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Outside the Ordinary World

by Dori Ostermiller (Goodreads Author)

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 447 ratings · 106 reviews

Sylvia Sandon always swore she wouldn't become her mother. But one August morning she finds herself walking the same path as the fervently religious yet faithless Elaine...into an affair she feels powerless to resist.Against the backdrop of California brush fires in the 1970s, twelve-year-old Sylvia had agreed to hold a secret that would devour her family's dream of happin...more

Paperback, 374 pages

Published July 27th 2010 by Mira Books (first published July 20th 2010)

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Jan 01, 2011 Literary Feline rated it 4 of 5 stars

My roommate and I were both psychology majors. She was working on a paper about infidelity and she asked me if I thought I could stay with a husband how had cheated on me. My answer was instantaneous. Of course not. No hesitation. The more we talked, however, the more I began to wonder. I still doubt I could stay in a relationship with someone who had broken my trust in that way, but I eventually came to see that it wasn't black and white. And you really never can know what you would do unless y...more My roommate and I were both psychology majors. She was working on a paper about infidelity and she asked me if I thought I could stay with a husband how had cheated on me. My answer was instantaneous. Of course not. No hesitation. The more we talked, however, the more I began to wonder. I still doubt I could stay in a relationship with someone who had broken my trust in that way, but I eventually came to see that it wasn't black and white. And you really never can know what you would do unless you were in that situation yourself. Relationships of any kind can be complex, marriage especially so. The reasons for infidelity vary and some couples are able to work through whatever issues they had that brought them to that particular juncture in their lives. Some aren't. So, while I don't condone infidelity, I do, on some level, understand why it can happen in certain instances. A breakdown of communication is often at the core. There are exceptions, of course. There are bad people out there, after all. And sometimes couples do grow apart.

Dori Ostermiller's novel, Outside the Ordinary World, tells the story of a family in turmoil. Sylvia finds herself unhappy in her marriage and frustrated with her life. She is an artist who hasn't felt inspired to paint like she once was, feels neglected by her husband, and overwhelmed by her motherly duties. When Tai walks into her life she gives in to her longings--here is someone who is interested in her, listens to her and has reawakened something in her that has long been dormant. Ironically, she finds herself on a similar path that her mother had led many years ago, despite her promise to herself that she'd be nothing like her. Sylvia's own mother had an affair for years; she, too, unhappy in her marriage and with her life. Their two stories are different, however, on many levels as became evident as the two stories progressed and eventually came together. Sylvia's marriage with her husband was much different from that of her mother's and father's. The direction their lives took was also much different.

It is easy to judge Sylvia and her mother for the choices they made. Both made mistakes and many of them. I found myself especially angry at Sylvia's mother, Elaine, because she involved her children in her affair, asking them to keep Mr. Robert a secret for so many years. It put the girls in a very bad position, pitting them against their father in a way and making them choose sides.

The novel goes back and forth between the present and the past. We get a glimpse into Sylvia's childhood as Sylvia sees it as well as her current life. To a degree I empathized with Sylvia. What she was feeling and going through is normal. How we react to such feelings is what makes the difference. Sylvia chose to seek the intimacy she longed for elsewhere. I don't agree with her choices and admit to clicking my tongue at her behavior and rationalization more than once throughout the novel. And yet. I still felt for her and could see how she could make the choices she made, however wrong they were. And as the story progressed, it became more and more clear that she wasn't the only one to blame for her failing marriage.

What most interested me in the novel was the impact the affairs had on the children, both Sylvia and her sister and well as Sylvia's own children, particularly her oldest. While Elaine was more obvious in her affair, Sylvia tried to keep hers a secret from her children. Even despite that, her secretiveness and unhappiness had severe repercussions on the rest of her family.

Dori Ostermiller does a good job of creating characters who are flawed and very real, and, while I did find myself feeling bad for the husbands (Sylvia's and also her own father), they weren't completely innocent for their part in their crumbling marriages, which is often true in situations like theirs. In fact, I had difficult time feeling bad for Sylvia's father at times; some of his own actions really made me angry. It doesn't erase the blame and fault that falls squarely on the shoulders of the person who had the affair, but it can shed light on the why of it.

I also really appreciated how the author brought out the complexities in situations like this--that no two relationships are alike and that while couples do split up over affairs, attempts and actual reconciliation can also be a goal. Even in the aftermath, once the secret is out, however, it is not easy, not only for the couple but the children as well. There is no happily ever after ending.

Outside the Ordinary World tackles a subject matter that is outside of my comfort zone as I have rather strong negative feelings about infidelity. I wasn't sure how I would react to Sylvia. One of the aspects I love about fiction is being able to step outside of my own ordinary world and into that of others, including the lives of someone whose shoes I can't see myself walking in. I've always had an interest in knowing what makes people tick, why they make the decisions they do, and I find that often in the fiction I read. I never felt that Sylvia was a bad person, nor was her mother. They were lost and confused. I don't like the decisions they made, but when haven't we all made a mistake, some bigger than others? The hope is that we can learn from them so as not to make the same mistakes again.
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Jun 22, 2010 Dix Mccomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read Dori Ostermiller's novel in two sittings--and I am not a particularly fast reader. What made it so compelling for me has to do with the way in which Ostermiller has created a narrator whose own story, occurring in the new millenium, begins to mirror (rather against her will) that of her mother thirty years prior.

Yes, the pivotal moments in the lives of this mother and daughter do involve extramarital affairs. But as the title of the novel indicates, the real crucible for both women, as t...more

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May 19, 2010 India rated it 5 of 5 stars

Let me tell you why I love this book. Have you noticed the current trend in fiction these days – I have, I buy them for a living –many of the popular ones tell good stories, and more often than not they feature protagonists who are supernatural or canine or both. They are engrossing, for the length of time it takes to read them, but they lack an individual persona like a preteen who relinquishes her stunning uniqueness for the false safety of a peer identity.

“Outside the Ordinary World” is not...more Let me tell you why I love this book. Have you noticed the current trend in fiction these days – I have, I buy them for a living –many of the popular ones tell good stories, and more often than not they feature protagonists who are supernatural or canine or both. They are engrossing, for the length of time it takes to read them, but they lack an individual persona like a preteen who relinquishes her stunning uniqueness for the false safety of a peer identity.

“Outside the Ordinary World” is not just the title of a book, it is its identity.

Ostermiller writes exquisitely. Her prose style is as dynamic as her fire imagery; it gently flickers, quietly smolders, suddenly sears, or can rage unpredictably. Read this: “I was trembling like an addict as I stumbled after him, my thoughts feral and haphazard –predestination, species extinction. The last plagues – how many were there again? What were they called?” Ah, prose with a comedic, self-observing ego that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Well, until it does. From the first page: “Though I’ve never been taught to believe in purgatory, it must be a place like this … a land where we linger, mourning our nature like obstinate children whose parents warned them about the crack in the sidewalk, the fissure in the glass, the lethal fork in the trail.”

Over and over again, sentences like these held me, asking me to not let them go, and while I could see the storyline over their shoulders –a beckoning force —I let them hold me, not a difficult choice really, it is what I hunger for when I read and too often find myself settling instead for meager lesses.

If other reviewers proclaim, “I couldn’t put this book down”, do not think I misled you. Yes I savored sentences, and often, but they also afforded me some relief from a deftly contrived tension that Ostermiller sets up -- and fans continually-- the potential that devastating family secrets (as safe as love letters hidden in a flimsy cardboard box) could be uncovered at any moment.

While family secrets, usually coupled with infidelity, are subjects often explored in fiction, what is unusual here is that Ostermiller’s characters –mothers, fathers, daughters, lovers --are psychologically complex and achingly human. You won’t find any heroines or villains, rather a mix of extraordinary characters that share a common trait, they are flawed. Characters that are drawn --- like moths to a flame -- to either repeat or rebel against the patterns that have led those their family members before them towards self-destruction, redemption, or perhaps even worse, mediocrity.

This novel is outside of the ordinary. It is appropriate that Sylvia is an artist. For her in world, just like one of her brilliant paintings, what is seen is just the top layer of oils. Beneath them, layer upon layer, lie the painstaking history of its making.
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Sep 06, 2010 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Outside the Ordinary World is a gripping page-turner; a book that grabs you from the very first pages and doesn’t let go. It’s a book about the legacy of betrayal and there’s not a single false or sanctimonious note to be found. Have I mentioned it’s very, very good?

The book is divided into two narratives; the first takes place in the mid-70s when the protagonist, Sylvie, is only 12 years old. Her mother is “perfect”, the kind of mom who “wallpapered the insides of her silverware drawers” and he...more Outside the Ordinary World is a gripping page-turner; a book that grabs you from the very first pages and doesn’t let go. It’s a book about the legacy of betrayal and there’s not a single false or sanctimonious note to be found. Have I mentioned it’s very, very good?

The book is divided into two narratives; the first takes place in the mid-70s when the protagonist, Sylvie, is only 12 years old. Her mother is “perfect”, the kind of mom who “wallpapered the insides of her silverware drawers” and her father is an ambitious surgeon who drinks too much and is prone to violence. Into this mix steps Mr. Robert, her mother’s lover, a man who is the epitome of everything her father is not – sensitive, funny, loving, and full of hopes and dreams.

Thirty years later, Sylvie will ask her mother, “Did it feel like you had a choice? Or were you driven by forces beyond your control?” Her reason for the question is vastly personal: she, too, is on a crossroads, between her solid but emotionally absent husband Nathan, and her lover, Tai, who, symbolically, is a landscape architect who build labyrinths.

Sylvie experiences her affair as “watching myself fall right through my life, floorboards splintering.” Using her lover’s language, she reflects that love is not simply “working the soil and laying the foundation for growth. There are boulders and tree roots , storm fronts and longing, someone’s decomposing old work boots. There are things you forgot to harvest, weeks of torrential memories…” As the affair takes wing, Sylvie struggles both toward and against her shared history with her mother, striving to make sense of her past, present…and future.

“Ordinary World” goes far beyond a depiction of two marriages imploding – mother’s and daughter’s. It’s also about how our past comes back to haunt us, how we never truly escape the choices we make, and how most of the time, the power to fulfill our dreams lies in our own hands, not in the hands of others. It’s about how easy relationships can fall apart and how hard it is to keep it together. It’s about how unresolved issues come back to bite us. And most of all, it’s about how we need to “let go” to truly find ourselves.

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Nov 17, 2010 Merry rated it 5 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot. Dori Ostermiller has done an exceptional job creating a lattice work of relationships past and present, west coast and east coast, durable and ephemeral . The writing style is arresting, poetic, and so specific in its use of imagery and metaphor that I felt at times like I was reading a painting, a painting that Sylvia Sandon had meticulously created to illustrate and to make sense of the shifting narratives of her life.
Another exceptional element of Ostermiller's nove...more

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Apr 20, 2011 Shari rated it 4 of 5 stars

The year is 2005, and Sylvia is married with two daughters. For the last 7 years, Sylvia and her husband Nathan along with the girls have spent their weekends working on their "dream home", an old farmhouse, which that they bought at auction and hoped to have totally renovated within a year. The excitement of their marriage is gone, the renovations are not going well, the money is running out and to make matters worse, Sylvia's carreer as an artist is at a standstill.

Flash back 30 years, twelve...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Jessica (Jess Hearts Books) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dori Ostermiller’s debut novel Outside the Ordinary World has already been received with high critical acclaim in the US, that, along with the beautiful cover and intriguing family drama described in the synopsis had me very excited to read this one and straight from the beginning I could see what all the fuss was about. Dori’s writing grips you from the start, the beautiful imagery wrapping itself around you like a blanket. Despite Outside the Ordinary World being a debut it’s clear that Osterm...more Dori Ostermiller’s debut novel Outside the Ordinary World has already been received with high critical acclaim in the US, that, along with the beautiful cover and intriguing family drama described in the synopsis had me very excited to read this one and straight from the beginning I could see what all the fuss was about. Dori’s writing grips you from the start, the beautiful imagery wrapping itself around you like a blanket. Despite Outside the Ordinary World being a debut it’s clear that Ostermiller is already a fine storyteller.

The book is told in alternate chapters flitting from present to past. Both time periods are told from our main character Sylvia’s perspective in 1970 as a child and 2004 as an adult. The alternate chapters each tell their own separate story of adultery. In the summer of 1970 Sylvia is a witness and accomplice in her own mother’s affair, carrying the burden of a secret that could destroy her family. And in present day 2004 Sylvia has grown into a troubled adult haunted by her mother’s mistakes and her own guilt for her part in them, now Sylvia is heading down the same illicit path of destruction despite swearing that she would never make her mother’s mistakes. The alternate chapters are essential to understanding Sylvia as a person and why she makes the choices she does and whilst both Sylvia and her mother’s stories mirror one another both women have very different reasons behind their adultery. Outside the Ordinary World explores the different reasons why somebody might be tempted into the arms of another and the what ifs and maybe the grass really is greener that comes along with stepping out of your day to day life.

Outside the Ordinary World is a very honest, moving account on secrets, family, marriage and the ultimate question can one ever truly escape their past? Many of the characters –especially Sylvia- are very raw and not always the easiest characters to like. But in a strange way I could respect that and thought that it fleshed them out and made them even more believable. Although I didn’t necessarily agree with Sylvia’s actions I could understand her reasoning behind them and ultimately I believe that that’s what Ostermiller wanted to get across in the first place, she wasn’t trying to excuse adultery but explain it.

This book gives the reader plenty of food for thought and delves into the torment and destruction of infidelity holding nothing back. If you’ve ever wondered how someone could so easily risk everything Outside the Ordinary World is a book that will take you through the motions. A stunning debut that I would recommend to anybody who’s ever wondered, what if?(less)

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Jul 17, 2011 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was recently in Lassen Volcanic Park. Had to hike in through a snow filled road. Hilly drifts of 3 to 6 feet. Slippery and occasionally unstable (falling through a foot or two of snow-unstable). It was hard hiking for me...given the up and down, probably four miles of this. Slow, painful going. My son and husband carried the packs after the first half mile. And they both also hauled the food on a sled. All this to say, I sacrificed clothes for books. My husband had ten times more articles of c...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Kirsta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

I have taken a few days since finishing this to try to come up with the words to describe this and I can't. I found the writing to be stunning, but within the excellent writing, I found myself stopping and thinking "what a great sentence". I was easily able to see the individual parts that made the whole. Is this good or bad? I don't know.

This is a story of adultery and genetics and searching. It tells the tale of Sylvia as an adolescent in the 70's and then as a married working mother of two i...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Susan Bright rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished reading Dori Ostermiller’s debut novel Outside The Ordinary World. This gripping novel is a story of love, lies, betrayal and regret. It is a story about relationships between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives.

The year is 2005, and Sylvia is married with two daughters. For the last 7 years, Sylvia and her husband Nathan along with the girls have spent their weekends working on their “dream home”, an old farmhouse, which that they bought at auction and hoped to have total...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Patrice Sartor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ethical-dilemma, love-sex-romance, parent-child, siblings, realistic-fiction

3.5 stars.

A preface: I hate that awkward feeling, shortly after you start a book, when you realize that you've read it before. In my case, for this book, I could tell I'd read it before (curse me for not reviewing it then!!), but I couldn't remember what was going to happen, which is what kept me going. After something happened I would often get an "oh yeah, I remember that now" kind of flash. It was annoying, and dampened some of my feelings for this title, I am sure. It's not something I wante...more

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Sep 25, 2010 Feral rated it 5 of 5 stars

My friend Meredith gave me this book, written by a friend of hers. I have been hungry for this kind of voice in books all my life. I'm out of my earlier phase of only reading women writers, and I read lots of books by men again, but somehow when a contemporary woman writes deeply and honestly w/o any hint of aspiring to the canonical standard - I don't really know how to say it - anyway I read it almost in one sitting. It touches gently but surely on all the tender places of families and relatio...more

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May 08, 2012 Shasta Patterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good character development, mother-daughter book. What happens to a family when unresolved ghosts of the past lurk in today. Easy, relaxing read. This book somewhat answered what makes messed up people messed up, but then what made the first person messed up? It was a little trite here and there, but the story did sell itself. One part, I was beginning to think was a little too cliche, but then it completely worked itself out and was right on the money fitting into what would really happen in th...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Told in chapters that alternate between Sylvia the adult and Sylvia the child, Ostermiller has crafted a novel that twice demonstrates the impact of infidelity. Sylvia and her older sister, Ali, live with a father who is often distant and cruel, and a weak mother with a long-term "boyfriend" who is part of the fabric of their lives. As an adult, Sylvia repeats what she learned as a child and pursues an intimate relationship at the expense of her own marriage and children. While Sylvia's mother c...more

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May 31, 2010 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are so many things I love about this novel. Like Sylvia's separate but echoing stories of her childhood and her adulthood, which are beautifully blended and woven together. And like Ostermiller's descriptions of intense moments caught in time - young Sylvie's mother curled in the patch of sunlight on the rug in the empty yellow room.

I think the real genius of this book is the way the author captures the complexity of family life - the parallel, non-intersecting domestic conversations, the...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Florinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dori Ostermiller�s debut novel, Outside the Ordinary World, covers a lot of ground. It�'s the engrossing history of a complex family, an examination of marriage and its challenges, and a reflection on how women may find themselves becoming their own mothers, despite every effort not to.

Moving back and forth, in alternating chapters, over the 30 years between the mid-1970�s and the present day and from California to Massachusetts, Ostermiller follows the parallels and differences between the disi...more Dori Ostermiller�s debut novel, Outside the Ordinary World, covers a lot of ground. It�'s the engrossing history of a complex family, an examination of marriage and its challenges, and a reflection on how women may find themselves becoming their own mothers, despite every effort not to.

Moving back and forth, in alternating chapters, over the 30 years between the mid-1970�s and the present day and from California to Massachusetts, Ostermiller follows the parallels and differences between the disintegration of Sylvia Sandon�'s parents'� marriage when she was a child and the current crisis in her own. Despite Sylvia�'s determination not to have history repeat itself or to have her mother'�s story become her own, a distance has grown between her and her husband Nathan, leaving room for a mutual attraction to develop between her and landscape gardener Tai Rosen. Sylvia�'s conflict is further complicated by a rebellious daughter, an endless house renovation, a dying grandmother, and the memories of how her parents'� marriage ended - and the role she believes she played in it.

Marital fidelity and its opposite are the dominant themes of the novel, and they'�re considered thought-provokingly and from various perspectives. Infidelity is a complicated topic, and given my own personal experience with it, I appreciated that it was treated as such. It doesn't�t tend to happen unless a space has been created in a marriage that allows it to, although sometimes the spouses may not realize the space is there until one partner'�s actions force them to face it. It doesn't�t automatically mean a marriage is over, either. And it affects more people, in more unpredictable ways, than those directly participating in it.

Outside the Ordinary World is vividly written and held my attention fully. While there were scenes that felt a little overdone to me, for the most part the story felt emotionally true, and the characters - particularly Sylvia and her mother Elaine - were well-drawn and developed. This novel is quality women�'s fiction, and would give book groups quite a lot to talk about.(less)

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Dec 12, 2010 Zoë (In The Next Room) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-copy

"Maybe, then, life is a series of reenactments- chasing down new frames for the stories that stalk us."

Sylvia swore she'd never be like her mother, but as Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller shows, some ghosts are too strong to hide from forever. The novel alternates between Sylvia's childhood, taking place in in the late sixties to mid seventies, to her life as a mother of two and her affair with the father of one of her students from 2004-2005.

I did find Sylvia's lover, Tai, to lac...more "Maybe, then, life is a series of reenactments- chasing down new frames for the stories that stalk us."

Sylvia swore she'd never be like her mother, but as Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller shows, some ghosts are too strong to hide from forever. The novel alternates between Sylvia's childhood, taking place in in the late sixties to mid seventies, to her life as a mother of two and her affair with the father of one of her students from 2004-2005.

I did find Sylvia's lover, Tai, to lack dimension as he was often simply described as being Buddhist, as if that really tells the reader much about him as a person. I wanted to know more about his relationship with his own son, Sylvia's student, and although Ostermiller hints at Tai's tragic past I never felt it was really developed, especially the idea of this stone labyrinth he has created that somehow work as a literary symbol for Sylvia's own life. It is certainly easy to judge Sylvia for her actions, but I did think Ostermiller perhaps tried slightly too hard to avoid doing that, giving Sylvia the justification that her own husband had cheated once as well which seemed a little to easy an explanation, especially since it was also later applied to Sylvia's father. I don't think the affair Sylvia's husband had contributed anything to the novel, and in fact it wasn't really discussed until the very end which I considered surprising considering the fact that Sylvia was having an affair of her own. I do wish it had been left out of the book in order to better give the reader their own opportunity to decide how they view Sylvia's actions. Authors attempting to justify infidelity because a character has been wronged by their spouse is a problem I've had with books in the past, especially All I Ever Wanted by Kristin Higgins where the father has cheated on the career-focused mother multiple times, but only with women who "needed" him. In this case, I simply didn't believe that Sylvia's decision to have an affair with Tai had anything to do with her own husband's affair so I resented having it included in the book as it seemed to imply motivation. Personally, I believed that Sylvia would have had the affair regardless and I think the spousal affair was simply a distraction to the bigger issues the book discussed.

I definitely recommend Outside the Ordinary World for a more mature reader, although I still enjoyed it, I think its appeal would be stronger to somebody who shares more life experiences with Sylvia such as being married to the same person for a decade, or raising children. It is these more mature themes where Ostermiller excels, and I found the portions told during Sylvia's childhood to be lacking a convincing voice, it felt more like an older woman looking back on her experiences than a young girl encountering issues like sex, drugs, and infidelity for the first time. For example, in Susan Henderson's Up From The Blue I rarely had to remind myself that the narrator was a young girl, whereas in Outside the Ordinary World I often did. In contrast, I found the portion of the book told in the present tense to be completely believable, and feel that Ostermiller excels as a writer when focusing on a mother's perspective, rather than a daughter's.***(less)

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May 26, 2011 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: women in their 40's

I liked this book because I felt that it captured the woman-in-her-40's perspective and predicament. Or perhaps it just resonated with me. It's a time of life that your kids are getting bigger and not needing you in the way they once did. Your career is floundering and you question your career path. The main character in this book is in this place. She has been married for around 15 years and she and husband are stuck in a predictable array of unresolved marital issues. The way she deals with he...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Is this the magnetism of self-discovery or self-destruction -- both of which have always had equal pull in my life; I've never been able to keep them straight, never been able to tell where one lets off and the other one begins."

Such are the musings of Sylvia, the protagonist of Outside the Ordinary World. She is an adult in 2004-2005, but her childhood from 1968-1975 plays a big role in her adult life, so the novel alternates between the two. Ostermiller deftly explores the bonds of family and...more

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Feb 03, 2011 Tonya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

Is the grass really greener on the other side? You see this situation every day, someone isn't happy in their marriage; whether they are justified or not. So they find someone whom they don't have to live with, and of course things are going to be grand!

This book was well written, I loved going back forth between present and past, all tied together very nice between the mother's choices and Sylvia's choices. When you become an adult and then a parent you seem to understand more of the choices an...more

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Sep 03, 2010 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I won this book through First Reads.

I dont normally read books in this genre but something made me want to read it. I think it was the cover that drew me to wanting it sooo badly, I was intreaged to find out more about it.
I am glad that I read this book, but wouldn't say it was one of my favourite reads of the year. I did though found myself unable to put it down once I was reading it but not really thinking about it when I wasnt.

Dori Ostermiller created characters with depth and life. I like...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Nina rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would have given this three and a half stars if I could have. It was a pretty good read (damning with faint praise) though a bit formulaic and predictable. Well written and conceptually okay in its going back and forth in time in the life of Sylvia, her sister, mother, then going forward to Sylvia's marriage, her career as an artist, and the way her life is turning out. The church stuff was just wierd considering how amoral the mother really was. It's a good book for what it is, even though I...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Joni Daniels rated it 3 of 5 stars

Well written but I had the 'been there done that' feeling. Why do people cheat on thier spouses? Becasue they do. Why do people avoid telling thier spouses that the relationship is in trouble? Because it's easier not to. Do cheating parents ask thier kids to collude and lie, either overtly or covertly? Yes. Will there be a consequence to all of this that really scares everyone? Yes. Is there hope at the end. Pretty much. THe bond between mothers nad daughters here is complicated and the author e...more

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Nov 01, 2010 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

Sylvia grew up in troubled home...her mother had a long-term affair which she was privy to, and he father hit her around.

When she grows up and has a husband and kids of her own, she finds herself tempted to follow in her mother's footsteps and wonders about her mother's feelings and choices, and confronts her, trying to understand what she was going through.

Favorite Quotes:

"Does anyone love what competes with their needs?"

"'One always has a choice', my mother had said, and I believed her. Why,...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Riverminx rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book seemed promising, and there is some interesting writing in it, but it ended up just being tedious--I abandoned it halfway through. The characters act in very cliched, predictable ways, and the self-absorption of the adult narrator is astounding and dull at the same time. The guy she wants to have an affair with has about as much depth as a piece of cardboard and is totally unappealing. The whole church thing with her mother coupled with her mother's infidelity seems far-fetched. The gu...more

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Nov 08, 2010 Laura de Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-copy, fiction, blogged

I was intrigued by the description of this book, but was also worried-- I often react badly to books about infidelity.

In this case, I really could identify with where Sylvia is in her life. I even started reading the book on my 42nd birthday, and the modern day sections start on Sylvia's 42nd birthday. Sure, the details are different-- I'm not an artist, and there isn't any other guy to even potentially bring this sort of temptation into my life.

Sylvia is having a lot of trouble figuring out who...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

From my book review blog Rundpinne...."A beautiful and eloquently written debut novel, Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller is a powerful story of infidelity, secrets and the bonds between mothers and daughters. Ostermiller’s debut is an extraordinary work of literary prose with compelling and captivating storylines begging the question is one destined to become one’s mother and if so when does the process begin? " My full review may be read here: http://www.rundpinne.com/2010/11/book....more

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Aug 28, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, family, fiction

Outside the Ordinary World is a story of a mother and daughter, of marriage and marital issues and of, ultimately, mistakes made and the attempts made to right them.

Sylvia's mother is a religious woman. She's heavily involved in the Seventh-Day Adventist and, despite that religious leaning, she makes the mistake of looking outside of her marriage and involving her daughters in the decisions that will shape their lives.

The book switches back and forth from the early 70's to the mid-2000's. We mov...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Shantel rated it 1 of 5 stars

I marked this book as read, however, I did not read it all the way through. Someone I work with recommended this book, so I picked it up and began to read it. It is all about infidelity, a mother as well as her daughter many years down the road have extra marital affairs. I didn't read enough of the book to know the why/how things worked out, but it is not a book that I would recommend to anyone in my circle of friends due to the fact that I didn't find it inspiring, uplifting, or interesting.

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Oct 31, 2010 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3-star-books

This book had me waning from interest to indifference as it alternated from the main character's past to her present. I found the chapters involving her childhood, and her relationship with her mother, father, and friends, to be much more interesting and engaging than the chapters concerning her adult life and the effect that her childhood had on it. I did not care for the character as an adult, and her affair did not pull me in and make me anticipate what the end result would be. The book also...more

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About Dori Ostermiller

Dori Ostermiller was born in Los Angeles, a fifth-generation Californian. In her early 20's, she abandoned her path as a pre-med student to pursue an MFA in writing at the University of Massachusetts.

Since then, her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Bellingham Review, Roanoke Review, Alligator Juniper, Chautauqua Literary Journal and the Massachusetts Review. She is t...more

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