I may not be the target audience, which is probably women in
their thirties, for this juicy novel, but I devoured it with relish. Nina, the first-person narrator, is a
successful author celebrating her thirty-second birthday when the book
opens. After ending a seven-year relationship
with Joe, she is now ready to play the dating game and signs up for a dating
app. She scoffs at most of the profiles
but finally sets up a date with 37-year-old Max, an outdoorsy accountant. Nina is also dealing with a rude and noisy
neighbor and a father whose dementia is worsening at an alarming rate. I found Nina’s biggest problem, however, to
be the diverging lifestyles among Nina and her longtime friends, particularly
those like Katherine who are now married with children. Nina finds herself in the position of having
to dodge landmines in conversations related to weddings and pregnancies, as
well as having to accept that such friendships are now rather one-sided, with
Nina having to make all the concessions to accommodate her friends with family
responsibilities. Nina is no slouch herself
when it comes to shouldering responsibilities, although in my opinion she
drinks too much, but her priorities have not changed as radically since college
as those of her friends. Her reflections
on men and how they can father a child at any age are spot-on, and I love how
she stands up to her inconsiderate neighbor and the ex-boyfriend who jilted her
friend Lola.
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