by Joshua Henkin
age: adult
First sentence: “Out! Out! Out!”
Review copy from the author.

This is a quiet novel. I think that’s the best way to describe it. A sweeping portrait of everyday life, focusing on the ebb and flow of the relationship of Julian and Mia from the time they met as freshmen in college through to the birth of their first baby nearly 20 years later. There’s drama — divorce, infidelity, deaths — but, the novel doesn’t focus on the drama, but rather how that drama affects everyday life.

That’s not to say that the book was boring. It wasn’t. Rather, it was often just ordinary. Julian and Mia meet, live together, go to grad school, have a falling out, get back together, move to the Big City, and have a kid. Every day things — dealing with who’s going to wash the dishes or the stress of graduate school — took the forefront. But I think that was the purpose; to find the elegant in the every day. Sometimes, though, I thought that the scenery — Ann Arbor for much of the book — took the forefront. Like Julie, I found it difficult to get past the descriptions of the cafes, streets, or everyday workings of Ann Arbor in the book. The Fab Five? (You’re really from Ann Arbor if you know who they are.) The Art Fair? The Arboretum? The Diag? Zingermans? Caribou Coffee? It’s all there. I think the only thing he didn’t mention was The Rock at the corner of Hill and Washtenaw. I don’t know why this got in the way for me; perhaps it’s because I’m from the Ann Arbor area, though it’s been nearly 20 years since I lived there. But in a sense, I felt like Henkin was trying to showcase the town, which is all fine and good, but it seemed to get in the way of the story.

In general, though, I liked the book, the quietness of the book. I liked that the characters were all generally likable, even if they weren’t always doing likable things. I liked Julian’s struggles as a writer — how it was a struggle for him to find the novel that was waiting inside him (though I have to admit I often found it a bit pretentious, I felt like telling him to just do it already). And, as the title suggests, there’s much about the give and take in a relationship — being committed to each other, supporting each other’s dreams. I liked that it wasn’t perfect, that there were times when Julian and Mia had problems and fights and couldn’t seem to get things quite right. But, on the other hand, they weren’t horribly messed up with horribly messed up families, dealing with back-biting and dischord in their lives. It was refreshingly… well… normal.

In the end, while there was nothing really to shout about, nothing really that bowled me over enough to say “Wow, this book is great,” it was a good read.