My Latest Grievance stars the beguiling teenager Frederica Hatch, the "Eloise of Dewing College." Born and raised in the dormitory of this small wo...
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Dec 27, 2007
Sharon
rated it: 
Sometimes, in my heart, I get Elinor Lipman and Susan Isaacs mixed up--especially since Isaacs' last few books have been less awesome than when she was at her apex. This book is definitely Lipman, though--the characters who are just on the one-note side of well rounded, the precocious young character who thinks she wants all kinds of things that she doesn't want, the sensible characters who are swept away by a vacuous, glamorous whirlwind of a character.
I liked this book, but now, More...
I liked this book, but now, More...
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Dec 17, 2009
CLM
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I really enjoyed this - like all Lipman heroines, Frederica is sarcastic, funny, and always right. The other characters are often way over the top but always entertaining and somehow convincing. I especially liked the description of the Blizzard of '78, which I lived through just a few miles away, and the description of the third tier college where Frederica's parents have taught since before she was born.
I am looking forward to seeing the author later this month at the Brookline B More...
I am looking forward to seeing the author later this month at the Brookline B More...
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May 29, 2009
Christine E.
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Listening to this one on CD. Enjoying it a lot so far. Might add another star if I like the way it ends.
Update: I finished listening to it this morning, and decided to add that 4th star because I found the book thoroughly enjoyable. It's not great literature, but the competent writing, the plot developments, and the lively, mostly likeable characters kept me looking forward to the next chance I'd have to listen.
I lived on a campus as a child (a boys' high school where my More...
Update: I finished listening to it this morning, and decided to add that 4th star because I found the book thoroughly enjoyable. It's not great literature, but the competent writing, the plot developments, and the lively, mostly likeable characters kept me looking forward to the next chance I'd have to listen.
I lived on a campus as a child (a boys' high school where my More...
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Jan 16, 2010
Rosina
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The narrator of this first person novel is Frederica Hatch, the only child of two ultra liberal professors whose primary purpose in life is bringing her up to be a strong, well adjusted, analytical and happy person. Frederica makes fun of her parents but it's clear at all times how much she loves and depends on them.
The setting for this novel is a small fictional college outside Boston, one with no pretensions to academic excellence. An all woman's college that not so long ago was co More...
The setting for this novel is a small fictional college outside Boston, one with no pretensions to academic excellence. An all woman's college that not so long ago was co More...
Feb 05, 2009
Elinor Lipman's eighth novel (after The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, **** Sept/Oct 2003) exhibits her trademark social satire, facility with dialogue, and humor. Like her other novels, it addresses themes close to the heart: the bonds between parents and children and between fiction and reality. Covering a few decades, the novel offers a smart, funny protagonist and outlandish, if highly realistic, situations. Yet while the Seattle Times called the novel Lipman's "best work so far" and the
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Jan 17, 2011
Raina
rated it: 
By all accounts, I should have liked this book more. The plot and storyline were new, which I appreciated, but still lacked something that made them irresistable. I found that I could put this book down for a few days without wondering what was going to happen next. The characters were interesting in a 2-dimensional way; though Grace Woodbury turns out to be the most interesting and dynamic (in a way, of sorts) character. The story ends happily, but not before briefly touching on some of the hea
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Sep 09, 2009
Youndyc
rated it:
I listened to the audio edition of this book, and I think that added one full star to my rating. The story itself is good - I've never read anything by Elinor Lipman before, so I had no clear expectations in terms of style or character development. I thought she did a good job of developing a subtle portrait of college campus life from that faculty perspective. I work on a college campus, and I think the small and subtle but very accurate comments about the campus environment were hystericall
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Oct 20, 2009
melydia
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16-year-old Frederica Hatch lives in a tiny on-campus apartment with her professor parents who double as dorm-parents at a small women's college near Boston. As the daughter of a sociologist and a psychologist, both die-hard unionists, not to mention being raised around hundreds of college girls, Frederica is a little different from most girls her age. Things start to get interesting when melodramatic Rockette-wannabe Laura Lee French shows up as dorm mother for another building. She is not o
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Jan 26, 2010
Jill
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Lipman deftly draws the reader into the world of Frederica Hatch, a 16 year-old girl in the late 1970's who has grown up in the dormitory of a small women's college in the Boston area. Her parents are professors (of sociology and psychology) who are dorm parents and have raised her as their friend and equal. Frederica's world is upturned when she learns her father was married to a flighty dancer when he met her mother. The dancer in question arrives on campus to be the dorm parent at the next
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Oct 27, 2010
Michelle
rated it:
I really enjoy Elinor Lipman's writing style – sarcastic, sharp, and humorous. “Snappy” is a word that comes to mind. Despite this, she always manages to have some darker undertones to her stories. In this particular book, this was jarring at first. The banter and story goes along in a hilarious, almost zany way and then something major (and serious) happens. The juxtaposition was initially quite disturbing. But somehow it worked itself out and the marriage between the lighter tone of the prose
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May 02, 2008
Rebecca
rated it: 
Get ready to stay up late, skip class, not eat...because you really won't be able to put this books down. One of the most endearing main characters in modern literature!
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Jul 25, 2010
Rachel
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This is the second book I've read by Lipman, and I really enjoy her writing. Her main characters seem to be thoughtful, witty, and sarcastic. Her secondary characters also have distinct personalities of their own. This particular book tells the story of a girl who grows up in a college dorm due to parents who are "house parents" to the dorm as well as professors. It's a coming-of-age story of sorts, and we really see the main character grow in the end. My only critique is the Lipman wr
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Apr 20, 2009
Beverly
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What a disappointment. I usually love Elinor Lipman because, while being fun and entertaining, her stories usually have a serious undercurrent. I don't get the point of this one. The characters and situations are just kind of bizarre. Frederica Hatch has spent her entire life on the campus of a third-rate Eastern women's college where her parents are professors and house parents. When a new house mother is hired, Frederica finds out that the ditzy Laura Lee was her father's first wife. Man-crazy
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Mar 12, 2011
Karen
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I liked the writing and the characters in this novel but found the plot inane. For the first third of the book I was thinking that the narrator was describing the setup for the book and that the actual story would start any minute but at some point I realized that wasn't the case. I really enjoyed the narrator Frederica with her teenage insight, insecurities, and humor. Her relationship with her overly analytical but well-intentioned parents makes the book worthwhile and balanced out the weak an
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Oct 26, 2010
Kwoomac
rated it:
I love a sassy teen. When others described her as a brat, I laughed and urged her on. The story revolves around teen Frederica Hatch, who has grown up on the grounds of a (fictitious) college in Brookline.Her parents, professors and dorm parents, are committed to treating their daughter as an equal. As a result, they share a lot of info with her, they let her make her own decisions, and they're proud of her when she speaks up for herself and others. Their cozy life spins out of control when F's
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Oct 12, 2009
Kathleen
rated it:
I am not cheating because I am disclosing that this was a reread for me, part of my Elinor Lipman Fall Tour. I was not as engaged by the characters or the themes in this novel because I did not feel they had that fresh, insightful touch I am so used to with Lipman. That is, I felt I had met them (child being brought up in college setting by hippie college professor parents etc.) and their experiences before in other books. However, this is a relative blip in my devotion to Lipman; have I ment
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Mar 30, 2011
Jodie
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What an enjoyable read. I love authors that can pull off this acerbic tone without sounding sarcastic. This is my first Lipman and I am certain to read some more of her work. She really reminds of Jonathan Tropper (which I also really like). This story just hops along at a very pleasant pace, even after the big event (which I did see coming). I loved the relationship between all our protagonists, but in particular I enjoyed reading the way Frederica plays her parents. A good mix of light and dar
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May 03, 2011
Elizabeth
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An academic novel told by the teenage daughter of two earnest 1970s professors who all live in a dorm where the profs serve as house parents to the young women who attend their 3rd-rate college in Brookline, Mass. As usual with a Lipman heroine, Frederica Hatch gets off a lot of great lines, some of them laugh-out-loud funny. The story kicks off when her father's glamorous ex-wife -- whose existence is a complete surprise to Frederica -- arrives on campus to take up her duties as house mother at
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Nov 01, 2009
Ashley
rated it:
By all accounts, I should have liked this book more.
"My Latest Grievance" is about Frederica, a 16 year old student, who lives on the campus of a local all-girls college, Dewing. Her parents are both professors at Dewing and also houseparents of one of the dorms. Frederica grew up at Dewing and enjoys a certain celebrity on campus. This, coupled with her parents' unique parenting style - calls parents by first names, is privy to any and all discussion/decisions, is treated More...
"My Latest Grievance" is about Frederica, a 16 year old student, who lives on the campus of a local all-girls college, Dewing. Her parents are both professors at Dewing and also houseparents of one of the dorms. Frederica grew up at Dewing and enjoys a certain celebrity on campus. This, coupled with her parents' unique parenting style - calls parents by first names, is privy to any and all discussion/decisions, is treated More...
Oct 08, 2008
Dawn
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I think this is the second book by Elinor Lipman that I have 'read', and I've enjoyed them both. This story focuses on a husband and wife who are dorm parents and professors at an all girls university outside of Boston in the 1970's, and their daughter who grows up in the dorms. The story takes a turn when a distant cousin of the father, who also happens to be the ex-wife of the father (a little gross, but whatever), shows up as a dorm mother of another dorm.
I liked the story enoug More...
I liked the story enoug More...
Jul 05, 2008
Jen
rated it:
The Inn at Lake Devine is one of my all-time favorite books about a girl who battles an anti-Semitic sentiments from a family (mostly the mother) that runs a summer vacation spot. I read that when I was 14, I believe. ANYWAY, the point is, Elinor Lipman wrote said novel and this one as well. I honestly haven't read any other books by Lipman since Lake Devine (mostly because I started reading another of her novel's and was so completely turned off because the main character was 40+ in age... I ju
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Jun 30, 2008
Punk
rated it:
Fiction. It's 1978 and this is the story of sixteen-year-old Frederica Hatch, her liberal parents, and the all-girls college where they teach social sciences and live in a dorm as houseparents. It's a good story. Frederica's parents treat her as an equal, dissect their every reaction for its sociological and psychological underpinnings, and generally behave like sheltered intellectuals who believe every problem can be solved through reasoned discourse. They're pretty adorable. As the story progr
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Oct 09, 2011
Jgknobler
rated it:
Elinor Lipman's voice is much like my own, if I ever had the creativity and wherewithal to write a novel. I believe she is from my age and demographic, and I always enjoy settling in to her mildly satiric and generally heartwarming novels. In this one, the protagonist is a teenage girl, the daughter of educated and well-meaning parents who are on the faculty and serve as dorm parents in a second-rate girl's college. The father's first wife shows up and turns things upside down.
Feb 17, 2011
I found this quite fun. I listened to it and there are always books I will tolerate 10 minutes at a time that aren't as good read to myself. The voice is the teenager being raised at a less than high upper echelon girls school in the east. Her parents are faculty, agitators for the staff union, great believers in raising their only daughter in a rational fashion, and house parents for a 100 girls or so. Takes place in the 70's. Liked it enough to try another of her books.
Apr 07, 2011
Nelie
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I actually listened to this as an audiobook begun on the trip to see family for the holidays. It's a great audiobook, for those of you interested, the actress reading it does a marvelous job with the different voices. You really forget it's the same person speaking the lines of the different characters. As a story I found it fun in a fairly light sort of way--as a pointed parody of academic life at a small unexceptional all women's college--and I also enjoyed the historical setting which was th
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Jul 17, 2010
marg
rated it:
Eh. Started out surprisingly enjoyable; precocious kid ala Calamity Physics and her two idiotic classic liberal professor parents - interesting twist as unknown first wife of dad comes onto the scene - then it all just gets ridiculous. Occasionally funny but I do wish Lipman would stop writing dialog where everyone takes everything the other says literally when it's clearly not meant that way and destroys whatever flow there was.
Feb 07, 2011
Carol
rated it:
This story is set in 1978 - another time and set of circumstances. It's told through the eyes of a 15 year old girl who was born to parents who were dorm parents and professors on a small all girl's college. She has always lived in a dorm with her parents who are throw back hippies. Then a secret comes out and all heck breaks loose. Crazy story but amusing.
Dec 04, 2010
Fredericka, the young daughter who narrates, reminded me somewhat of my children. She absolutely adores and respects her parents but can't stop herself from poking fun at some of their practicalness....This is the second book I have read by this author and although I enjoyed it, I don't think more of her books are in my future.
Oct 31, 2009
Milena
rated it:
My first Elinor Lipman book was a bit of a disappointment. Though the situation was bizarre and promised to be amusing, I found the main character very difficult to warm to (she struck me as a little too whiny and irritating) and consequently I wasn't as charmed with this book as I was with some of the other Lipman stories I've read.
Jul 27, 2010
Stephanie
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I liked this book, and since I went to a women's college, it spoke to me perhaps more than it would to someone who had not. It was a light "beach" read and I read it in 24 hours. I almost never get the time to read a book straight through, so that was a treat. I espcecially appreciated the humor of the ultra liberal parents.
