely clueless on what to do about it. Like mother, like son, both Edith and Phil face their inner demons with Ambien, martinis, and Phil with an extra marital affair of his own, until each paints oneself into a corner and must finally face one another. And, just as we come to know Phil for the spineless soul he is, just as we start to really resent his pathetic existence, See switches up the dynamics and Phil skyrockets onto a fiery path of strength and imagination, exactly what we need to break the shield of hurt, blame, and fear that we seem to find ourselves trapped in alongside the characters.
Fiction writers who read See will learn how to give the smallest scant of information to keep readers bated. See knows exactly how to hold the narrative pieces together and make the reader leap with her narrators. She's a minimalist when it comes to storytelling. She doesn't need to paint a whole scene; she just needs to tack down the right details, in as few notes as possible, before she moves onto the next scene. Her narrative hurtles through years, and See truthfully and poignantly captures Angelenos/as' experiences after 9/11. Cut off from Ground Zero by time zones and distance, the attacks were surreal, yet they slit into us, viscerally, disembowling our psyche. Disaster, already the backbone to Los Angeles, is only intensified.
There Will Never Be Another You is a book of optimism written at a time when we most desperately need it. The stories encompass all stages of life from its most innocent and graceful to its most awkward and ugly. See has this magical ability to force us to reacquaint ourselves with our most child-like dreams and fears, and, at the same time, she nudges us to grow up. Her stories assure us its never too late to become an adult, but we also have to hold onto what makes us feel young.
Edith's voice as first person narrator is as anyone would expect from See. She is wry, funny, and her words cut to the bone and marrow. Her love for her son is fierce: "He's sad. That's what makes him pale. I hardly ever see him laugh. Maybe he does when he's at home or when he's at work, but I can't imagine it. I don't see the lines there, the lines in his face from laughing." The novel switches between first person, Edith, and close third person, zeroing in on her son, Phil, as well as Danny and Andrea, two UCLA students who meet in an English Literature class and whose ethnic backgrounds clash against family and community. Danny is Chinese. His family recently arrived in the States. We, along with Andrea, take a painfully uncomfortable and embarrassing trip to his cramped east side apartment, where his sister, uncles, and cousins, pressure Danny to stay true to family and culture, which loosely translates to "dump the white girl." Meanwhile Andrea, an upper middle class Euro American struggles with her own father's illness. With Danny discreetly at her side, our privileged Sleeping Beauty awakens to the cruel realities of a racially fractured and unstable world. Danny's, Andrea's and Edith's families are united at the UCLA hospital, where life, despite the trauma of 9/11, hangs in the balance daily. Coping with family illnesses, the families cling to each other while the rest of the world seems to implode around them.
An ordinary tale turned creepy and sinister, See exploits the shadier side of UCLA. I used to hear spine tingling tales from Bio Chem majors about strange south campus practices occurring in the radioactive labs and experiments gone awry while testing animals. Anyone who's ever forced to find their way through the Modernist labyrinths of the Sciences buildngs can attest to the shocking number of foreboding signs that warn non-authorized persons not to enter certain hallways. Yellow hazard lights warn people not to stray too far or too close. Chilling notices sprout in the most surprising places warning of "Radiation in Use." The weight of revolutionary scientific research, with all its insidious consequences, is palpable throughout South Campus. See wraps an ordinary tale of an American middle class family unraveling under a cloak of political and scientific mystery.
As the nation arms itself and grapples with hysteria and paranoia, Phil, our main character, the father, son, and husband works as dermatologist on campus but gets recruited by the government to prepare for some unforeseeable disaster. Though his higher ups never tell him what kind of disaster looms next, his life, in all aspects, is soon governed by a "need to know basis." He doesn't know what to expect from his boss or his adulterous wife, and he certainly can't predict the temperamental moods of his spoiled teenage children. As the centrifugal force of the story, he lulls us into antipathy. Phil just doesn't seem to care about the welfare of his family, or perhaps he cares too much yet is absolutely clueless on what to do about it. Like mother, like son, both Edith and Phil face their inner demons with Ambien, martinis, and Phil with an extra marital affair of his own, until each paints oneself into a corner and must finally face one another. And, just as we come to know Phil for the spineless soul he is, just as we start to really resent his pathetic existence, See switches up the dynamics and Phil skyrockets onto a fiery path of strength and imagination, exactly what we need to break the shield of hurt, blame, and fear that we seem to find ourselves trapped in alongside the characters.
Fiction writers who read See will learn how to give the smallest scant of information to keep readers bated. See knows exactly how to hold the narrative pieces together and make the reader leap with her narrators. She's a minimalist when it comes to storytelling. She doesn't need to paint a whole scene; she just needs to tack down the right details, in as few notes as possible, before she moves onto the next scene. Her narrative hurtles through years, and See truthfully and poignantly captures Angelenos/as' experiences after 9/11. Cut off from Ground Zero by time zones and distance, the attacks were surreal, yet they slit into us, viscerally, disembowling our psyche. Disaster, already the backbone to Los Angeles, is only intensified.
There Will Never Be Another You is a book of optimism written at a time when we most desperately need it. The stories encompass all stages of life from its most innocent and graceful to its most awkward and ugly. See has this magical ability to force us to reacquaint ourselves with our most child-like dreams and fears, and, at the same time, she nudges us to grow up. Her stories assure us its never too late to become an adult, but we also have to hold onto what makes us feel young.
July 14, 2007
Many of See's novels have this not-quite-right-anymore, quasi-apocalyptic tinge to them, as if society (esp. California society) is past some golden age. This one feels that way, even more so; it's set slightly ahead of our time and post 9/11. Everyone -- grandmother, her doctor son and his wife, a problematic grandson -- is jaded, and that *sharpens* them as actors here. I love See's economy with dialogue and scenes: she develops just enough, and moves on. Her earlier novel, The Handyman, is one of my favorite guilty (literary) pleasures: it's good, and it's a page-turner. This one is too. There's love, bioterrorism, jazz, social commentary, sex, school, death, and intergenerational tensions, and Phil, Esther, Andrea, Danny, and all the rest try to make work a world which is hostile to their deepest human wishes. And, to some degree, they do.
April 26, 2018
Below was my first review of this book. It came back up in my bookpile and I decided to give it another shot. I took it up a star this time. See holds up--and I hope more discover her as a voice of California literature.
This is my second Carolyn See novel after the classic California post-apocalyptic Golden Days. She is a fantastically gifted writer. To me she captures the Southern California lifestyle to a T and as always she captures a point in time--this time right after 9/11 and the ensuing hysteria over anthrax. And yet--you are still there in Southern California with people playing out their family dramas and living life.
I still prefer Golden Days--this one was softer.
This is my second Carolyn See novel after the classic California post-apocalyptic Golden Days. She is a fantastically gifted writer. To me she captures the Southern California lifestyle to a T and as always she captures a point in time--this time right after 9/11 and the ensuing hysteria over anthrax. And yet--you are still there in Southern California with people playing out their family dramas and living life.
I still prefer Golden Days--this one was softer.
February 7, 2013
Well, upon finishing the book, I looked at the reviews and, I find that I am disappointed by the reviews. Listening to this book reminded me of Farthing, by Jo Walton. While Farthing is set in an alternative reality where the second world war turned out differently, this reality is only a little different with a little more paranoia, just a hint more fascism. In both books, the focus is on families that seem, for the most part, to be oblivious to the world at large. The characters are not particularly likeable. While Farthing focused on upper class English society in the late 40's, this book is set mostly between 2007 and 2016 and her characters are more upper middle class a.
So Edith is a grieving widow with an oblivious dermatologist son in a loveless marriage except that Edith isn't really grieving. She's lonely...no, not really. She's just post dead husband. Her son, Phil, is not truly oblivious. His assumptions about his world are just wrong. And so, as we observe these characters who know so little about the bigger picture, we can extrapolate the environment and society that they have allowed, through their inattentiveness, to develop around them. While I wouldn't consider it to be an allegory, it is obviously not intended to be reality based.
So Edith is a grieving widow with an oblivious dermatologist son in a loveless marriage except that Edith isn't really grieving. She's lonely...no, not really. She's just post dead husband. Her son, Phil, is not truly oblivious. His assumptions about his world are just wrong. And so, as we observe these characters who know so little about the bigger picture, we can extrapolate the environment and society that they have allowed, through their inattentiveness, to develop around them. While I wouldn't consider it to be an allegory, it is obviously not intended to be reality based.
December 12, 2008
I really enjoyed The Handyman by Carolyn See, which I read MANNNNNY years ago. This book was different, and I didn't hate it, but I didn't really love it either.
Set after 9/11, There Will Never Be Another You has a definite post-catastrophe feel. Far removed from the scene of New York, the book explores a family of characters, whose lives are affected by the aftermath of detruction, loss and death. Phil deals with his crumbling marriage and the scary potential of his rising career, Edith loses her husband and tries to find a way to start over, Vern sees his mother cheat on his father (Phil) and acts out accordingly, Andrea and Danny are brought together by the thin thread of organ donation.
In all, it's not a bad book, it just deals with life on a larger scope than See's previous books, which she handles well--though not perfectly. I'd still recommend The Handyman to anyone searching for a See recommendation, but in terms of recovering from loss, this book also does well.
Set after 9/11, There Will Never Be Another You has a definite post-catastrophe feel. Far removed from the scene of New York, the book explores a family of characters, whose lives are affected by the aftermath of detruction, loss and death. Phil deals with his crumbling marriage and the scary potential of his rising career, Edith loses her husband and tries to find a way to start over, Vern sees his mother cheat on his father (Phil) and acts out accordingly, Andrea and Danny are brought together by the thin thread of organ donation.
In all, it's not a bad book, it just deals with life on a larger scope than See's previous books, which she handles well--though not perfectly. I'd still recommend The Handyman to anyone searching for a See recommendation, but in terms of recovering from loss, this book also does well.
September 15, 2008
The book was an okay read. It is the story of a family that copes to life after the attacks of 9/11. The family lives in Los Angeles and jumps between a couple of characters. At the end of the book you don't care what happens to any of the characters. Phil is a doctor at UCLA medical hospital and gets recruited to be a part of a secret group of doctors that will work for the government in case of a terrorist attack. His mother Edith is a widow and volunteers at the hospital were her son works. You get a sense that there is some distance between mother and son. Phil has problems with marriage and kids. His daughter does not respect him and his son appears to be autistic with sudden fits and outbursts. The only character that grows is Phil's son when he is taken from his mother by his father and work on a ship as a doctor and ship hand. A third part of the story is of Andrea & Danny who meet at the hospital while visiting family members. A couple of times they disappear in the grounds of UCLA to have sex. So all in all this book was okay read, but I would not recommend it.
October 3, 2025
Carolyn See writes this book in her seventies, married and divorced twice; two daughters, one from each marriage; a final relationship that lasted twenty five years until his death. So in this book, she looks at death and backwards at life, touches briefly and comically on the societal issues of the day--the teen crime in Los Angeles, the professional demands of the oppressed women--that seem so current that it seems that the book could have been written today rather than twenty years ago.
She even manages to get an epidemic or a pandemic as one of the primary storylines so that one is forced to think that she somehow had the pulse of today's world twenty years ago.
A thought provoking read.
She even manages to get an epidemic or a pandemic as one of the primary storylines so that one is forced to think that she somehow had the pulse of today's world twenty years ago.
A thought provoking read.
December 1, 2017
Very disjointed, more than a little ridiculous (not in a good way). The lives of paper-thin characters somehow intertwine in ways that presumably are meant to be relevant but that never quite resonate. Shifting between first- and third-person POV for purposes unknown is needlessly distracting. Some of the prose isn't terrible, but so what?
February 2, 2018
(Keeping it to 3 sentences because my life is so unfortunately busy right now)
I got through CD 3, but I found with every minute more I was losing interest. Although the characters in the story have pretty similar life circumstances, I found myself liking them less and less. It's hard to listen to characters whose actions/choices you dislike.
I got through CD 3, but I found with every minute more I was losing interest. Although the characters in the story have pretty similar life circumstances, I found myself liking them less and less. It's hard to listen to characters whose actions/choices you dislike.
June 15, 2021
This novel was written in 2006, so it is an interesting read as we slowly emerge (?) from the COVID-19 pandemic. I hoped for more insight into how humans deal (or don't deal) with this kind of crisis, but I didn't find much. The tone of the novel is hopeless and the characters are strange, distant, unlikeable. Nonetheless, I kept reading and it was compelling in a way I can't articulate.
May 20, 2023
Readable, but seems unfinished.Reading it in 2023 seems more interesting than when it first came out, but the virus theme does not really get fully addressed, it seems just there in the background, even though it caused a big decision in Phil's life.
I liked the chapters about Edith, not so much the other ones.
I liked the chapters about Edith, not so much the other ones.
January 21, 2018
Never finished it. Tried twice. Couldn’t hold my attention.
December 26, 2018
I read this book in two days simply because it had very simple language. At the end of it all, I felt like I retained nothing. Not the one for me, unfortunately.
Read
January 7, 2021DNF
March 26, 2024
Listened to this while I was painting. There were many times I found I didn’t know what was going on bc my mind had wandered. It was meh.
February 19, 2025
Prescient is an understatement. I love her prose. Interesting Characters wrestling with life. I enjoyed navigating west side LA streets and neighborhoods. Well done!
February 1, 2017
depressing....
August 26, 2008
An ex-girlfriend, a woman who has dedicated her life to the study of human communication, once told me after she had grown weary of my reticent ways, “Joel, if you have nothing to say on the topic, just nod.” I suppose the literary equivalent of the nod would be the ellipsis – an extremely valuable tool.
See’s, There Will Never Be Another You, opens with Edith, the mother of Doctor Phillip Fuchs (snickering here is permissible), clearing her home of her late husband’s various medical apparatus and life sustaining medicines. She is preparing, once again, to endure life alone. Her son, a dermatologist at the UCLA Medical Center and incidentally married father of two dysfunctional children, is chosen by an obscure federal counter-terrorism agency to join an elite team of physicians carefully selected to see about improving terror preparedness – or so they say. Of course, there are other characters: There is Danny and Andrea, the interracial couple whose respective backgrounds and cultures are as divergent as the east is from the west, who overcome convention in the few pages awarded them to find a life of happiness together. There is the emotionally tortured Felicia, the forty-year-old wife of Phillip, who complains incessantly and delivers her husband an ultimatum that he should give her another child or buy her an avocado farm. She finally manages to conceive twins in an extramarital affair.
See’s style in this narrative is at once fluid and elegant. Though neither the style nor the story offers the reader any insight as to why the novel was written, it doesn’t negate the fact that the book is a good, light read for rainy Sundays or peaceful rail voyages over a tranquil countryside. Anything greater than that...
© Joel Glenn, Book Critic –The NYLS Book Review, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
See’s, There Will Never Be Another You, opens with Edith, the mother of Doctor Phillip Fuchs (snickering here is permissible), clearing her home of her late husband’s various medical apparatus and life sustaining medicines. She is preparing, once again, to endure life alone. Her son, a dermatologist at the UCLA Medical Center and incidentally married father of two dysfunctional children, is chosen by an obscure federal counter-terrorism agency to join an elite team of physicians carefully selected to see about improving terror preparedness – or so they say. Of course, there are other characters: There is Danny and Andrea, the interracial couple whose respective backgrounds and cultures are as divergent as the east is from the west, who overcome convention in the few pages awarded them to find a life of happiness together. There is the emotionally tortured Felicia, the forty-year-old wife of Phillip, who complains incessantly and delivers her husband an ultimatum that he should give her another child or buy her an avocado farm. She finally manages to conceive twins in an extramarital affair.
See’s style in this narrative is at once fluid and elegant. Though neither the style nor the story offers the reader any insight as to why the novel was written, it doesn’t negate the fact that the book is a good, light read for rainy Sundays or peaceful rail voyages over a tranquil countryside. Anything greater than that...
© Joel Glenn, Book Critic –The NYLS Book Review, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
June 4, 2007
I'm always eager to read books about L.A., but they almost always disappoint me. (None of them really capture my L.A.—though oddly, I feel that Raymond Chandler's world occasionally intersects with mine. Also, the movie Blade Runner.) See's latest novel unfortunately continued the trend. It takes place is a universe that's supposed to be only slightly different from ours, in which national security after 9/11 has been amped up even more than it really was. Unfortunately, the difference feels if anything too slight—I'm not sure I would have realized it was an AU at all if I hadn't been told by the cover copy. None of the rest of the novel really comes together, either; it follows several interconnected characters, all of whom have reason to spend time at the UCLA medical center. Edith is a hospital volunteer whose husband died of a prolonged illness the day before the World Trade Center attacks; her son Phil is a dermatologist; Andrea and OmgGuyWhoseNameI'veAlreadyForgotten both have family members who are ill. All of these characters are fairly unpleasant, and they all resolve their worries about family and death in ways that feel oddly unrealistic. I finished this novel feeling like I must have missed something, but I talked to my mom about it this weekend, and though she loves See's Golden Days, she felt much the same way. Okay, so back to my original assessment: This doesn't really work. Wherever it was going, it didn't get there.
June 18, 2015
This novel started out with a bang- the first couple of chapters features a woman musing on the loss of her second(and most beloved)husband who has just died, while recounting in brutal detail the mundane clean-up of his sick room that follows. I know this does not sound appealing!
However, the scene was riveting, partly because the narrator's personality was so completely lacking in self-pity.
I was looking forward to finding out how she would emerge from the depths of her jaundiced outlook on the prospects of her future life. To my disappointment,the story somehow drifted away from this compelling character and began to follow her hapless son, a physician who possesses not one iota of his mother's fortitude. The story is not furthered by the fact that mother & son do not communicate, even though they both work in the same place.
I read at least two thirds of this book. Maybe at some point the paths of these two characters were going to converge and result in a resolution of conflict, but it wasn't worth wading through the rest of the book to get there.
However, the scene was riveting, partly because the narrator's personality was so completely lacking in self-pity.
I was looking forward to finding out how she would emerge from the depths of her jaundiced outlook on the prospects of her future life. To my disappointment,the story somehow drifted away from this compelling character and began to follow her hapless son, a physician who possesses not one iota of his mother's fortitude. The story is not furthered by the fact that mother & son do not communicate, even though they both work in the same place.
I read at least two thirds of this book. Maybe at some point the paths of these two characters were going to converge and result in a resolution of conflict, but it wasn't worth wading through the rest of the book to get there.
December 27, 2007
The style of writing in this book reminded me of Days of Awe (which I didn't like at all) but was a more enjoyable reading experience for me. It also reminded me of Didion's "Year of Magical Thinking" because it was about what happens to the living spouse after their spouse dies... but again, I liked this one much better because it was more hopeful and the woman winds up finding more reasons to live eventually. Of course, this was fiction and that was a memoir so I guess the moral of the story is that in real life, a spouse dying is much worse... damn, that sucks. Anyway, this was an enjoyable enough read but nothing great. I kind of wished there would be more explanation of the post-9/11 apocalypse stuff because I found that interesting, but I guess that was not really the point of the book.
August 25, 2009
We're never told what happened between 2001 and the 2007 this book is set in, but it must have been something slightly different than what happened in the real world. The 2007 America in Another You seems to have fully given into its post-nine-eleven fears and made them part of its daily life. A little more security, a little less trust, and a growing number of not-quite-right events - but people have adapted and life keeps rolling along.
Other than the super-secret paramilitary-ish program that one of the novel's characters gets sucked into, the overlapping stories of this book are all just concerned with folks living their lives - a failing marriage, an aging widow, a troubled teen, young lovers. See's novel benefits from the low-level anxiety present in it's slightly skewed setting, and it's a beautifully written book, but in the end I found it a character-driven novel full of characters I never really cared too much about. Well-written and clever, but not very memorable.
Other than the super-secret paramilitary-ish program that one of the novel's characters gets sucked into, the overlapping stories of this book are all just concerned with folks living their lives - a failing marriage, an aging widow, a troubled teen, young lovers. See's novel benefits from the low-level anxiety present in it's slightly skewed setting, and it's a beautifully written book, but in the end I found it a character-driven novel full of characters I never really cared too much about. Well-written and clever, but not very memorable.
March 5, 2014
VERY ENTERTAINING AND ENJOYABLE TALE.
I have long loved the novels and non-fiction of Lisa See, and almost equally as long have been promising myself to read something by her mom—novelist, memoirist, and UCLA English professor—Carolyn See. Her novel, THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU, was a good place to start.
Enjoyed the story—lots of familiar 'insider' references, loved the writing, and loved the characters. Especially the matriarch of the tale, Edith, who can only be seen as an 'adorable, gritty old broad'—a description I suspect, from the few times I've seen her speak over the years, Carolyn See might aptly, and perhaps happily, apply to herself.
Now I want to read her memoir, DREAMING: HARD LUCK AND GOOD TIMES IN AMERICA.
Recommendation: If you like Lisa See, if you like T. C. Boyle, I think you will like this story.
"But we're not dead yet!"—Edith
MP3 audio book edition, 6 hours, 45 minutes
I have long loved the novels and non-fiction of Lisa See, and almost equally as long have been promising myself to read something by her mom—novelist, memoirist, and UCLA English professor—Carolyn See. Her novel, THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU, was a good place to start.
Enjoyed the story—lots of familiar 'insider' references, loved the writing, and loved the characters. Especially the matriarch of the tale, Edith, who can only be seen as an 'adorable, gritty old broad'—a description I suspect, from the few times I've seen her speak over the years, Carolyn See might aptly, and perhaps happily, apply to herself.
Now I want to read her memoir, DREAMING: HARD LUCK AND GOOD TIMES IN AMERICA.
Recommendation: If you like Lisa See, if you like T. C. Boyle, I think you will like this story.
"But we're not dead yet!"—Edith
MP3 audio book edition, 6 hours, 45 minutes
April 12, 2008
As someone else said, this tried to capture LA, and God knows she should be able to do it, being a prof at UCLA and all, but maybe it would have been more to my liking if it had been EITHER a sort-of-political post-9/11 scary family tale OR a family-drama-after-one-dies tale, OR a world weary rich white guy dumps the responsibilities fantasy story.
Perhaps I read it too quickly - it just didn't do it for me. Nothing captures LA like Didion or Boyle's Tortilla Curtain - at least the LA I knew some decades back. I seriously doubt it is any better now, as it destroys a piece of my soul every time I drive through on my way to family visits. And how bad must it be when Vegas looks better to my sister and me? But, I digress.
Not sure to whom I'd recommend this one.
Perhaps I read it too quickly - it just didn't do it for me. Nothing captures LA like Didion or Boyle's Tortilla Curtain - at least the LA I knew some decades back. I seriously doubt it is any better now, as it destroys a piece of my soul every time I drive through on my way to family visits. And how bad must it be when Vegas looks better to my sister and me? But, I digress.
Not sure to whom I'd recommend this one.
August 28, 2012
I like her writing style and this story has quirky but believable characters, and no plot. See's dysfunctional family vignettes are well wrought, and she says a lot with a few words. (I especially enjoyed reading Edith's chapters, the 70-something mother of Phil, another 1st person storyteller in this novel.) Entertaining reading for the plane ride from VA to MN last week. I picked this up at the Green Valley Book Fair near Harrisonburg for $3.50 because I had bought, read and remembered that I liked Carolyn See's book on writing in 2009.
August 28, 2016
This book had a much different style than what I am used to. It's the story of Phil--a Southern California dermatologist who is having marital problems, kid problems, etc. He is recruited to be part of a special group at UCLA who is preparing for some sort of bio-terror attack. I have no idea why the book is titled this way--I had a tough time figuring it out. I read it fairly quickly while on vacation and understood the book a little more after reading the interview with the author at the end.
July 18, 2010
I chose this book because it looked like a quick read, which it was. I also chose it because it was written by Carolyn See, Lisa See's mother, and I wanted to compare their styles. I like Lisa See's writing better. I have to say that I don't really get the connection between the title and the story. It was an interesting story about what might be. A little futuristic, but not in a sci-fi kind of way.
July 31, 2013
This book evoked very strong feelings in me: I hated it. I hated all of the characters, hated the stereotypical (and often offensive) portrayal of minorities, and hated the book's cynical world view. Additionally, I could find no coherent narrative or story line. I'm sure I was missing something, but I thought this book lacked a heart and a soul, and I regret having taken the time to finish it.
November 2, 2014
Writing style exemplifies character-based stories. See tells the sordid details of educated Los Angeles people (Doctors, retirees, and others) that are dissatisfied and unwilling to leverage their abundant resources to discover their own happiness. Reading left me disheartened and I did not care to finish reading the story.
January 29, 2012
Unusual and strange. Set in a security obsessed LA, the book explres the complexities of Phil the dermatologist's life - his recruitment to a top secret team at the hospital. his demanding wife, his grieving mother, his problematic children and a menacing future. Pretty good.
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