Wow, this books takes a twist at the end.
It's About Your Husband, finally, is about the strange and twisted paths we sometimes take to wind up in the place we belong where we look back in wonder at the course not necessarily chosen, but walked down anyway-on sometimes inappropriate footwear-and how we wind up with not what we wished for, but perhaps what we needed, all debts paid, all accounts settled. And how, to someone used to a more placid pace and less bruising manner, this city can be an assaultive and bewildering Aside from the actual places that serve as setting for the events in the book, Lauren displays a keen grasp of the psychic aspect of the city, how people, all of us millions of people, regard and react and respond to each other, in our distance and in our forced proximity. It also, in the end, is a love song to New York, sung, tremulously as first, but then in a stronger and stronger voice, by an outsider. And thus, when she emerges from the mysteries and uncertainties she finds herself in-gets herself into-the payoff is sweeter. Before we know her fully, we suspect there is someone to root for here, and we do. Even when it's her own flaws and less-than-thought-out decisions that land her in the corners she find herself painted into, we can't judge her harshly. The book also achieves poignancy without ever become maudlin, without ever, even in its darkest moments, abandoning the underlying absurdity of the situations Iris finds herself in. The humor comes from the characters themselves, and never takes us away from the main thrust of the story-though there are a number of delightful “set pieces,” which reminded me of a wonderful cross between Carrie Bradshaw and Lucille Ball-but instead leads us deeper into understanding and caring for each of the characters, especially, of course, our heroine, Iris. Lauren Lipton's “It's about Your Husband” does many things a good book should do, and does them all remarkably well.
0 kommentar(er)
