E-book
Every last one a novel
Record details
- ISBN: 9780679603726 (ebk.)
- ISBN: 0679603727 (ebk.)
- ISBN: 9781400065745 (acid-free paper)
- ISBN: 1400065747 (acid-free paper)
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, c2010.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Description based on print version record. |
| System Details Note: | Requires OverDrive Media Console Requires Adobe Digital Editions (file size: 1872 KB). |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Mothers and sons -- Fiction Families -- Fiction Depression in adolescence -- Fiction Fear -- Fiction Domestic fiction Psychological fiction |
| Genre: | EBOOK. Domestic fiction. Psychological fiction. Electronic books. Electronic books. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2010 March #2
Unforeseen catastrophe and how we cope with it is fiction's raison d'etre, yet few novelists can turn the innocent "before" and the shattered "after" into fiction as accessible, specific, authentic, graceful, touching, and radiant as Quindlen's. In her sixth magnetizing novel, we know early on that something horrible is going to happen in the Latham household, which we experience through the keen senses and swirling thoughts of Mary Beth. Contentedly married to an ophthalmologist (an ironic profession, given how many clues to the impending tragedy she and her husband fail to see), she runs a landscape design business and attends ardently to her children: beautiful and creative teen Ruby, and slightly younger twin sons, who are so unalike they barely seem related. Kiernan, Ruby's boyfriend, is also an integral part of the hectic, happy household. Mary Beth's narrative voice is not only reliable but also irresistible, and after she survives the unthinkable, her struggle to reconstruct her life evolves into a penetrating inquiry into the bewilderment of grief. But for all of Quindlen's bold and invaluable insights into anguish and recovery, what stands out most are her charming and insightful portrayals of mercurial, marvelous teenagers, her fluency in the complexity of family dynamics, and her deep understanding of mother love. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2010 May
Anna Quindlen takes on everyday dramaAnna Quindlen's previous novels have all been centered on familiesâwhether average, non-traditional or dysfunctional; she even calls herself "hyperdomestic." It comes as no surprise, then, that her sixth novel, Every Last One, begins with a lengthy description of the minutiae of the everyday life of Mary Beth Lathamâwife, mother of three teenagers and owner of a successful landscaping business.
Her husband Glen, an ophthalmologist, eats the same thing every morning and leaves for work at the same time. Ruby, their "beautiful and distinctive" 17-year-old daughter, is a free spirit who aspires to be a poet. The 14-year-old twins, Alex and Max, are complete opposites of one another, manifested by the line painted down the center of their bedroom, dividing it into halves of light blue and lime green. Every day, Mary Beth tells us, is "Average. Ordinary."
But looking beneath the placid surface of their lives, we learn of a few worrisome details. Ruby has been through a bout of anorexiaâwhich is now, with a therapist's help, in the pastâand she has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend Kiernan, who is not taking the ending of their relationship well. Max is finding it increasingly difficult being the nerdy, moody twin of the handsome, popular Alex, proficient in three sports. All three children go away to camp that summer, but when Max has to come home early with a broken arm, he becomes depressed enough to see Ruby's therapist. Kiernan begins showing up at the house again, ostensibly to keep Max company, but his presence feels creepy to Mary Beth, and she asks him to end his visits. The situation becomes increasingly awkward over the fall, with Ruby asking Kiernan to just leave her in peace. On New Year's things take a violent turn, one which Mary Beth relives over and over, wondering if she could have prevented the horrific outcome.
Quindlen explores Mary Beth's altered life with such acute empathy that readers can palpably experience her anguish and agonize over each step she takes in her slow recovery as if it were their own. She has penned an unforgettable novel about one woman realizing her worst fears, and then somehow finding the strength to survive.
Copyright 2010 BookPage Reviews.
- Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2010 April #2
Essayist and novelist Quindlen (Good Dog. Stay., 2007, etc.) tosses a grenade of murderous mayhem into the middle of an otherwise standard-issue novel of manners about an upper-middle-class community in Vermont. Mary Beth Latham, who runs a landscaping business, and her eye-doctor husband Glen are the parents of 14-year-old twins Alex and Max and 17-year-old Ruby. The first half of the novel is Mary Beth's self-deprecating yet vaguely self-congratulatory narration of her family's life. Mary Beth's marriage to dull but decent Glen continues on middle-aged simmer. Soccer star Alex is as popular in his way as self-confident iconoclast Ruby, who is past her little bout of anorexia. Only Max, geeky and socially awkward, seems to be struggling. Although he does seem to like his therapistâby coincidence a specialist in twins and a twin himselfâhis only friend is Ruby's boyfriend Kiernan. But Ruby has outgrown Kiernan, who continues to hang around the house mooning after her and adopting the Lathams as a surrogate family since his own parents' nasty divorce. Mary Beth deals with small business crises and her Mexican workman. She and her friends commiserate over their children, although not their marriages, in admirable if not quite believable rectitude. Then Kiernan, whose mental problems Mary Beth has either missed or ignored, although they'll seem pretty apparent to the reader, goes berserk and commits a horrendous act of violence against Mary Beth's family. Only Mary Beth and Alex survive, and the remainder of the book details their road to emotional recovery. Unfortunately, while Quindlen's a pro at writing about the quotidian details in the life of a bourgeois Everywoman like Mary Beth, the actual plot is hard to swallow. The murders are too obviously meant to shock. Mary Beth's guilt over a brief affair she had with Kiernan's womanizing dad years ago rings false. And the outpouring of support she receives from friends and family is too saccharinely redemptive. An unsatisfying mix of melodrama and the mundane.Author tour to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles Copyright Kirkus 2010 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2010 January #1
No plot details yet-all I can say is that this novel concerns tensions within a typical suburban family and small acts with big consequences. But I don't have to sell you on Quindlen. With a nine-city tour; reading group guide. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. - LJ Express Reviews : LJ Express Reviews
Mary Beth Latham seems to have an idyllic life in a Vermont town as the wife of a respected doctor and the mother of three teenagers. But her son Max has been withdrawn and depressed, unlike his outgoing and popular twin, Alex, and her moody and sensitive daughter, Ruby, wants to break up with her emotionally needy boyfriend, who is practically a member of the family. Quindlen gives her readers an ominous sense of impending tragedy, but it still arrives with a shock. The book is divided into before and after, and it is compulsive reading. You might find yourself racing through the story, which could be drawn from today's headlines or TV news, and only later reflecting on how skillful the author is in her portrayal of family life in all its little details and in her flawless pacing. Verdict This gripping novel will undoubtedly be the choice of many book groups, too. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/10.]-Leslie Patterson, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. - PW Annex Reviews : Publishers Weekly Annex Reviews
In her latest, Quindlen (Rise and Shine) once again plumbs the searing emotions of ordinary people caught in tragic circumstances. Mary Beth Latham is a happily married woman entirely devoted to her three teenaged children. When her talented daughter Ruby casually announces she's breaking up with her boyfriend Kirenan, a former neighbor who's become like family, Mary Beth is slightly alarmed, but soon distracted by her son Max, who's feeling overshadowed by his extroverted, athletic twin brother Alex. Quindlen's novel moves briskly, propelled by the small dramas of summer camp, proms, soccer games and neighbors, until the rejected Kirenan blindsides the Lathams, and the reader, with an incredible act of violence. Left with almost nothing, Mary Beth struggles to cope with loss and guilt, protect what she has left, and regain a sense of meaning. Quindlen is in classic form, with strong characters and precisely cadenced prose that builds in intensity. (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
