Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Synopsis:
IN HER 2017 DEBUT The Garden of Small Beginnings, Abbi Waxman tackled widowhood and grief with wicked honesty. Readers fell in love with Waxman’s ability to wring humor from a sober situation, and the Lorelai Gilmore-esque widow at the center of the story. The book, an Indie Next selection, became a cult favorite among independent booksellers, and was featured in The Washington Post, the Associated Press, Elle.com, and Woman’s World, among others.
In her second novel, Waxman again dares to take a dark situation and make it funny. In OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; April 3, 2018), she captures the hilarious havoc one affair wreaks on an upper middle-class LA neighborhood.
For Frances Bloom, driver-in-residence of her local carpool crew, school dropoff is a chaotic if not predictable affair. Until one of Frances’s steely-eyed kindergarten charges sends her to retrieve forgotten school supplies. That’s when Frances stumbles on her friend Anne Porter—perfect, impeccable Anne—having a 9:00 am quickie with a younger man who is definitely not her husband.
The affair exposes, to comedic effect, dormant insecurities, neuroses, and strife in the
neighborhood. As the carpool line-up unravels one gossip session at a time, the novel alternates between the perspectives of the four families involved: the down-to-earth, level-headed Blooms; the seemingly perfect Porters; the eccentric lesbian couple Sara and Iris; and the mysterious Hortons, hiding a sad secret.
Waxman, a former ad copywriter, wields pitch-perfect dialogue, capturing how the chaotic aftermath of the affair plays out across the block behind closed doors, in scenarios alternately tender and preposterous. It will all lead up to the portentous return of Anne’s boyfriend, in a final plot turn that tests the carpool crew indelibly and forces their reliance on each other into alarming perspective.
Waxman’s bubbly skewering of her characters’ idiosyncrasies coupled with her irrepressible humor sets OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES apart from typical suburban satire.
Life in the carpool lane will never be the same.
My Review:
I loved Abbi Waxman’s debut novel, The Garden of Small Beginnings. I thought it was a touchingly, beautiful story. I was thrilled when I saw that I was accepted to be a part of the blog tour for her second novel.
Other People’s Houses, is what I would consider to be a companion novel to the first book since there are brief visits from the characters of the first book in this story. This book was such a fun read. It was a fly-on-the-wall visit into the homes of neighbors that live on the same block. What we see on the outside, is never as it seems on the inside and Frances finds that out the hard way. As she glimpses an affair that she was never meant to see, the neighbors’ lives are turned upside down.
I really enjoy Abbi’s writing style as she doesn’t hold back. She can have a “potty mouth” and some readers may not enjoy that but taken in the context of this book, I was ok with it. It really added to the story.
Excerpt:
Frances pulled into the elementary school lot and Ava got out, sighing as if she were a fourteen-year-old Victorian child disembarking for her day down the mine. She pulled open the door and swung her arm wide.
“Medium-size children may now escape. Mind the gap, and watch out for speeding moms on cell phones.”
The children had already unbuckled and piled out, high-fiving Ava as they passed her. Kate stopped, and Frances turned to see what was up. The little girl’s face was a study in conflict.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
Kate looked at Frances, and her chin wobbled.
“I left my toilet roll tubes at home.”
“Oh.” Frances looked at her eldest child. Ava shrugged, looking back inside the open minivan.
“They aren’t in the car.”
“Oh, OK.” Frances smiled at Kate. “I’m sure the teacher will have lots of extras.” She herself had, over time, sent in three thousand toilet roll tubes. For all she knew they were building a particle collider out of them, or an accurate re-creation of the New York subway system. Let’s hope they didn’t use the obvious choice for subway trains.
“No, I have to have my own ones.” Kate’s eyes were filling with tears, her shit-fit indicator was dropping to DEFCON 3. “It’s for the class project. Everyone else will have them.”
Frances weighed her options. On the one hand Kate was only six, and would not only survive but would forget the trauma of not having had toilet roll tubes. But on the other hand, she was a member of the Yakuza-esque organization known as Miss Lollio’s First Grade Class, whose members fell on the weakest like wolves on a lamb. Forgetting to bring toilet roll tubes and having to borrow some was a Noticeable Event to be avoided at all costs. It wasn’t on the level of peeing oneself, of course, it wasn’t going to give rise to a nickname you couldn’t shake until college, but it wasn’t great.
“My mommy put them in a bag, but she forgot to give them to me.” A note of accusatory steel had entered her voice. Frances gazed at the little angel, whose mother had been heard calling her Butterblossom. Kate’s eyes had gone flat like a shark’s. She knew she would get what she wanted, the only question was when. I am younger than you, old lady, her eyes said, and I will stand here until age makes you infirm, at which time I will push you down, crunch over your brittle bones, and get the toilet roll tubes I need.
“Alright, Kate. I’ll go back and get them after I drop Ava, OK, and bring them back to school for you.” Frances knew she was being played, but it was OK. She was softhearted, and she could live with that.
“Suckah . . .” Ava headed back to her seat, shaking her head over her mother’s weakness, a weakness she loved to take advantage of herself.
“Thanks, Frances!” Kate beamed an enormous smile, turned, and ran off—the transformation from tremulous waif to bouncy cherub instantaneous. Behind her in the line of cars, someone tapped their horn. OK, the brief honk said, we waited while you dealt with whatever mini crisis was caused by your piss-poor parenting, because we’re nice like that, but now you can get a move on because we, like everyone else in this line, have Shit to Do. Amazing how much a second of blaring horn can communicate.
Frances waved an apologetic hand out of the car window, and pulled out of the gate.
She dropped the other kids and was back at Anne’s house in a half hour. Having carpool duty wasn’t the onerous task the other parents thought it was: All three schools were close to home, and all four families lived on the same block. As Frances ran up to Anne’s door she looked over and saw her own cat, Carlton, watching her. She waved. He blinked and looked away, embarrassed for both of them.
She knocked softly on the door, but no one answered. Maybe Anne had gone back to sleep. She turned the handle and pushed open the door, peering around. Yup, there was the bag of toilet roll tubes. She grabbed it and was about to shut the door again when she saw Anne lying on the floor, her face turned away, her long hair spilling across the rug.
“Anne! Holy crap, are you OK?” But as she said it her brain started processing what she was really seeing. Anne, on the floor, check. But now she’d turned her head and Frances realized she was fine. In fact, she was better than fine. Frances had instinctively stepped over the sill and now she saw that Anne was naked, her face flushed, a man between her legs, his head below her waist.
“Shit . . .” Frances dropped her eyes, began to back out, “Sorry, Anne, Kate forgot her toilet roll tubes . . .” Stupidly she raised her hand with the Whole Foods bag in it because, of course, that would make it better, that she’d interrupted Anne and Charlie having a quickie on the living room floor. It was OK, because she was just here for the toilet roll tubes. Nothing to see here, move along.
The man realized something was wrong, finally, and raised his head, looking first at Anne and then turning to see what she was looking at, why her face was so pale when seconds before it had been so warmly flushed.
Frances was nearly through the door, it was closing fast, but not before she saw that it wasn’t Charlie at all. It was someone else entirely.
Frances closed the door and heard it click shut.
I gave this book 4 crowns.
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I received an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review from the publishers through Netgalley.
I alternate between re-reading this book and re-listening to it. Each time, I get something new out of it. Since it is read by the author on audio, I am able to really get into the story the way she meant it to be.
This is another book that I simply love. No matter how I read it, it transports me to Narnia every time.
A beautiful play that I first read back in Junior High. I love this play and it is time for me to re-listen to it.
Another book with fond memories. I first listened to this story read to my class in 4th grade by my teacher. This was our favorite part of the day and I became obsessed with this story. I love to re-read it but it has been a while. Another one on the list.
I read this the first time and this time I decided to listen to it on audio. I hate to say it but I am so disappointed. It is not the narration that I didn’t like, it is the story. I am bored. I don’t think I will finish listening to this and I may unhaul it from my shelf.
