Funny--worth reading!

books:


	• Goodnight Nobody: A Novel Jennifer Weiner Washington Square Press, 2006 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 195 reviews view larger image
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Wildly uneven...

"Goodnight Nobody" is a page turner and an easy read; I read this 375 page book in one day. The setup is arresting: suburban housewife Kate Klein happens upon a crime scene and soon she's in a mad dash to find the killer. The woman who died is a ghostwriter for a Dr. Laura/Ann Coulter type, and as Kate investigates there are many tantalizing leads and false starts.

Weiner's prose shines at times. To wit: "Sukie and I had been struggling for cordiality ever since the day we'd met, when she'd told me her kids were named Tristan and Isolde, and I'd laughed, thinking she was kidding, and she wasn't." And this: "The Cavanaughs had the same house we did, the Montclaire (six bedrooms, five full baths, hard-wood floors throughout.) The investors in our development were Italian, plenty of the residents were Jewish, and yet the homes had names that made them sound like members of British Parliament."

With a strong setup and good writing, the plot takes off for a while only to glide along and end up with an ending that doesn't satisfy. The resolution is a curious mixture of grand and mundane. Then there's the issue of Kate's marital situation, which ends on a similarly flat note. And the writing itself is wildly uneven too, vacillating from witty observations like the ones above to crass sarcasm ("What does Evan McKenna do?" he asked. "Models." I replied. ) I kept expecting to hear a rim shot.

Not a bad book, but not a great one either.

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Funny--worth reading!

Ok, maybe it's not the greatest mystery ever written, but "Goodnight Nobody" is hilarious, and gets so many things right -- especially the hierarchy (exactly like highschool) among mothers of toddlers -- it's well worth reading if you're a mom who needs a laugh.

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Very enjoyable!

This is a perfect romping beach read. I literally read it on the beach and it kept me engaged and entertained. Very fun.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

"New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner's newest novel tells the story of a young mother's move to a postcard-perfect Connecticut town and the secrets she uncovers there. For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia's been full of unpleasant surprises. Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home. The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her. Her days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety. When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is one of the most interesting things to happen in Upchurch since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank. Even though Kate's husband and the police chief warn her that crime-fighting's a job best left to professionals, she can't let it go. So Kate launches an unofficial investigation -- from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school -- with the help of her hilarious best friend, carpet heiress Janie Segal, and Evan McKenna, a former flame she thought she'd left behind in New York City. As the search for the killer progresses, Kate is drawn deeper into the murdered woman's double life. She discovers the secrets and lies behind Upchurch's placid picket-fence facade -- and the choices and compromises all modern women make as they navigate between independence and obligation, small towns and big cities, being a mother and having a life of one's own. Engrossing, suspenseful, and laugh-out-loud funny, Goodnight Nobody is another unputdownable, timely tale; an insightful mystery with a great heart and a narrator you'll never forget. "

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