4.5 ( )

"For the first minute or two, I do nothing but luxuriate in the smell of the study. It is my favorite smell in the world, a noble smell..." (page 17) Wow. The way Grushin writes is dazzling, her descriptions mesmerize, the memory of her prose is unforgettable and rich.
Before I had even reached half-way through this book, I went looking for her other two books. This is my new favorite for 2016! ( )

"For the first minute or two, I do nothing but luxuriate in the smell of the study. It is my favorite smell in the world, a noble smell..." (page 17) Wow. The way Grushin writes is dazzling, her descriptions mesmerize, the memory of her prose is unforgettable and rich.
Before I had even reached half-way through this book, I went looking for her other two books. This is my new favorite for 2016! ( )

Trapped in a life of domesticity, the protagonist contemplates the poetry she loved to write as a young woman and considers whether the path she has chosen is the right one. Engaging read. ( )

A marvelous book. It moved me, engrossed me with its descriptive powers and its precise pinpointing of observations and ideas, at the same time confirming certain points about my own life.

A story of a woman who, in her youth, believed she "could sometimes sense the essence of things - houses, books, faces, moments in time - ... sometimes caught a whiff of their innermost souls, their unique smells", and she "was hoping .... to render these impressions in words so vivid, so precise, that others could feel them too", but who then wakes up to a different reality, struggles with it, trying to realize whether her life was wasted or not: "In our youth we believe ourselves so unique and our stories so original, yet we are all stuck running like hamsters on the wheel of time, all acting in the same play, and the roles or the play stay the same, only the actors switch places: one minute you are an ingenue charming an affable heir - the next, a matron used for comic relief in a scene of which you are no longer the protagonist." After all, "time... is the ultimate limitation placed on man" - as her imaginary muse/critic tells her. To the very end, this woman lives two lives (but don't we all?) - one in her head, one in reality. Despite all the regrets, moments of bitterness, tormenting questioning, it's such an uplifting book! I loved every moment of it. Wrote down tons of quotes, couldn't help myself... Here is one of the gems:

"And yet maturity offered other consolations, so much so that Mrs. Caldwell supposed she would choose not to relive her twenties if presented with the option. Among the varied advantages of middle age, you knew enough to accept being ordinary and to find much comfort in it, just as you knew enough to recognize the cliches for what they were and be able to laugh at them."

And I do agree with gbill's assessment that "in lesser hands, the story could have degenerated into banality...", but this author has certainly proved herself above that. ( )