Same As It Never Was : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: The Terrible Twenties Meets The Terrible Twos
Review: We find Olivia Martin at college, too smart to find happiness in the rote sequence of events there, and scarred by an unpleasant pair of parents. Olivia's voice is addictive, which propelled me through this book in an afternoon and evening.

The story and humor are character-driven, so they are much more satisfying than the cloying joke delivery systems usually rolled out as contemporary fiction. The characters are alternately imprisoned in situations and liberated from them by who they are, similar to the well-drawn, small-venue people of Richard Russo's stories. The same taut, yankee sensibility found in Russo (and Ford's) work is brought to bear on Los Angeles, with a cynical squint into the Pacific sunset.

Olivia does not soften, but she learns and her world gets larger. As a commentary and summary of the movement of twenty-somethings into the world of true adults (power! responsibility!), Same as it Never Was rang true for me. Olivia's life is full of real people, believable even to the point of being unlikable in some instances. Her examination of parenthood, and the usefulness of her acerbic wit, felt real to me, and paralleled some of my own discovers around the same age.

Funny, real, and memorable. I can't ask for more from a book.

Rating:
Summary: Family
Review: What a lovely book! It is refreshing to watch a character (Olivia) grow up in the most important way, as a person. Olivia is presented as a mouthy brat in the opening sections, but by the end of the story, she has learned about herself in ways that validate her persona while she matures as a functional human being. This would be an excellent read for young women, perhaps to explore in a mother/daughter book club, but it is more than a young person's story.

As an aside, I purchased this book because of reading the reviews, but if I had just seen the book on the shelf, the hardback dust jacket would have put me off, and I would not have picked it up. It looks like a book about abused, misguided children and adolescent girls, with sex and drug problems. It is not. It really does a disservice to a fine book.

I look forward to reading whatever else authoress LaZebnik brings to us. Brava.

Rating:
Summary: Modern-day Austen
Review: What an amazing story! The characters are reminiscent of Jane Austen, but brought up-to-date. The main characters are well-developed, and the dialogue is intelligent and witty. The moments between Olivia and her clueless, psycho mother are hilarious. This is a fantastic book!