Grace

Rating:
Summary: EXTRAORDINARY!!
Review: Ms. Nunez paints a vivid picture of a married couple travelling in two different directions. The angst, confusion, doubt, stress and other complex emotions relative to the modern couple, are all resonated PERFECTLY in this piece of work.
The language is smart and sophisticated... the problems? ordinary and all too relatable.
Married individuals will enjoy this one... especially if you cherish your spouse enough to do ANYTHING to make it right when things go soooo wrong!

Rating:
Summary: Sensitive and memorable
Review: The ending was predictable but I enjoyed the book. The characterizations made me care about the people.

I'm originally from NYC so it was nice to read a Brooklyn story. I also liked that Justin was a Ph.D. It took me into the world of academia - and academic politics. Lastly, I'm 40 (like Sally) and books about midlife crises seem to be finding me!

One of my few criticisms is that the lesbian was portrayed in a negative light.

I would love to see more of an examination of Sally and Anna's friendship in another book, perhaps going back to their teenage years when they first meet each other. I loved the repartee between Anna and Justin. It was definitely a source of entertainment!

The book began and ended within a few months of 9/11. It would have been interesting to have read about how 9/11 affected this family, being that they are from Brooklyn. That's how close I felt to this family while reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: An observation of a marriage
Review: What happens when you learn the "big T Truth" about your marriage and your spouse? What happens when a husband learns that the "more" a wife is looking for does not necessarily include him, that her search is not about him? Elizabeth Nunez, with all the deftness of the master storyteller that she is, has crafted a tale of a woman searching for her truth and her husband learning his. Sally wants more; Justin thinks she has enough. Sally is blinded by fear; Justin can only see her through his eyes. "Grace" is a commentary on the truth that a marriage is comprised of two individuals, that despite the oneness society places on a couple, the fact remains that the couple is made of two. Sally and Justin, like some couples, approached the point when one part of the couple begins the fight for her individuality. Some people never make the necessary waves in a marriage in order to grab a better hold onto one's individuality; Justin's mother didn't . Sally did. Justin's turning point came when he realized that his mother was surfing those same waves internally.
In this quilt of Sally and Justin's marriage, Nunez also threaded in other patches that either blinded Justin to his big T Truth or opened his eyes to it. Maybe his wife has taken a lover, just not the man he envisioned. Maybe it is jealousy spurring him to say his wife isn't a poet. Maybe he holds back complimenting his student because of his own lack of success in his dream.
Thank you, Elizabeth Nunzez, for doing it again: giving me a story of a man so focused on himself that he thinks those people in his life are just bit players in his Grecian Tragedy, people on the periphery of his drama.