About book Love And Other Impossible Pursuits (2007)
Por la sinopsis, pensé que sería algo triste y divertido. Que Emilia intentaría ganarse el amor de William (su hijastro de cinco años) de forma honesta y que en el camino ella terminaría queriéndolo. Todo un cuento de hadas, digamos. Emilia no me gusta. No estoy juzgando, no me justifico en que ella se enredara con un hombre casado, porque eso sería una tontería, lo único que me faltaría sería tirarle piedras. No, no me gusta Emilia. Me da ASCO. Es su actitud, es su forma de ser y de tratar a la gente, es su forma de pensar. La forma en que piensa sobre William, sobre otros bebés, sobre sus padres, sobre Jack. Todo, me repugna esta mujer. Creo que no soy la única, así que dejo que hable el mismo libro:(view spoiler)["-No eres mala, Emma. Eres inmadura y te crees el centro del mundo, pero no eres mala.""[...]para que me mantengan alejada de ese niño entre cuyos prodigios talentos se incluye hacer sentir que soy una mala persona y recordarme no sólo que no soy su madre, no sino que no soy la madre de nadie.""-No tienes ni idea de la cara que pones cuando lo miras [a William], Emilia. ¡Eres tan fría! Eres más fría que el jodido y helado Harlem Meer""-Emilia, no se trata de usted sino de William."-"Esto no es un permiso carcelario, Emilia. La muerte de Isabel no te da derecho a hacer y decir lo que te dé la maldita gana, ni herir a quién te de la gana.-Lo sé.-No, no lo sabes.""-No me puedo creer que le haya hecho esto a mi hijo -dice-, No me puedo creer que haya arruinado su vida por esto. ¡Por esto! [...] Le he impuesto tu presencia a mi hijo para nada. Para nada.""¿Y cuál fue mi reacción a la dolorosa vergüenza que mi madre compartió conmigo y que heló el amor que yo sentía por mi padre? Seduje y cacé a un hombre como él, que se parecía a él, que dedicaba a lo mismo que él, que quería a su tanto como mi padre a sus hijas. Me aferré a Jack, arruiné su matrimonio y su familia y los dos nos convertimos en traidores. Exactamente igual que mi padre. ""[...] su matrimonio es una farsa, construido sobre una especie de repetición protofreudiana de la infidelidad de su padre [...] las peores fechorías que ha cometido en toda esta tragedia estaban dirigidas contra la única persona que es realmente una víctima de las circunstancias, a la que ha intentado matar con comida a la que es alérgica, a la que ha dejado jugar en un entorno peligroso y desprotegido, a la que ha tirado al agua helado aunque haya sido un accidente." (hide spoiler)]
It's my fault, really. I put this book on my "to read" list a very, very long time ago, well before I was pregnant. When I saw it in the library, I picked it up without reading the jacket, instead remembering that I had once placed it on my list and therefore it must be something that I can read at any time. Wrong.Pregnant mothers, especially those who have experienced a previous loss, should not read this while pregnant (or immediately after baby's arrival... not that you have time to read then). It deals, heavily, with the sudden death of the main character's daughter shortly after leaving the hospital. It is emotionally draining at times, somewhat frightening and, generally, a hard read for mothers who want to believe that their baby will be okay, no matter what.Some have written the main character off as whiny. I am nearly certain that those reviewers have never experienced the loss of a child. While she does whine, it is deservedly so at times. Does she take it too far? Does she let it interfere with other relationships? Well, yes. The grief of a mother can be so all-encompassing that it blocks view of everything else. While this is an extreme (fictional!) view of that overwhelming grief, I think more than one mother on this planet has watched a marriage dissolve in light of the death of a child (young or old). Thankfully, this was fiction and things were brought about by the end of the book. All that said, her reactions to others' pregnancies and various other stressors in her life seems, while whiny, quite realistic in light of that grief and loss. (Especially considering she's not receiving any therapy!)I only gave this book three stars, however, because I read it at the entirely wrong point in my life. It left me stressed out, worrying about the health of our own child on the way in light of our loss last year. I should be better at checking books that have been on my list for awhile before reading them. The three star rating is my own fault but I cannot give it more at this time.Issues discussed include infant death, SIDS, pregnancy, birth, death, infidelity, divorce, step-parenting, anger, grief, loss, anxiety, depression and brief sexual description.
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Wow- Fantastic book. Emilia is selfish, guilty & mourning the death of her 1 day old daughter, Isabel. She makes lots of painful mistakes, hurting the ones who love her the most, her mother, husband, and stepson but she is human and tries to be honest. When confronted by the truth of her actions, she owns up to it and is willing to learn the truth about herself. Emilia, while not likeable, is loveable with all her flaws. This is Ms. Walden's best piece of fiction yet, although I can't wait to finish the rest of her body of work. I'm happy to have read this before the movie comes out...I believe Natalie Portman has signed on to play Emilia...I LOVE her. I hope the screenplay includes lots of narrative and doesn't lose to much in translation.
—Jennifer
I go back and forth a lot with this one. Waldman does something very interesting in this book and I;m still not sure how I feel about it, and for that I give her a bonus star for what was otherwise a pretty badly written story.LAOIP is about a lawyer named Emilia who falls madly, desperately in love with Jack, a nice Jewish lawyer who -whoops - happens to be married. Jack resists until he can't anymore and they end up together. Cliche.Interesting, not cliche aspects that I appreciated:1 - The idea of telling a story from the mistress POV such that the seemingly witchy ex wife is cast as both a villain yet also remarkably sympathetic2 - Emilia really can't stand her stepson (I love that)3 - What was three? I forget. There was something, though.So I dig this, in theory - I like that we are asked to see a home wrecker as someone who is in fact struggling to make a complicated situation work. Yet, at the end of the day, she IS a home wrecker and so there was little likability there. In addition, Jack has got to be the flattest character ever. For all that he is Mr. Fabulous, Mr. Throw Out Your Morals and Start Seducing, he is simpering, weak, and overly perfect. Blech.The book picks up with occasional fantastic lines and also some great insight, as well as turbulence with the happy couple that rang quite true. The problem was that I found myself rooting for them to not work out, for the issues seemed to far outweigh what drew them together, ie, animal magnetism and Emilia's cop out, justification insistence that Jack is her bashert (soul mate) and therefore Gd himself would want the adultery to happen.I appreciated that Waldman took on heady tasks, and I appreciate that that stepson sure was super annoying. The realness was refreshing. But the characters didn't do much for me and I just wasn't sure that at the end of the day it's ever ok to root for the home wrecker, no matter how much I appreciate literary twists.
—M
Despite the many, many problems I had with this book, I ultimately enjoyed it. A lot of people have written the main character, Emilia, as whiny and self-pitying - and she is, and she admits it. But I don't think it's too far off considering she'd lost a child and blames herself heavily for the loss. I did enjoy watching her warm up to William, her stepson, and I really liked the tours of Central Park that Waldman took us on. I did not like that the ex-wife and the father were rather two-dimensional villains, and yet, I did not want them to be redeemed at the end. I also felt that it was a little contrived for Emilia to realize that she loves William just as her marriage is about to fall apart. Yet, like I said, despite its flaws I really enjoyed the book - it was a quick and entertaining read and still a touching portrait of a mother's loss - and gain.
—Katya
