Title: Driving Lessons
Author: Zoe Fishman
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Source: copy received for honest review through TLC Book Tours
Plot Summary from Goodreads:
When Sarah and her husband trade in a crowded commute, cramped apartment, and high stress New York City jobs for life the slow lane in Farmwood, VA, the pressure is on to have a baby. At thirty-six Sarah knows it's time to get started, but the urgency motivating her to reach this pinnacle of self-fulfillment looms large. Meanwhile, her best friend Mona, a single and successful editor who's always wanted children, is diagnosed with cervical cancer. At the same time, Sarah's younger and seemingly perfect sister-in-law has just given birth to her son, Franklin. When Sarah uproots her new life with her husband in Virginia to return to New York and care for Mona, the three women will help each other navigate their new realities.
My Review:
Ah, women's fiction. Lord knows it's been one of my preferred genres for a long time. Especially when it's also borderline "mommy fiction", like Driving Lessons. I love it when an author can really dive deep into the emotional side of marriage, motherhood, and friendships: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Driving Lessons attempts to do just that. Sarah is balancing a huge career change, her marriage, a big move from NYC to the countryside, her relationship with her sister-in-law, her best friend's hysterectomy, and the decision of whether or not she wants to be a mother. Tough, thought-provoking stuff. All this, plus she hasn't driven a car in years, so she needs to take driving lessons once she moves down to Virginia. (Cue "Very Obvious Metaphor Used Throughout Novel". Sorry, don't mean to be snarky. It just nags me a bit when the metaphors are SO blatant.)
It's hard not to like Sarah. She's a fun, somewhat socially awkward thirty-something, who manages to approach most of the mishaps that are thrown at her with a positive attitude and good humor. But this inherent likeability is also the reason why this book probably will not leave a lasting impression on me. Everything just seems to come up roses for most of the characters...even when they are battling truly devastating circumstances (like her friend Mona, who is diagnosed with cancer). Many of the characters themselves seem a tad too perfect (Sarah's husband Josh pretty much fits every mold for Model Husband). And the girl-power love-fests just got to be WAY too much for me after a while. So many of the female-to-female conversations devolved into "You're so wonderful!", "No, YOU are!" scenarios that I started to gag a little towards the end.
Overall, I like the premise of this novel. It has a heartwarming message. And I had a good time getting to know Sarah. But with SO many tough issues to explore, I expected something a little more hard-hitting, and a little less perfectly tied together. I usually do like the inherent optimism of women's fiction novels, but this one tipped a bit too much on the happy-girl-power scale for me to really get behind it. There has to be a few thorns in the roses sometimes, I suppose.
As always, much thanks to Trish and TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour!
I love this sort of fiction too! It always surprises me that I do because I'm not married or a mother, but a lot of the issues women have to face in these books can still be relevant to me and fascinating to read about even if they're not. Although I also like the optimism of this sort of book, I agree that it's nice to see some substance too. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, I don't know why the "over-optimism" in this one bugged me, considering that I do like the over-optimistic ones sometimes...but I think many of those (like the Shopaholic books) come of as purposely fluffy, whereas this one was trying to be more serious, and not always succeeding.
DeleteI love me some lady fiction, and I do love a nice dose of optimism.
ReplyDeleteThis is for you then! :)
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts on this book for the tour.
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