Lead Review (Go Gentle)
- Book: Go Gentle
- Location: Manhattan, Upper West Side
- Author: Maria Semple
Adora Hazzard works for a wealthy family, tutoring in the philosophical arts. She understands that as a single divorcée things can be stacked against the individual woman, and thus she elects to bring together a “coven” of women, living on the 6th Floor of the Ansonia, a luxury Beaux-Arts building on the Upper West (which I think somewhere the author describes as the Manhattan suburbs). They can now pool resources, share groceries and enjoy the status quo.
Life inevitably intervenes and then the coven finds itself on a whole different trajectory. Adora copes by diving into philosophising mode, and as the story evolves, some of her backstory is revealed.
I listened to this as an audiobook and it was an exuberant and breathless delivery that left me feeling a touch exhausted, to be honest. In many ways, though, the delivery reflects the butterfly storytelling, that can at times feel a little chaotic and unfocussed but the writing mitigates this to some extent. I find books that have exuberance and energy (sometimes at the cost of storytelling – and there are plenty of them around at the moment) – quite a chore to listen to/read because I use reading in its broadest terms as way to switch off from the continual bombardment of information that so often characterises society these days.
It’s a cute book at many levels, it has some interesting facets, many themes, it has humour and biting wit. It is a mash up of romance, crime and thriller and zany observation but overall I didn’t find it particularly relatable.
New York comes through loud and clear and forms the main backdrop.
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