In Visible City, people hidden away inside their own little worlds slowly emerge and find connection. On New York’s Upper West Side, thousands of people go about their lives, passing each other on streets and in cafes, yet never really seeing or being seen.Nina is a stay at home mother with two young children, having given up a law career in order to embrace full-time motherhood. Yet she finds herself at loose ends, and has taken to gazing at the windows of the building across the street, watching the lives of other people and imaging what their stories might be. She’s particularly fascinated by a couple in their fifties, who spend each night side by side on their couch reading books, seemingly enjoying their time alone but together. Nina wonders what their marriage is like, how they’ve reached this level of quiet contentment — until one night, instead of the couple, she sees a younger woman and her lover, who seem both angry and full of passion. What is their connection to the older couple, and how do they fit into the story Nina has composed about the world she watches from her windows?Bit by bit, we meet the others who circle through Nina’s view: There are Leon and Claudia, the couple from across the street, each experiencing professional challenges while at the same time caring for their daughter Emma, whose return to their home sparks concern and confusion. There’s Emma herself, on the run from her academic dissatisfaction and from the engagement that she may no longer want. There’s Nina’s husband Jeremy, who puts in long hours at his law firm while yearning for excitement and discovery. There’s Wendy, mother of twins, who is so tightly wound and outwardly perfect that she just might explode one of these days.All these lives and more intersect and collide. Each person is the center of his or her own life, and as each chapter unfolds, we see how the people in the background of one scene have equally compelling stories, passions, and pursuits of their own.The action is rather minimal, unfolding in small vignettes roughly centered around a new building going up in the neighborhood and its impact on the residents — yet that’s only incidental. Mostly, Visible City is about the people, all of whom seem to have a core of unhappiness in their lives. In a city of millions of people, these characters all have an unfulfilled desire to be known, to be truly seen, to reveal their true natures and break free of the strictures of their seemingly fine lives. No one is happy; each is hiding a secret desire or fear; frustration, loneliness, and alienation seem to rule the universe that these characters inhabit.I’ll be honest — there was only so far I could bring myself to care about any of this. For the most part, Visible City felt like yet another story of well-off New Yorkers dealing with the type of woes that plague people who don’t really have a lot to worry about: Motherhood is hard. My dissertation doesn’t really interest me any more. Visible City is all about people who have pretty good lives, but are still unhappy. If ever a group of people deserved the hashtag “first world problems” applied to their lives, this one does.I’ve enjoyed this author’s previous novels, particularly The Ladies Auxiliary, but somehow never felt particularly drawn in or engaged by Visible City. The writing is elegant and thoughtful, but ultimately the subject matter left me cold.Visible City should appeal to readers who enjoy contemplative novels with a focus on internal reflection. For those who prefer their reads more plot- or action-driven (and apparently, I fall into this category), this probably isn’t the book for you.(This review appears at Bookshelf Fantasies. Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.)
This book read like a series of writing exercises that someone with writer's block might have executed in an attempt to get their juices flowing. Put together enough completed writing exercises and character sketches, strain yourself to somehow connect the characters and pretend there's a plot, and lo and behold -- a novel.Nina is a young mother of two small children, bored and frustrated with her stay-at-home mother existence and spying on her neighbors, who she assumes lead a far more fulfilling life. Her neighbors are a middle-aged couple whose daughter Emma has moved back in. Emma is contemplating abandoning her fiance and possibly her Ph.D. Emma, who loves children, begins babysitting for Nina and the two families become intertwined in various ways as do several other neighborhood characters. Emma and Nina sounded exactly alike, maybe because neither of them had much personality. In fact, when a man later falls in love with Nina and rhapsodizes about her, I couldn't figure out what he was going on about. Was there personality there? If so, I missed it. Maybe one of the reasons the characters were so thin was that the viewpoints kept shifting. We were constantly moving from one character's head to another's, and somehow despite the long inner monologues and bizarre spontaneous heart-to-heart confidences exchanged between random pairs of characters every time I turned around, I never really felt like I knew any of them. Additionally, Tova's attempts at satire truly fell flat. The exaggerated Manhattan ubermoms who never admit to any loss of temper or frustration with their children were way over the top, as was the scene where one of them finally loses it. Even little things annoyed me, like when hypermom handed her three-year-old a beautiful cupcake and the child said in wonder, "You made this?" Um, I've raised four kids who have all been three years old. Appreciation for craftsmanship was not something they expressed at that age, especially when faced with a tempting cupcake. They were far more interested in eating it than they were in admiring handiwork. I liked The Ladies Auxiliary, was really disappointed in The Outside World, and was hoping Tova might redeem herself with this novel. I'll probably try her next one, if there is one, but I don't have much hope for it at this point.
What do You think about Visible City (2014)?
I received this book from the GoodReads Free Giveaways and that’s why I’m doing a review.I should start off by saying that this is a NOVEL, not a book. So if you are looking for a light fluffy read, then this is probably not the read for you. While it is NOT a really difficult read, you’ll definitely have to use more brain cells than you would while reading some of the popular Fiction out there.“Visible City” by Tova Mirvis is a novel about how people frequently become trapped in a rut during the course of their life. This rut may come in the form of career, relationship, or general life issues; and oftentimes, we may not realize we’re even stuck in that rut. This causes us to ascribe to the people around us the attributes which we feel are lacking in our own lives. Some examples…That woman loves being a stay-at-home mom. That man is so passionate about his job. That couple has a relationship full of so much love….However, once we truly connect with the people around us; we realize they have the same doubts, fears, and dreams as we do.The novel is about the way the 5 main characters interact with each other and how those interactions may or may not help each of them in answering the question, “Is this all I can expect from life, or is there something more out there for me?” I liked the novel and thought it was pretty good. And, I would more than likely read another book by this author if it was about a topic that I was interested in. I would also recommend it to my friends, if I knew they enjoyed this type of novel. My only complaint is that the first 50 pages or so were an extremely rough read. Since this was an Advance Reading Uncorrected Proof Copy, I’m not entirely sure if those pages were fully edited yet. The issue was that the author used so many commas and made the sentences so complex, that I had to reread many of them several times before being able to fully follow what was going on. It felt like the sentences in those pages had 50 words each and 10 commas. The flow of the sentences and even the paragraphs was disrupted making it incredibly hard to get into the story. After those 50 pages though, the novel got easier to read and more enjoyable. But like I said, I liked the novel, so I’m glad I powered through the beginning and didn’t give up on it.
—Rusty Schaeffer
Very different kind of novel. You are sneaking behind closed doors and peep holes into the character's daily lives. This is usually not my kind of book. But, it was great, I felt like I was a sneaking into people's apartments without a key. This story takes place in Manhatten, where Nina is watching people through her son's binoculars. We go into people's lives of Leon, and Claudia and Emma their adult daughter. She is engaged and left school for now. Trying to decide what to do. Her husband Jeremy is a corporate lawyer. He is represented a client that wants to tear down the apartment complex next door where he lives. There are so many different people that she spies I don't want to spoil anymore. Feels like the movie by Hitchkock, Rear Window. Enjoyed reading, even though I don't usually read character study. I am usually plot driven. Thanks for allowing me to review.
—Susan
Set in the Upper West Side of NYC, this story is an examination of relationships between husbands/wives, children/parents, coworkers, neighbors, psychotherapist/client, and friends. There are no happy characters from the beginning to the end of the book. Middle aged Claudia Stern and her husband, Leon Davidson, have a marriage at a crossroads. Their daughter, Emma, and her finance Steven are at a crossroad as Emma realizes she doesn't want to marry Steven nor finish her graduate degree. Nina, a young mother of Max and Lily, is unhappy in her marriage to Jeremy because she feels he is only focused on his career as a lawyer. Nina and her friend Wendy are in a dispute with the customers at the neighborhood cafe, Georgia's, because their small children are too loud and customers want children banned. A tenant in Nina's building, Arthur, doesn't like children either. In the end it Is a story of misery, loneliness, entrapment where people are living out roles in which they would rather not be day and night or they act another way when not around those where they need to maintain a role. During the day the animals in the zoo are trapped in cages and act one way, but at night, while still trapped, they are able to live more true to their nature. In some ways, the animals have more freedoms than people.
—Patricia
