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Close Relations
Fans of New York Times Bestselling author Susan Isaacs’ signature satire won’t be disappointed with this new edition of her classic tale of family, sex and New York politics Marcia Green is a sophisticated, witty, successful New Yorker, a whiz of a political speech writer, a woman who finds a smoke-filled room more intoxicating than a magnum of champagne. Her private life is a little less bubbly. She has a passionate but not very promising live-in relationship with her boss’s dashing chief of staff, Jerry Morrissey. He offers her only a good time- but what a time! Can Marcia resist when a new man arrives on the scene, a man who is exactly the sort her family wants her to marry- bright, kind, attractive, wealthy, and charming- in short, too good to be real?
374 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
60 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Susan Isaacs
48 books504 followersI was born in a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. Oh, you want the truth. Fine. I was born in Brooklyn and educated at Queens College. After leaving school, I saw one of those ads: BE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER! Take our aptitude test. Since I had nothing else in mind, I took the test-and flunked. The guy at the employment agency looked at my resume and mumbled, “You wrote for your college paper? Uh, we have an opening at Seventeen magazine.” That’s how I became a writer.
I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, Elkan Abramowitz, then a federal prosecutor in the SDNY.
We were married and a little more than a year later, we had Andrew (now a corporate lawyer). Three years later, Elizabeth (now a philosopher and writer) was born. I’d left Seventeen to be home with my kids but continued to to do speeches and the occasional magazine piece. During what free time I had, I read more mysteries than was healthy. Possibly I became deranged, but I thought, I can do this.
And that’s how Compromising Positions, a whodunit with a housewife-detectives set on Long Island came about. Talk about good luck: it was chosen the Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, auctioned for paperback, sold to the movies, translated into thirty languages, and became a bestseller. I was a little overwhelmed by the success. However, it’s hard to rise to a state of perpetual cool and go to slick downtown parties when you’re living in the suburbs with a husband, two kids, two dogs, and a mini-van, I simply wrote another book… and then another and another.
About half my works are mysteries, two fall into the category of espionage, and the rest are…well, regular novels. In the horn-tooting department, nearly all my novels have been New York Times bestsellers.
My kids grew up. My husband became a defense lawyer specializing in white collar matters: I call him my house counsel since I’m always consulting him on criminal procedure, the justice system, and law enforcement jargon. Anyway, after forty-five years of writing all sorts of novels—standalones—I decided to write a mystery series. I conceived Corie Geller with a rich enough background to avoid what I’d always been leery of—that doing a series would mean writing the same book over and over, changing only the settings.
I also produced one work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen. I wrote a slew of articles, essays, and op-ed pieces as well. Newsday sent me to write about the 2000 presidential campaign, which was one of the greatest thrills of my life-going to both conventions, riding beside John McCain on the Straight Talk Express, interviewing George W. Bush. I also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. (My website has far more information about my projects than most people would want to know, but have a look.)
In the mid-1980s, I wrote the screenplay for Paramount’s Compromising Positions which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. I also wrote and co-produced Touchstone’s Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. (My fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II became the 20th Century Fox movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson. I would have written the script, except I wasn’t asked.)
Here’s the professional stuff. I’m a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award. I just retired (after over a decade) as chairman of the board of the literary organization, Poets & Writers. I also served as president of Mystery Writers of America. I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, the Creative Coalition, PEN, the Ameri
I liked my job, but I found doing advice to the lovelorn and articles like “How to Write a Letter to a Boy” somewhat short of fulfilling. So, first as a volunteer, then for actual money, I wrote political speeches in my spare time. I did less of that when I met a wonderful guy, Elkan Abramowitz, then a federal prosecutor in the SDNY.
We were married and a little more than a year later, we had Andrew (now a corporate lawyer). Three years later, Elizabeth (now a philosopher and writer) was born. I’d left Seventeen to be home with my kids but continued to to do speeches and the occasional magazine piece. During what free time I had, I read more mysteries than was healthy. Possibly I became deranged, but I thought, I can do this.
And that’s how Compromising Positions, a whodunit with a housewife-detectives set on Long Island came about. Talk about good luck: it was chosen the Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, auctioned for paperback, sold to the movies, translated into thirty languages, and became a bestseller. I was a little overwhelmed by the success. However, it’s hard to rise to a state of perpetual cool and go to slick downtown parties when you’re living in the suburbs with a husband, two kids, two dogs, and a mini-van, I simply wrote another book… and then another and another.
About half my works are mysteries, two fall into the category of espionage, and the rest are…well, regular novels. In the horn-tooting department, nearly all my novels have been New York Times bestsellers.
My kids grew up. My husband became a defense lawyer specializing in white collar matters: I call him my house counsel since I’m always consulting him on criminal procedure, the justice system, and law enforcement jargon. Anyway, after forty-five years of writing all sorts of novels—standalones—I decided to write a mystery series. I conceived Corie Geller with a rich enough background to avoid what I’d always been leery of—that doing a series would mean writing the same book over and over, changing only the settings.
I also produced one work of nonfiction, Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen. I wrote a slew of articles, essays, and op-ed pieces as well. Newsday sent me to write about the 2000 presidential campaign, which was one of the greatest thrills of my life-going to both conventions, riding beside John McCain on the Straight Talk Express, interviewing George W. Bush. I also reviewed books for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsday. (My website has far more information about my projects than most people would want to know, but have a look.)
In the mid-1980s, I wrote the screenplay for Paramount’s Compromising Positions which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. I also wrote and co-produced Touchstone’s Hello Again which starred Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne, and Judith Ivey. (My fourth novel, Shining Through, set during World War II became the 20th Century Fox movie starring Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson. I would have written the script, except I wasn’t asked.)
Here’s the professional stuff. I’m a recipient of the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award, and the John Steinbeck Award. I just retired (after over a decade) as chairman of the board of the literary organization, Poets & Writers. I also served as president of Mystery Writers of America. I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, the Creative Coalition, PEN, the Ameri
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
December 16, 2020
How can anyone not like this book!!
It's one of my security-blanket like books that I read and re read at least twice a year and escape to my happy place. Its a gritty, all the more realistic for it, version of the romance novels I had been reading in my teens and still do.
I read it when I was just 17. As a Pakistani high schooler who had never thought of coming to states yet (other than vague plans to go to graduate school in some Ivy League college), I had no idea what New York was like let alone the ethnic makeup of the boroughs. This book was a delightful entry to that world. It's still as timeless for me, 25 years later, and now an American, as when I first read it. Only gets better each year.
David Huffman is still my idea of real life fairy tale hero (oxymoronish I know).and Marcia my favorite protagonist. From the underbelly of New York politics to interfering extended family to distant parents to rebelliousness against family expectations to fear of commitment to need for maintaining your identity as a working professional beyond the roles of just being married to right person, it transcends different countries, cultures, religions, ethnicities families and political leanings.
Every time I re re-read it, I find something new that I missed previously: a pop culture reference, a nuanced observation, sly political power play— a perpetual ‘ah! I get it now’ or ‘it’s still that way now, was it so then too?’
This book has grown with me or rather has helped me grow in America—more and more with each read, without the glossy illusions of mainstream movies and tv shows we (most countries outside of States) grew up watching. I love this version of my home the most: flawed, self absorbed, at times a bully, naive, pretension less, open hearted, genuine & always unfailingly generous. And I still, absolutely love this book even more!
It's one of my security-blanket like books that I read and re read at least twice a year and escape to my happy place. Its a gritty, all the more realistic for it, version of the romance novels I had been reading in my teens and still do.
I read it when I was just 17. As a Pakistani high schooler who had never thought of coming to states yet (other than vague plans to go to graduate school in some Ivy League college), I had no idea what New York was like let alone the ethnic makeup of the boroughs. This book was a delightful entry to that world. It's still as timeless for me, 25 years later, and now an American, as when I first read it. Only gets better each year.
David Huffman is still my idea of real life fairy tale hero (oxymoronish I know).and Marcia my favorite protagonist. From the underbelly of New York politics to interfering extended family to distant parents to rebelliousness against family expectations to fear of commitment to need for maintaining your identity as a working professional beyond the roles of just being married to right person, it transcends different countries, cultures, religions, ethnicities families and political leanings.
Every time I re re-read it, I find something new that I missed previously: a pop culture reference, a nuanced observation, sly political power play— a perpetual ‘ah! I get it now’ or ‘it’s still that way now, was it so then too?’
This book has grown with me or rather has helped me grow in America—more and more with each read, without the glossy illusions of mainstream movies and tv shows we (most countries outside of States) grew up watching. I love this version of my home the most: flawed, self absorbed, at times a bully, naive, pretension less, open hearted, genuine & always unfailingly generous. And I still, absolutely love this book even more!
December 18, 2007
Craaaaaaap and the sexy bits weren't good either. Bored airport buyer beware! I actually felt a smidgen guilty for leaving it behind me on the plane.
September 26, 2011
Imagine Bridget Jones as a Jewish, single political speech writer from Queens working in New York - juggling a demanding career, a live-in boyfriend who won't commit and a family who won't be happy until they see her married and you have the plot of 'Close Relations.' I loved it. Marcia Green, Isaacs heroine is the sort of person I'd like for a friend.
February 15, 2011
I like this author but hated this book. I hated all of the main characters. There were two or three minor characters who were decent, but they weren't in the story enough to save it.
I gave it two stars because I did finish it. But it did take me a long time to get through it.
This is an earlier books that the ones I have been reading by this author. I assume her style changed over the years, and I prefer her newer style.
I gave it two stars because I did finish it. But it did take me a long time to get through it.
This is an earlier books that the ones I have been reading by this author. I assume her style changed over the years, and I prefer her newer style.
January 21, 2014
This book dragged for me. It was written in 1980 and reflected a lot of attitudes and morals of the 70's. Marcia's Jewish family wants her to marry one their own and settle down to babies and housewifery. Marcia works as a speech writer in politics and is happily living with her Irish and handsome boyfriend who has not intention of ever marrying anyone. It seemed to take forever to get anywhere and then once it did, the ending wrapped up awfully quick. Not a favorite at all.
April 3, 2016
For one, not the author's fault, but this was written in 1980s! She talks about wearing pantyhose on dates and other just weird stuff (though yoga and pedicures existed back then, who knew?) The story was way too dated. Also, the premise behind the chick lit was politics, which is not my favorite. And third, the protagonist HATES her family, and from her point of view, who wouldn't? Ugh, but in the end (insert sarcasm here) she gets the right guy, so who cares!
June 13, 2014
I love this book. I've read it many times. Sometimes your family is right and the guy really isn't any good for you.
May 21, 2019
Great author and great story. Worth the time.
May 6, 2025
I have DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW UNLESS YOU WANT TO FIND SOMETHING OUT YOU SHOULDN’T I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WARNING BUT IT’S GONE SO PLEASE DO NOT READ. THANK YOU.
heard that authors set up challenges for themselves so they don’t get bored while they’re writing. I think the author must’ve sat back and said I don’t know if I could do this one because the challenge was a “modern“ Jewish women woman who wanted to be independent falls in love with a gorgeous Irishman and they work together in politics, where he is in charge of the Charge of the elections or getting his candidate elected and she is a ghost rider or his writer. Add onto that very nosy and very verbal Jewish mother and relatives. Add to that a difficult campaign now speech writer meets a very rich and Jewish man who all of her relatives just love They happen to do really fall in love and on the wall along the way our speech writer gets pregnant now what is the conclusion what happens at the end? Very interesting I think when Isaac’s finished this this book she sat down with a sigh, wiped her brow and use some of the papers to fan herself off. She did it, but I think she also said to herself I think I need to be a bit more careful the next time I write a challenge for myself and I don’t blame her. Sorry about that. I’m gonna mark it that there’s something in there so that you don’t read it until you have finished the book. Sorry about putting that in. I didn’t mean to, but I had to OK Enjoy.
PLEASE EXCUSE ANY DUPLICATIONS LACK OF COMMAS LIKE A PERIOD ETC. ETC. I HAVE LOST MY READING VISION AND CAN NO LONGER EDIT WHAT I HAVE DICTATED SO PLEASE EXCUSE IT WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES SEE YOUR EYE DOCTOR EVERY YEAR AND IF YOU WANT TO ASK HIM FOR A CHART FOR MACULAR DEGENERATION SO YOU CAN SEE IF THE SQUARES STOP STOP LOOKING LIKE SQUARES Take care.
heard that authors set up challenges for themselves so they don’t get bored while they’re writing. I think the author must’ve sat back and said I don’t know if I could do this one because the challenge was a “modern“ Jewish women woman who wanted to be independent falls in love with a gorgeous Irishman and they work together in politics, where he is in charge of the Charge of the elections or getting his candidate elected and she is a ghost rider or his writer. Add onto that very nosy and very verbal Jewish mother and relatives. Add to that a difficult campaign now speech writer meets a very rich and Jewish man who all of her relatives just love They happen to do really fall in love and on the wall along the way our speech writer gets pregnant now what is the conclusion what happens at the end? Very interesting I think when Isaac’s finished this this book she sat down with a sigh, wiped her brow and use some of the papers to fan herself off. She did it, but I think she also said to herself I think I need to be a bit more careful the next time I write a challenge for myself and I don’t blame her. Sorry about that. I’m gonna mark it that there’s something in there so that you don’t read it until you have finished the book. Sorry about putting that in. I didn’t mean to, but I had to OK Enjoy.
PLEASE EXCUSE ANY DUPLICATIONS LACK OF COMMAS LIKE A PERIOD ETC. ETC. I HAVE LOST MY READING VISION AND CAN NO LONGER EDIT WHAT I HAVE DICTATED SO PLEASE EXCUSE IT WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES SEE YOUR EYE DOCTOR EVERY YEAR AND IF YOU WANT TO ASK HIM FOR A CHART FOR MACULAR DEGENERATION SO YOU CAN SEE IF THE SQUARES STOP STOP LOOKING LIKE SQUARES Take care.
April 9, 2022
Very mixed feelings. I like Susan Isaacs, but found this novel overwritten — the sarcasm too abrasive, the sex scenes too detailed, the family intrusiveness more like caricature than drama. And really, what’s WITH Marcia? She manages just fine in the rough and tumble world of NYC politics; why hasn’t she figured out how to manage her mother?
Despite my carping, I read to the last page and (spoiler alert) couldn’t help feeling happy for Marcia and David. Sort of like the sit-com you find relaxing to watch, even as you disdain everything about it.
Final point: it’s endlessly surprising to discover what other people experience that you don’t experience, even though you are both in the same place at the same time. And what they don’t notice that you watch for.
Example: Susan has an ear for conversation and an eye for fine fabrics, whether on her cousin’s sofa or her aunt’s back. But the things I’d be attuned to (is David nice to the waitress? Is he riding his horse with a light bit and lighter hands?) escape her notice.
Despite my carping, I read to the last page and (spoiler alert) couldn’t help feeling happy for Marcia and David. Sort of like the sit-com you find relaxing to watch, even as you disdain everything about it.
Final point: it’s endlessly surprising to discover what other people experience that you don’t experience, even though you are both in the same place at the same time. And what they don’t notice that you watch for.
Example: Susan has an ear for conversation and an eye for fine fabrics, whether on her cousin’s sofa or her aunt’s back. But the things I’d be attuned to (is David nice to the waitress? Is he riding his horse with a light bit and lighter hands?) escape her notice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2022
Now Maureen Corrigan, this is more like it. I really enjoyed this novel and almost gave it five stars but it is more four and a half and I like to save five for real know my socks off books. What I liked best was the inside look at a political speech writer and political campaigns. It felt very real and we need more books that tell the inside story of work ao all kinds. I also like the main character’s chutzpa. her strong sense of her value as a writer, and her loyalty to her boss. I did find the repetition of the family’s misunderstanding and insistence on their way and her constant complaining about that a bit tiresome, but still a four and a half star read.
December 28, 2024
I really enjoyed a Susan Isaacs book earlier this year, but this earlier one of hers wasn’t as enjoyable. Still enjoyed reading a book for the first time in weeks, though, and it was mildly entertaining.
August 20, 2019
Very enjoyable.
April 28, 2022
Overall it was slow read until about halfway through. Then I enjoyed the storyline and the characters endings. David was much more likable than Jerry.
July 26, 2011
I'm not quite sure how to review this book...the lead character, Marcia, is a political speechwriter living with an extremely handsome but uncommitted campaign manager. Being apolitical myself, some of the behind the scenes stuff was a different premise than the standard fare. But early on I was struck by how controlling and meddlesome her family was...but as events unfolded, I came to side more with her family and started realizing how much she was fooling herself. Although there was a lot of pretension and snobbery involved with her relatives, it felt like Marcia rejected everything her family said just to be the independent rebel, not because she totally disagreed with their viewpoint. I also found it interesting that she didn't seem upset with her boyfriend, Jerry, when he announced he was leaving (even though she had already moved on and was, in fact, pregnant by and engaged to another man), yet she was filled with indignation at the other woman he'd fallen for...?!?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2022
I really enjoyed this book when I first read it in the early 1980s. I found myself thinking about it recently - I don't know why - so I decided to re-read it. And...it's even better than I remembered. I discovered new things in it that I've forgotten. The love-hate with family, the rough and tumble of politics, the unreliable man, and the good man you don't want to love because he is presented to you by your family as the man you should be with. It's all here, and it's all so compelling that I read it cover to cover in less than a day. If only all books were such a pleasure!
July 7, 2011
To quote a paragraph from the book, "It was a situation from which half-hour television comedies are made. MARCIA - in tonight's episode, Marcia Green's warm and winning and wise and wonderful Jewish family reminds her that she is thirty-five, divorced and childless". This book was a pleasure, witty and wicked all rolled onto one.
September 5, 2016
Shallow but entertaining
June 24, 2011
This is probably my least favorite book I've read so far by Susan Isaacs. A seemingly smart, independent woman has a very co-dependent (and dismal) relationship with a man throughout the majority of the book and ends up with a seemingly perfect man at the very end. Ugh!
October 20, 2013
This was a delightful palette cleanser after reading only non-fiction for the past several weeks. Briskly paced, witty, and satirical, "Close Relations" is a romantic comedy that lovingly sends up family relationships.
August 4, 2008
i really enjoyed this book!!
July 5, 2011
Very funny author.
Read
August 9, 2011didn't like it. too much about stereotypes
August 31, 2011
Although she knows she's married to the perfect man, she wants another.
July 28, 2013
One of Susan Isaacs best, fun, chick lit, beach book.
September 25, 2013
2.5 stars. Just really couldn't get in to the book and I didn't resonate with or like any of the characters that well.
February 18, 2015
Enjoyed this book! Had to look up at least five words in the dictionary so I give it a thumbs up.
Read
August 2, 2015Donated to DPL aug 2015
January 24, 2016
It was written in the early 80's ..Marcia still had ribbon in her typewriter..
Read
September 3, 2016A little long, but entertaining.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews