Een complexe affaire

by Amy Grace Loyd, Ireen Niessen (Translator)

Een complexe affaire is een roman over de ontembaarheid van levenslust en passie, hoe groot verdriet of obstakels ook zijn.
Vijf jaar na de vroege dood van haar echtgenoot is Celia Cassill verhuisd van de ene wijk van Brooklyn naar de andere, maar heeft ze geen vooruitgang geboekt. Als eigenaresse van een klein appartementencomplex leeft Celia in de overtuiging dat ze recht heeft op haar eigenaardigheden, ze selecteert haar huurders daarom op hun vermogen om andermans privacy te respecteren. Maar de hele dynamiek binnen het gebouw wordt verstoord door de komst van Hope, een flamboyante vrouw van middelbare leeftijd die haar gezin ontvlucht is na de zoveelste affaire van haar man. Wanneer Hope zelf een hartstochtelijke maar luidruchtige affaire begint en een van de andere huurders op mysterieuze wijze verdwijnt, worden de zorgvuldig om Celia's leven opgeworpen muren aan een test onderworpen en is het gedaan met de rust binnen het gebouw.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Adult, Audiobook, New York, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

271 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2013

About the author

Amy Grace Loyd, author of The Affairs of Others, is an executive editor at Byliner Inc. and was the fiction and literary editor at Playboy magazine. A recipient of both MacDowell and Yaddo fellowships, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/amygra...

Reviews

[~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semicolons~✡~ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

It's unfortunate that I can't quote from this book (I received a free galley copy from Netgalley) because then you could get a good giggle from some of the word choices. In an effort to be smart and literary and high-brow, Loyd fills her novel with weird metaphors and bizarrely stifled phrases. The Affairs of Others is a thorough mess, disjointed with no apparent plot and little character development.

It's also told in a pseudo internal monologue, with the protagonist, Celia, telling us everything she feels and sees and thinks. This type of stream-of-consciousness is hard to do well (not everyone can pull of a Benji section after all), and is particularly difficult to pull off when the person doing the telling isn't the least bit interesting or likable.

30-something-year-old Celia lives in a small apartment building in New York that she bought and renovated following the death of her husband. Celia wears her widowhood like a badge. She has enough money to have "landlady" be her only profession (owning an apartment building in NY of all places is no small financial feat), but she would most definitely be better off getting another job and getting the hell out of the house. Celia is at once detached and formal yet needy and prying. She selects her tenants carefully but keeps them at bay. She wants her privacy but is overly fascinated with others' comings and goings, and is almost spiteful in her reluctance to engage.

Celia's carefully constructed bubble is shattered when she allows one of her tenants to sublet his apartment to 40-something-year-old Hope who is warm and caring and beautiful but (there's always a but!) self-destructive and hollow. Hope has just been unceremoniously dumped by her husband of 20+ years and enters into a semi-abusive relationship with another man. Celia hears everything that goes on in Hope's apartment (not entirely realistic) and takes an undue interest in her neighbor.

Loyd does best when she focuses on the other tenants, particularly the elderly gentleman who lives upstairs and whom Celia looks out for despite herself. But these moments are few and far between. For the most part, the novel meanders and feels bloated with artsy phrases that don't add to the narrative. It's not a long read, but I was unduly bored.

[Luvalbert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really did not like this.
1. The author tried way too hard to be a "great writer" as in: let's write flowery prose that does not advance the story but shows how talented I am.
2. So everybody - and I mean EVERYBODY- want to have sex with the mopey, sad, closed off to the world, can't get over her husband's death Celia? Really? Why? By the middle of the book I was just irritated by her.
3. Not one like able character in this book.

[Jessica J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Celia is a widow who doesn't know how to really move on. Five years after her husband's death, she is the landlord of a small apartment building in Brooklyn. She is very picky about whom she chooses as tenants, because she very much wants to be left alone and not be forced to interact with anyone too much.

Then one of her tenants has the opportunity to travel, but only if Celia will allow him to sublet his apartment for a few months to Hope. Celia finds herself intrigued with Hope and her desire to stay hidden behind walls is put to the test.

This book was...okay. At times. The characters never really came alive to me, staying very flat and never proving to me why I should care about them. In general, I'm not a big fan of the stream-of-conscious narration that Loyd uses and she was given to overwriting.

I felt the radiator in my bedroom, and when its heat did not feel emphatic enough, I pulled my sweater and jeans on, stuck my feet into slippers, and went to check the boiler.

The heat's not emphatic enough? You can't just say you were cold? Oi. Vey.

[Patrice Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd is the debut, literary fiction novel about a woman who loves her seperateness. After Celia's husband dies prematurely from cancer, she buys an apartment building consisting of four apartments. She becomes the landlord to three other tenants in a downtown Brooklyn building. Celia is highly practiced at remaining apart from the people in her building until Hope arrives.

Hope is an unwanted subletter who Celia sees as a threat to her being able to remain alone and without the usual intimacies that come with living in such close proximity to other people. Celia would rather wallow in her grief although it has been five years since her husbands death. After many failed attempts at living a full life again, she eventually embarks on a journey towards redemption and hope.

The Affairs of Others is exceptionally well-written. My ARC has many highlighted passages that show a keen awareness in Loyd's writing and has made lasting impressions on me. I love the mentioning of women say sorry too often even when it is not their's to say. Mostly Celia is reflective which is a good thing, but a bad thing as well.

Celia's need to make sense of everything ways heavy on the reader especially when it seems she's so maudlin most of the time. I wanted to strangle the life into her and insist she enjoy the world and all it's offerings for the sake of her husband. Since she credits her separateness to his death, it's easy to want to challenge her to live fully because he's unable to. Celia is a character that has mostly no direction and takes some weird steps on her journey of letting go.

Essentially, Amy Grace Loyd has written a novel worth reading. The Affairs of Others is not for everyone but I encourage lover's of literary fiction or women's lit to give it a go. There are beautiful passages galore. I only wish I could have warmed up to Celia more. Then again that would be in direct violation of remaining separate.

[Robert Blumenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book because it was highly praised by one of my favorite authors, Jess Walter. In the middle of my reading it, I noticed that it was generally not well-liked by many, if not most, of the readers on Goodreads. In finishing it, I can see how some readers will not find this book to be their cup of tea. It is told in the first person narrative of a woman who lost her deeply-loved husband to cancer when she was in her thirties. The narrative, subsequently, is immersed in grief and self-denial. I, myself, found it to be quite powerful, insightful, and deeply moving. People complained that the novel was too ridden with grief and that the main character makes stupid and silly choices. I don't agree at all. She made choices that were very much in line with who she was and what she has experienced. Yes, she is a flawed character, as was the main character in Claire Messud's wonderful The Woman Upstairs. But she is also quite compelling, IMHO. Some people might be put off by the seediness throughout the novel. The writing reminded me of A. M. Homes or Jennifer Egan in its depiction of the basest of human emotions and actions. If S & M or gay sex put you off, then this novel is not for you. If you do want a deeply-felt account of a young woman dealing with profound grief, then I highly recommend it.

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.omnivoracious.com/2013/09/...


This book has a fantastic beginning, especially the first several pages. Brilliant. It's strong for a while, very good buildup. And then, everything goes to hell. The motivations of the main character, Celia, stop making sense. They are extremely uncharacteristic. I was loving her voice in the beginning. She was widowed in her early thirties, and even 5 years from now, she is almost speaking through a veil. She avoids connections and clutches the stories of her husband to herself, lest they lose their immediacy. Her voice is very flat, but I liked it, it made sense.

Her instant connection to the old captain who escaped an old folks' home was great, as well. His whole story line was a good one, so definitely points for that. I wish there was a bit of a follow-up with his daughter, but one thing this book didn't do was follow-up on anything.

Sucks that such an amazing beginning and good ending had such a train wreck of a middle. Nothing Celia did made sense (breaking into her tenants' apartments on several occasions and poking her nose deep into their private stuff; having a lesbian love affair with her super-fragile divorcee tenant that SHE INITIATED WHATTTT whyyyy that makes no sense. NO SENSE. Also, that weird thing where she's okay with said fragile tenant's son having a crush on her. And her letting a very, very dangerous man into her apartment and not stopping his boob-grabby advances. DAMN, woman. )She became a completely different character from what she was in the beginning, and it bugged me because there was no sensible transition. I think Loyd tried to connect it by revealing some very misguided and slutty metro escapades that Celia had on multiple occasions right after she smothered her dying husband with a pillow. Yeah, that also happened. It didn't work for me, sorry.

Things started looking up in the last quarter or fifth of the book and dipped only once. I really wish the middle was less disjointed, because I was so ready to give this one a 4-stars at least. I wish there was more on the story of Angie and her husband. More on Dave. Less on the upstairs tenant stuff. I was going to give this one a 2 stars, but writing the review made me remember how amazing the beginning was and I felt generous. Please write something worth that great beginning next time.

[Amanda Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first saw the title of this book, I misread it as The Lives of Others and got super excited - the 2006 German film is one of my all-time favorites and...well, none of that matters now. Suffice to say, it's not a book based on the movie.

That said, the first quarter of the book was reminiscent of Wiesler's surveillance of Georg Dreyman - Celia maintains her precious distance from her tenants, yet couches her observations of their comings and goings, their fights, their odd tics, as a need to keep the peace.

Then things got a little weird.

There's nothing in the opening chapters to indicate that Celia's got this enormous stash of drugs, and that she takes them regularly, even if they're expired. Anti-depressants, sleeping pills, anxiety medication, you name it, she's got it (except for maybe uppers; I don't remember any of those). This sends her on tangents of thought about her deceased husband, and that's when my attention flagged.

According to the blurb, the big happenings in the building are the disappearance of one of the tenants and the chaotic relationship of the lone subletter and the havoc it wreaks on the building. I didn't see much havoc. I saw a lot of jumbled threads that dangled way too long and then got tied up in perfunctory bows.

By the end, I felt like I'd read three different books, none of them complete, and disappointed that it didn't live up to my expectations. Would I recommend this book? No. It's too big a mess. Would I recommend keeping an eye on Amy Grace Loyd? Yes. Buried in the mess is some excellent prose, but you shouldn't have to work so hard to get to it. Hopefully her next book will be better.

[Amelia Gremelspacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My husband died a difficult death. I went with him, or a lot of me did.", August 27,
This review is from: The Affairs of Others: A Novel (Kindle Edition)
Celia is now in her thirties and notices that, "The body of a woman aging. It's a landscape that, even as it vanishes, asks a lot of the eyes." She is a widow, a contingency for which her younger self has not planned. Celia has taken her small savings and bought a converted Brooklyn brownstone in which to live out her days. She has finished it with quiet taste and rented it to a group of people chosen for their probable discretion and lack of drama. "I am not here to make a family of them, to know them too well." Her building serves as metaphor, not only for the reader but for Celia herself. She will live out her years in her gracefully aging form. She cannot "keep from remembering for fear I'd forget."

Two years into her partial solitude, the building stirs to life. The quiet gay man persuades her to co-rent to a lively woman, Hope, and her intrusive efforts to forget a marriage that has failed. The "green" couple who live a virtuous recycled life begin to crack and shatter. Finally, the elderly gentleman on the top floor disappears despite Celia's discreet care.

Celia is a woman who keeps the memoirs of her marriage in a quiet closet for fear that constant observation will rob them of their magic. She has eavesdropped that she is considered rigid and sad. She has taken refuge, and now must cope with her shelter awakening to messy life. This is a lovely novel full of the vignettes of humans in flux. The deep longing to join her husband in a kind of suspended life has been denied, and Celia's reaction is provocatively drawn. It is rather like the pins and needles of a leg which had gone numb coming back to feeling. Widow or not, Celia I cokes the choices of a woman no longer able to depend on the spring and moistness of youth. In addition, Lloyd holds a mirror to the men facing the same conundrum, and reflects the glance of the women looking over their shoulders.

The intertwined and enmeshed lives of neighbors is not a fresh concept. Rather the the point of view and intent of its landlady lends a fresh perspective on this permutation of family in the city. Family may not have been the intent, but a type of family is the result. The growth and mess of this woman's life is lovely and bewitching with a sly touch of humor that engaged me fully.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Celia Cassill has been widowed for five years and still keeps her husband close to her heart and psyche. With the money he left her, she bought a brownstone in Brooklyn that houses four apartments, hers and three others that she rents. She carefully picks her tenants and wants to maintain good boundaries and her own solitude. However, things do not happen that way. One of her tenants, an elderly man named Mr. Caughlin disappears and Celia is involved with trying to find him along with the police efforts to do so. She sublets an apartment to a very troubled woman named Hope whose husband left her after 25 years. Hope is now involved in very self-destructive behaviors, especially sexual ones. Another tenant, Angie Braunstein, has had her husband walk out on her.

Celia is often drinking or doped up on the medications left from her husband's death. He died unexpectedly while quite young and she is still young herself. To avoid life, she takes xanax, ambien, clonazepam, among other drugs, and her medicine chest is filled with every kind of pain killer I've ever heard of. She is often loopy and stoned.

What she had hoped for in her building - solitude and separation from her tenants - doesn't come to fruition. She becomes involved with them all to some degree, especially the troubled Hope. What boundaries she had hoped to have are no longer in effect. I was surprised, too, that she could hear everything from the apartment above hers where Hope lived. She could hear the words and the actions, something that did not seem realistic to me.

The book has several problems. I did not relate to the writing style nor did I care for the characters. They were shallowly portrayed and the characterizations were not in depth. The writing often meandered and I did not see the point of the inner journeys that Celia frequently took. Overall, I can't recommend this book. It bored me even though the plot could have been interesting. I just didn't care about the characters and Celia's take on the world was not one I could relate to at all.

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I really did. And in some ways, I suppose, I did, but not enough to make me feel like this is a completely worthwhile read. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
As literary fiction, I didn’t expect car chases and the like, so it is not that which made this a bit of a dull read. The problem, I feel, is that while we get a lot about the protagonist’s inner workings, we still don’t really come to relate to her in any substantial way. Yes, the writing is lovely, with some breathtaking phrases, but it is not enough to keep me reading. My mind wandered away from the pages many times, and it shouldn’t have, not with the kind of emotional depth the author is trying to reach.
There is no real plot, which, as I said, is fine, but there also isn’t a real structure to the novel, which made it feel insubstantial. Actually, the entire thing put me more in mind of a short story collection with an overarching theme than an entire novel.
I don’t want to tell anyone not to read it, since there are some memorable passages, but I do want to lower expectations on the overall book. This one was not one I’d probably read again.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very unique style of writing. Sentences and words flow in an odd rhythm unlike any I've read before. Every time I sat down to read, it took me a page or two to get back into the swing of the story. And there's not really much story to speak of. I enjoy a good character-driven book, but this one lacked any real thread looping then all together. Sure, there's the building itself, and the missing tenant, and the remaining crazies. But not much else. Nothing that lent any solidity. It was all vey liquid and flowing. Mesmerizing at times. At other times threatening to capsize the vessel.

[Kate Padilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I akin this book to a symphony.

It starts out slow, testing the reader and the story. The further you read, the more depressing it gets, but before long the tempo, and mood, increases and you leave with a sense of hope you would have never guess existed halfway through.

This is a book I need to think more on before writing a full review, however. Right now, just a day after finishing it, I can say without hesitation that it is beautifully written, and wonderfully executed. My more in-depth thoughts will come with time, but on immediate response, I truly enjoyed the experience.

[Jo Verity · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book off the 'new in' shelf at my local library. I had no idea what to expect although the cover blurb/premise was promising - a small apartment house and the intertwined lives of landlady and tenants. There was a good story in there somewhere but Loyd's writing style got in the way. It seemed to me that she was trying too hard, forcing it. In places it was overwritten. Not for me, I'm afraid.

[Laura]

Can't remember where I saw that this book got a good review, but I thought it was terrible! I found the story contrived and the characters unbelievable. The only part I liked was the descriptions of New York City!

[Laura Serico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oy. Grief atop piles of grief on Grief Street, Brooklyn. Not the best book to read at the start of a beach vacation.

[Amris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking at this book's ratings on Goodreads (which average at approximately 2.7 stars), you would think this book was unbearably bad. Here's the thing: While it's not a masterpiece, it's a solid piece of literary fiction.

Now, I listened to this book on audiobook, which may have changed my experience reading this book. Still, while there are some clunky lines, I liked the writing overall.

The book, to me, was like most pieces of literary fiction of a certain era: It's about a New Yorker nearing middle age, mourning a lost love, grappling with grief using sex, drugs, and booze, and who's obsessed with sex. That synopsis could be used for so many well-regarded literary fiction novels, I can't help but think the derision towards the plot and main character lays with the main character's gender. Celia subverts a lot of expectations of female main characters, and I think that is the reason behind the criticisms about her being "unlikable." I feel that if the main character was a man, her behavior would be pretty cliche.

That being said, it's not a new favorite book, and I'll probably never read it again.

[Ericka Clou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to assume that the reason this book has such a low rating is because it was marketed to the wrong group of readers. This is a very satisfying literary depressed-woman-moving from 2013. But more than that because this one is really on the move and full of surprises. Yet none of the surprises are cheap twists, they're surprises that in retrospect fit with the character and her history. I really liked it, and I might change it to a 5 if it sticks with me.

[Julie Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author has a very creative way with words which helps you into the psyche of the main character, Celia. This may not appeal to everyone but I loved it.

[Michelle]

Since The Affairs of Others is a first-person narrative told through Celia’s point of view and with her observations and opinions, one’s enjoyment of the novel hinges on whether one finds Celia a credible narrator. A young, financially independent widow with sadomasochistic tendencies and a penchant for hiding from the world may cause some readers to cringe at the self-pity and self-imposed seclusion while also causing them to feel horrible for doing so. For Celia’s actions, especially regarding her behavior on the subway, have their roots in a tragic loss that Ms. Lloyd exquisitely captures, and readers will simultaneously wish Celia to snap out of her malaise and completely sympathize with her inability to work through her grief. It is a complicated reaction to an even more complicated scenario.

Confusing the situation even further is Hope’s arrival in Celia’s apartment and into her life. Hope’s behavior is equally disturbing and yet surprisingly understandable given the demise of her long-lived marriage. It takes no great stretch of one’s imagination to envision Hope’s guilt at the end of her marriage and need for self-flagellation in the form of an abusive relationship. Just like with Celia’s behavior, readers will find Hope’s equally repellent and refreshingly real. The dichotomies of feelings these characters create make The Affairs of Others a somewhat uncomfortable read.

Really, all of Celia’s tenants do generate the same contrasting emotions, while Hope and Celia create the strongest reactions. Chosen for their need for solitude as much as for Celia’s desire for a little supplemental income, they mirror Celia’s own need for isolation and her conflicting tendencies. This character-fueled novel is as much about coming to terms with the need for internal and external compromise as it is about overcoming and moving on from a tragic loss.

For all of the negativity within all of the characters but especially within Celia and Hope, the story ends on a surprising note of optimism and tenderness. If this understandably dismal group of individuals can heal and continue to live, then so can even the most desperate of readers. Their stories intertwine in unanticipated ways that soothe the disquiet that inhabits most of the story. For all a reader’s discomfiture through the novel, the sense of a new beginning that arrives at the end of the novel is not only a suitable ending, it is one that readers can appreciate more fully specifically because it is the end of a long and sometimes painful journey. Amy Grace Lloyd’s The Affairs of Others might not be a showy novel, but readers will find its quiet exploration of pain and loss satisfying.

[Jai Francy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there was ever a woman that needed a hobby, it’s the protagonist in this book. The character development in this book, especially the main character, is extremely thin. The relationships between all of them shallow. If much of what one knows about the main character after completing any book is her cleaning schedule, the name of the cleaning lady and the approved cleaning methods and products – there is a problem with character depth.

The main character, Celia, is not able to move on with her life after her husband’s demise to cancer. Celia purchases a Brooklyn four unit building and calls herself a landlord. She throws herself into restoring the house and when the restoration and moves are completed and she is three years down the road, she retreats to cleaning and mourning. This woman got numerous telephone calls during the day – never once answered one. I kept asking myself – what is she doing all day?
Many times throughout this book Celia would do something either so out of character or completely irreprehensible that I became completely disgusted with this book. I would forge ahead and within pages I would find myself at a place where I could move ahead to attempt to find where the author was intending to go with this book. It was a remotely interested/hate relationship between me and this book.

**This book was sent to me as a Goodreads first-read.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free from Picador for my honest review.

The book is OK. I like the writing, the details and what was going on. However, I had problems with the characters. Celia seemed to float along with however the wind took her. She "self-medicated" but sometimes one never knew whether or not she had taken any pills because she didn't act any differently. Maybe because of this, then the other characters seem 2-dimensional. Hope seems a bit more, but never truly developed. I think the character I truly enjoyed and seemed the most developed was Mr. Coughlin, but he was just a "side note" to the story.

While this story is Celia's story and how she tries to avoid relationships with anyone. It shows that no one can truly avoid relationships, whether it be landlady/tenant, neighbor, or acquaintance. Celia's current life is based on what occurred with her husband and his death. However, it just seems like she has crawled into a shell and just waits for the world to go by. As I said it's like she takes pills to remove all feeling, and when she really does take a pill, she doesn't act/behave/think any differently.

It is a good book. Will I read it again? Probably not.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, had to read it again! Here's my review: I'll start with the positives: yes, I will probably read this author's next book, the reason why is because of the hauntingly beautiful, evocative writing this debut author exhibits. I found myself marking sentences and paragraphs as I went along, reading them over, sometimes aloud, as poetry (Kudos to you for that, Ms. Loyd!). That said, I actually read the entire book twice, because the storyline was so dense with the characters' actions and details I couldn't digest it properly in one read (not really a criticism). My main criticism is of the gratuitous sex throughout, with violence towards women. Though I understand why the author might have done that, I'm sorry she did. I guess what bothered me just as much was that the characters did not really seem to have changed at the end of the book, even though the author ended the book on an upbeat note (but it wasn't, really). I loved the themes of separateness, privacy, personal boundaries, lost and found love, but the pervasive unhealthy sexual relationships kind of soured the whole reading experience for me a bit.
This was an ARC, reviewed on BookBrowse.

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can be summarized thusly:
A young woman's husband dies. Hope moves into the apartment above her (yes, really, her name is Hope). Only when she learns to love Hope is she able to move forward in life.
Oh, and there's some "racy" sex scenes that seem to be mostly there to convince you that the author is hip enough to do that. They're pretty boring.
So, yeah, there's that.
Also, for the first few chapters of the book, the protagonist seems way too old for her description. Maybe this is intentional (there is a moment later where someone comments on how old she seemed), but it seems too heavy handed. This really bothered me.
Given all of it's flaws, I still think it deserves 2 stars. The language of the writing is mostly quite beautiful in spite of the many flaws of the plot and structure.

[Sayword B Eller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I didn't read the GR reviews before I began reading this book.

Celia is a landlady who likes to be on her own. Widowed five years prior to the beginning of this story, The Affairs of Others gives the reader a peek into the life of a woman intentionally and completely cut off from the world around her. She chooses her tenants wisely, making sure they meet a criteria that only she knows, but everything changes when Hope enters her life. Celia changes. I love a story that stretches like a cat waking from a nap. It's slow and takes its time. This is a book I recommend to true lovers of the literary genre.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

What beautiful prose existed in this book was overshadowed by a constant degeneration into rambling that seemed to have no end. I continued reading out of a vain hope that this book may turn a corner, give me a reason to like Celia enough to have endured her ramblings, but this was never realised. Such a shame, the cover and blurb did much to draw me in, but sadly the content failed to deliver. The moments of true poignancy were just too few and far between to justify the investment of having bought this book and I will think twice from now on when I go to judge a book by its cover.

[Gian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I believe I can honestly say this is the worst novel I have ever finished. I chose to give it one star because I actually felt compelled to see it to the end. I found the book to be overwrought, terribly written and populated with characters that were either completely unlikable or else, caricatures. Obviously the author pulled in a great number of chits earned from her days of being an editor in order to get this published as it is a vanity project in the worse sense of the word. One star is being generous.

[Jeffrey Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a LOT of metaphors throughout. Some of the single lines make really great quotes, the kind that would be on a poster or an email tag line. It was interesting to see how people's lives affect each others; some enhance. Some degrade. None stay the same. In this book most were enhanced or changed for the better. Some good revelations and some great moments of closure. However Celia is on another level...

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook and it was okay. The prose was descriptive and clean and crisp at times and it reminded me a little of Atlas Shrugged.

Then the book dove into drugs and became predictable with Les and Hope and went off the rails at that point.

The ending was horrible and did not tie up any loose ends or answer any burning questions like what was the party for?

I have a hard time recommending this book and this is why I stick mostly to non-fiction.

[Elizabeth K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started off okay, when I was hopeful that it was going to be about awful people having a comeuppance, but it turned out that no, the book was about the awful people. While it is true that poor decisions can be the basis for interesting stories, it's not automatic. All the poor decisions depicted here are tiresome.

Overall, I'm embarrassed it was set in New York.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story and perspective was unique and could have been a great book, but felt like I was reading in a Xanax haze (maybe that was the goal since Celia popped then whenever she could)and wanted more out of characters and story. Some good lines, many just indulgent and confusing.