Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Ayelet Waldman
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Ayelet Waldman
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Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

Author: Ayelet Waldman

Narrator: Ellen Reilly

Abridged: 5 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/24/2006

Synopsis

In this moving, wry, and candid novel, widely acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman takes us through one woman’s passage through love, loss, and the strange absurdities of modern life.Emilia Greenleaf believed that she had found her soulmate, the man she was meant to spend her life with. But life seems a lot less rosy when Emilia has to deal with the most neurotic and sheltered five-year-old in New York City: her new stepson William. Now Emilia finds herself trying to flag down taxis with a giant, industrial-strength car seat, looking for perfect, strawberry-flavored, lactose-free cupcakes, receiving corrections on her French pronunciation from her supercilious stepson – and attempting to find balance in a new family that’s both larger, and smaller, than she bargained for. In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Ayelet Waldman has created a novel rich with humor and truth, perfectly characterizing one woman’s search for answers in a crazily uncertain world.

About The Author

Ayelet Waldman is the author of Daughter’s Keeper and of the Mommy-Track mystery series. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Believer, Child magazine, and other publications, and she has a regular column on Salon.com. She and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon, live in Berkeley, California, with their four children.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Barbara on 2007-06-05 15:01:07

I got totally caught up in this book, which is full of characters who jump out of the pages in their 'realness'. Emilia, a young married woman, who is dealing with a precocious stepson and grief from a baby who died of SIDS, finds herself unable to deal with life. Everything reminds her of her dead baby. She wants to be a good mother to her stepson and a loving wife, but she is so full of grief and guilt, she makes a mess of everything. This is definitely a woman's book and the reader will find herself identifying with Emilia's good intentions as she struggles with the character flaws that each of us have.

Goodreads review by Jill on July 26, 2009

The writing here is unusually strong. I didn't expect to like the story as much as I did. The characterization is outstanding, and when the narrative voice really fits, ring true. Because of point of view, the secondary characters work unusually well. As the reader, you're right with the main charac......more

Goodreads review by treehugger on March 27, 2009

This book took me WAY by surprise. It sounded great on the cover, bought it on a whim on the bargain bookshelf, and picked it up on a day when I couldn't stomach even one more minute of pharmacy talk. The beginning was slow, and I didn't even think I was going to get to the middle - as much as I loat......more

Goodreads review by Ivy on March 18, 2008

This book (by Ayelet Waldman, wife of Michael Chabon who wrote Kavalier & Klay) was a page turner, however, I cant remember despising a main character so much in a long time. What a selfish woman! I did enjoy the new york-centric storytelling, esp. about intricacies of Central Park. I just disliked......more

Goodreads review by Snotchocheez on August 18, 2011

Another semi-random library choice, "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman served in part as an exercise in voyeurism: I just wanted to see if Michael Chabon's wife was as gifted a writer as he. The answer to that is a resounding NO, but she's not exactly talentless, either. Despite......more

Goodreads review by Maura on January 26, 2011

Welllllll... The character isn't terribly likable, but that isn't fair as she just lost her daughter. A two day old child. Grief is a powerful, life changing thing. I couldn't put the book down, reading it in two days. I had to know what happened next, would her marriage survive, would she have anoth......more

Quotes

“A romantic, shocking . . . page-turner [that] actually says something new and interesting about women, families and love.” –The New York Times Book Review“Absorbing. . . . Compelling and artfully drawn. . . . The novel is beautifully paced and unfolds seamlessly.” –The Washington Post“A smart and finally affecting portrayal of a woman working her way out of her own grandiose self-image into something like real love.” –New York“The emotions Waldman instills in her protagonist are visceral and convincing. . . . [Emilia’s] always sharp, wickedly funny, opinionated and cheerfully bitter, lending depth and energy to this wise, entertaining book.” –San Francisco Chronicle

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