The world seems to shrink when one wakes up and realizes that they are middle aged and have not accomplished all that they have set out to do. They feel suffocated by the stagnant repetition of everyday life and nothing seems to inspire them. The world seems to tip and their feet begin to slip as if they are losing their grip on reality. A quest is sought out to remedy this situation that often leads to misadventure and sadness. It takes a person to a place that they may have not wished they had ever gone to, but it is too late to turn back from. This book is about one such couple feeling this losing battle of reality. It is a story of William and Louisa Day, who find themselves in an unusual position. They are at a point where time has seem to stop for their relationship and a slippage has started to occur. Louisa has given her husband an opportunity to restore their future and reset the clock on their faith in one another by taking over a project for her. This project is to restore and rebuild a home that she purchased with money that she inherited from an estate. Not sure how to approach the situation, William encounters many cross roads along his decision to accept or decline this proposal. Soon he finds himself reacquainted with an old flame. Old emotions are visited and old desires are met. Will William create a home for Louisa and himself to grow old in? Will William choose to move on with someone else?

I have to first say that the author of the book is very talented and wrote with great detail. The characters seemed very life like for me and could have been my next door neighbor if I imagined it. The personalities of the characters were well developed and the history was clearly defined. I enjoyed this very much and it made the book easy to follow. Having said that I must say that I found the book overall to be rather slow for me. I thought that Louisa was an overbearing woman and William himself was an arrogant fool that could not stay faithful to his partner. I grew to actually despise William by the middle of the book and could not force myself to read it any farther. Many things were a little melodramatic for me and I found Louisa to be over the top. Either way I grew tired of the story. I do however want to thank the author and goodreads since I won this book in a giveaway. I was asked to give my honest opinion and I can say that it is not a bad book, it is just not my style of reading ( )

I always felt as if I were standing on the outside of the story, never quite in it, and it didn't help that I found William Day to be utterly unlikeable and, therefore, could not trust him as a narrator -- especially concerning his wife, Louisa. Her early odd behavior (hiding the mail, etc) made me expect there to be something "real" wrong with her -- some tragedy in their marriage or other insurmountable issue rendering her emotionally weird -- that would be revealed further on, but no. We never get more than the surface of Louisa. ( )

The Short of It:

A fractured, splintered view of a marriage in decline.

The Rest of It:

When I first saw the title of this book I was immediately reminded of California earthquake faults and how they slip and slide every ten years to give us a good jolt of reality. Oddly enough, that’s kinda what this book is about. Marriage, on the brink of disaster and how the fissures eventually become full-on cracks if you let them run their course.

William and Louisa Day live in suburban bliss. Nice house, great neighborhood, interesting neighbors. One afternoon, while hosting one of his famous parties, William realizes that Louisa hasn’t come out to greet their guests. After trying to juggle his meet and greet duties along with cooking the food they are about to eat he goes in search of Louisa and finds her locked in their junk room. Forced to talk to her through the door, she seems okay but refuses to come out and only comes out after her drunk brother shows up and causes quite the scene.

Shortly after the party, Louisa tells William that she’s bought a plot of land and wants him to build her a new house. This innocent and somewhat far-fetched request triggers introspection but when an old flame of William’s moves into their neighborhood and rekindles what they started long ago, William’s not really sure what he wants.

The book opens with the party scene and within just a few pages, I was hooked. William is one of those funny, sarcastic guys that people don’t really pay attention to. His humor, if you can call it that, inserts itself innocently but the people on the other side of it rarely pick-up on his sarcasm. As he plods through life, you willingly follow along because although he’s a cheater and seems clueless about what his wife wants, he’s somehow more human than say the “suits” that he has to deal with at work or the guy next door or down the street.

As much as I love stories like this one, I had some trouble with Louisa. In one sense, she appears to be the voice of reason but her odd behavior, hiding behind closed doors and hoarding junk mail made me wonder if she was a little off. The other thing that bothered me is that William and Louisa hardly interact at all. Their interactions are short and abbreviated and her comments about anything had a throwaway quality to them. As if she was saying them just to say something. Perhaps, that is what a marriage in decline is like, but there was no heat… no tension. I expected there to be lots of it given the fact that their marriage was on the line. To me, they were looking at each other through a broken mirror. Their images greatly exaggerated and skewed.

After finishing the book, I concluded that all the women in the book seemed a little off. I couldn’t relate to any of them and found myself relating more to William which surprised me. As negative as that may sound, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit. Greenman’s take on suburbia was spot on. That party scene alone won me over and the wry humor made what could have been a very depressing novel, somewhat comical.

It’s not perfect, but what marriage is? If you’re like me and want to read something a little different this summer, give this one a try. It will give you a lot to think about.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. ( )

Please see my review at my blog: http://tabsmom.blogspot.com/2013/07/family-life-3-versions-series-of.html ( )

Well-written, with some very funny lines. Still, the ironic distance between the characters carried over and I disengaged. {Pre-publication review copy via Nook download} ( )