Jennifer Weiner: Fly away home

Jennifer Weinerin romaani tuntuu hyvää tarkoittavalta, mutta kun kirjan päähenkilöt ovat kaikki tavalla tai toisella hyväosaisia, sillä tavalla yläluokkaisia kuin vain Amerikassa pystytään olemaan, loppui kiinnostus kirjan lukemiseen aika pian: Fly away home (Simon & Schuster, 2011; ISBN 978-1-84739-025-7).



Täytyy samalla myöntää, että innostus lukemiseen lopahti myös siksi että sorrui helmasyntiini, kirjan lopun lunttaamiseen. Mikä ei tarkoita sitä etteikö romaani voisi hyvinkin olla kiinnostava, ei vain minua varten.

When Sylvie Serfer met Richard Woodruff in law school, she had wild curls, wide hips and lots of opinions. Decades later, Sylvie has remade herself as the ideal politician's wife - her hair dyed and straightened, her hippie-chick wardrobe replaced by tailored suits. At fifty-seven, she ruefully acknowledges that her job is staying twenty pounds thinner than she was in her twenties and tending to her senator husband.

Lizzie, the Woodruffs' youngest daughter, is a recovering addict, whose mantra HALT (Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired?) helps her keep her life under control. Still, at twenty-four, trouble always seems to find her.

Diana, an emergency room physician, has everything Lizzie failed to achieve - a husband, a young son, the perfect home - and yet she's trapped in a loveless marriage. With temptation waiting in one of the ER's exam rooms, she finds herself craving more.

When Richard's extra-marital affair makes headlines, the three women are drawn into the painful glare of the national spotlight. Once the press conference is over, each is forced to reconsider their lives, who they are and who they are meant to be.

Jennifer Weiner: Who do you love

Jennifer Weiner kertoo viihteellisessä romaanissaan monenlaisista ihmissuhteista ja erilaisista perheistä, ihmisistä joiden kohtalo aika ajoin hipaisee toisiaan: Who do you love (Atria Books, 2015; ISBN 978-1-4516-1783-2).



Kirjan alku oli kiinnostava, kuvaus sairaalasta jossa Rachel-tyttö on jälleen kerran hoidettavana sydänvian takia. Sairaalaan tuodaan Andy, poika jonka käsi on murtunut. Tästä alkaa kuvaus kahden hyvin erilaisen ihmisen elämästä. Rachel elää rikkaiden ihmisten yhteisössä, Andy taas kasvaa yksinhuoltajaäitinsä karun elämän reunamilla.

En lukenut romaania kovinkaan pitkälle. Päähenkilöiden kohtalo ei jaksanut kiinnostaa. Romaani lupasi paljon, mutta lasten maailmasta hypättiin aikuisuuteen tavalla joka ei ollut järin uskottava.

Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to the emergency room and Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again. Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation. Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they've been running toward each other all along.