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Parallel Play: A Novel
She’s still not quite sure how it happened. The biological part is fairly straightforward. It’s the wife-and-mother part that Eve can’t wrap her head around. Much to her surprise, Eve finds herself living in Brooklyn, married to a doctor named Harvey, and toting a young infant named Ann. How did she get here? And where is that maternal instinct that was supposed to have kicked in by now?
From winter afternoons spent freezing at the Tot Spot to playgroups where she inadvertently tells the other mothers that Ann was an accident, Eve struggles to embrace motherhood and the yuppie accoutrements of her new life. It doesn’t help that her even-keeled husband spends long days working at the hospital, or that her own childhood in a religious cult was–by most people’s estimates–extremely odd. And when her ex-boyfriend (her gorgeous, toned, aloof ex-boyfriend) Mark reappears, Eve is thrown for a loop. Torn between the free-spirited Manhattanite she once was and the Snugli-wearing, baby-hoisting, stay-at-home body she now finds herself inhabiting, Eve realizes she must choose between the past and the present, lust and love, childhood and adulthood.
“What’s sly, fine and real here is the way Rayfiel finally insinuates Baby into Eve’s slow-melting heart to form a bio-bond that becomes wondrously tight. Smart, dark, daring fare.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“It’s high time we got a novel such as Parallel Play–one that portrays a young mother as neither the Virgin Mary nor as Mommie Dearest. Eve is fumbling, flawed, funny, and——above all–utterly human. Tom Rayfiel has dared to tell it like it is in this triumphant novel.”
–Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of An Almost Perfect Moment
“Wonderfully dreamlike and sharply, hilariously satirical . . . a truly remarkable and original creation.”
–Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me of Me
“If Thomas Pynchon had suffered postpartum depression, he might have written a novel like Parallel Play. As Eve wanders through the first months of motherhood, her observations are hilarious, eerie, and unforgettable. This is a must-read for lovers of smart fiction and flummoxed mothers.”–Amanda Eyre Ward, author of How to Be Lost
From winter afternoons spent freezing at the Tot Spot to playgroups where she inadvertently tells the other mothers that Ann was an accident, Eve struggles to embrace motherhood and the yuppie accoutrements of her new life. It doesn’t help that her even-keeled husband spends long days working at the hospital, or that her own childhood in a religious cult was–by most people’s estimates–extremely odd. And when her ex-boyfriend (her gorgeous, toned, aloof ex-boyfriend) Mark reappears, Eve is thrown for a loop. Torn between the free-spirited Manhattanite she once was and the Snugli-wearing, baby-hoisting, stay-at-home body she now finds herself inhabiting, Eve realizes she must choose between the past and the present, lust and love, childhood and adulthood.
“What’s sly, fine and real here is the way Rayfiel finally insinuates Baby into Eve’s slow-melting heart to form a bio-bond that becomes wondrously tight. Smart, dark, daring fare.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“It’s high time we got a novel such as Parallel Play–one that portrays a young mother as neither the Virgin Mary nor as Mommie Dearest. Eve is fumbling, flawed, funny, and——above all–utterly human. Tom Rayfiel has dared to tell it like it is in this triumphant novel.”
–Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of An Almost Perfect Moment
“Wonderfully dreamlike and sharply, hilariously satirical . . . a truly remarkable and original creation.”
–Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me of Me
“If Thomas Pynchon had suffered postpartum depression, he might have written a novel like Parallel Play. As Eve wanders through the first months of motherhood, her observations are hilarious, eerie, and unforgettable. This is a must-read for lovers of smart fiction and flummoxed mothers.”–Amanda Eyre Ward, author of How to Be Lost
- GenresFiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 11, 2009
An entertaining conclusion to the Colony Girl trilogy. Eve is now married, has a little girl, and wonders why she isn't feeling the maternal instincts she thinks everyone else is born with kick in. Her marriage is floundering, she can't seem to connect to the other mothers and young women her age, and on top of everything else, her daughter, Ann, is colicky. In typical fashion for Eve, (just Eve, no last names in the Bible) she just goes through the motions, hoping something will click, or her path will reveal itself. At times, her naivete and cluelessness are a bit annoying, but there is something completely lovable about this almost pathologically impulsive character and she is the reason I keep coming back to her story. I keep looking for the girl from Colony Girl who knew exactly what she wanted and did whatever she had to do to achieve it. That girl, sadly, never returned. But the woman she became still managed to find her way, however haltingly, to a place of stability and hope. Maybe this isn't great literature, but it is an enjoyable read.
April 11, 2010
Realizing that this was apparently part of a series and that my review may be tainted by the fact that I was unaware of that and therefore had not read the previous books, I still feel like something was lacking in the characterization of Eve. To a certain extent, the floaty quality of the writing and the story were nice in that they made the post-partum issues she was dealing with more real. In another way, they kept me from being too attached to the story (because Eve was so detached). I also didn't feel some of the threads were tied up in a satisfactory manner. And the questions (both with the author and about the book) at the end were just atrocious.
March 4, 2008
http://www.venuszine.com/articles/art...
"As a whole, Parallel Play's appeal lies in its bold decision to depict motherhood as something that can be scary, something that doesn't come naturally to everyone (at least not right away) and something that doesn't simply turn off one's connection to their past desires. Eve's persona may seem a little contrived, but her timid steps into motherhood (sometimes hilarious, sometimes unnerving) read as very real indeed."
"As a whole, Parallel Play's appeal lies in its bold decision to depict motherhood as something that can be scary, something that doesn't come naturally to everyone (at least not right away) and something that doesn't simply turn off one's connection to their past desires. Eve's persona may seem a little contrived, but her timid steps into motherhood (sometimes hilarious, sometimes unnerving) read as very real indeed."
February 10, 2008
I had a hard time stopping myself from reading this book. I felt through Eve the feeling of not being sure of whether or not she wanted to be a mother. I watched her as she was afraid to bond with both her husband and her baby. I liked it because she was human, she had mixed emotions, but wasn't a perfect woman or an awful one either.
March 10, 2008
I had no idea at the time that there were other books that went with this one. I did have the feeling that I was missing something here. If you grab this one on a whim, as I did, know that there are others: Colony Girl and Eve in the City. It'd probably be easier for me to evaluate them as a whole after seeing how this one fit into the overall storyline.
October 7, 2008
I committed perhaps the pentultimate sin with this book: I threw it in a trash can. (Not before finishing it, of course. As if my obsessive brain would allow a thing like that!) The main character was so insipid and the writing was so disjointed and nonsensical that I felt I couldn't chance anyone else actually reading it. Please do not bother with this book.
May 10, 2014
I'm really now sure if I was supposed to like her. I have t read any other the books in this trilogy so I had no background on the character. As a new mom her descriptions of how she felt made her seems like she didn't want to be a mother even during her more tender moments. I had a hard time connecting with her and thus didn't find her story too appealing.
February 2, 2016
Not what I thought it would be. Apparently though I would have liked it more had I known there were 2 previous books in a trilogy. Eve is unexpectedly a married mom and isn't too keen on the whole thing. Not a fluffy chick lit take at all, Eve has some issues with her parents and her previous relationships, and has no real ambitions.
March 17, 2008
Another book about post partum depression, but interesting, and different enough, well written.
September 29, 2009
unlikable main character. I kept reading in the hopes that she would redeem herself, but no such luck. Yuck!
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October 13, 2009Ok book. MC is woman, but author is man-didn't quite get it right.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews