What do You think about Object Lessons (1992)?
I enjoyed this. I am not a student of the mid-60s in any way, but I do recognize that this book is an extremely narrow portrayal of human experience at that time. I found, however, the characters to be well-written and their dramas to be realistic and I thought Quindlen took a very narrow world and deepened it so that, even though we were not provided much outside of that world, we were given a very three-dimensional view of it. I liked how Quindlen presented a time period of change from the viewpoints of people outside of those changes; Helen Malone's storyline was a secondary one, but Maggie's experience of it, and her mother's, and her father's, all provided a new sort of perspective. Quindlen also demonstrated that the gesture toward independence did not in any way affect everyone, nor did everyone want to experience it.I thought this was enjoyable; I liked some of the characters, disliked others, thought they were all believable and that they carried the novel well.
—Jennifer
This book was very quiet and thoughtful. It's a coming of age, so the main focus is on the sweeping changes in the lives of a mother and daughter over the course of a summer. It's about finding your voice, about learning to accept and love who you are, about breaking away from constraint and oppression to find fulfillment even if that means simply realizing that you've had the things you've wanted all along. This book is full of strong, smart, amazing female characters. Set in the 60s, the setting is very "wholesome," while still showcasing the rumblings of change the decade brought about. While I enjoyed the portrayal of the town, the family and the characters of Maggie and Connie, I did find some of the storytelling a little sleepy. Even the main characters seemed at a remove and I couldn't quite get a grasp on who they were. Even at the end, once they each find their voice, I still felt like I didn't know them at all. I think feeling more of a connection would have warranted a better rating for this book, but I can't say I didn't enjoy the read. I really like books like this and need more of them in my life.
—Nelly
(rating 3.5) Maggie is a young teenager caught on the threshold of establishing her identity. She's a child, but growing into a young woman, confronted suddenly by confusions such as peer pressure, popularity, and boys in a world that had seemed so calm. She's torn between two families: the well-to-do snobs of her father's lineage who seem to excel at looking down on others while failing to smell their own stink, and the more humble immigrants that her mother escaped from by getting pregnant before marriage.Told mostly from the perspectives of Maggie and her mother, this is the story of one pivotal summer, a place in time that Maggie, now an adult looking back, can pinpoint as the time when everything changed.While Maggie's specific experiences are unique (we didn't all spend summers as a teen lighting fires to partially built houses, for example), the feelings that her summer developed were very familiar. She had a lifelong friendship turn sour because of outside pressures, discovered that her mother is a complex human being and not just a "mom"...even her physical world is changing as the big open space behind her house is razed and developed with new housing. All of these experiences help shape the person she is becoming, but they all have that air of bittersweetness that comes with such changes. It's that drift of inevitability, sadness at leaving the familiar behind mixed with a bit of anticipation for what might be next. Curiosity over the new laces with a bit of fear that the old will fade away entirely and no longer be remembered...can people be as easily forgotten? And then, finally, realizing that what ultimately matters is that, no matter what it brings, the decision to move forward must be made by the person moving.On the cusp of a major change in my own life, I found a lot of the sentiment here (though the causes were very different) to be really on point with how I'm feeling so the timing of the story seems like it was just right for me. Sometimes a story doesn't need to be perfectly written if it's read at a perfect time.
—Jen Mays
