Sunday, March 28, 2010

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn

This is the story of four women in their thirties, all with small children, who live in and around the Prospect Park area of Brooklyn. Melora, a two-time Oscar winner, is frustrated with her life, her husband, and the stresses of raising an adopted child. Rebecca, frustrated with her life after the birth of her daughter, begins an affair with a handsome neighborhood celebrity. Lizzie, a former lesbian, is frustrated with her husband's job which takes him away from her and their small son most of the time. And Karen is frustrated with where she and her husband and toddler son live, which ISN'T in Prospect Park. How their lives intersect and how they relate to one another forms the basis of this novel.

I have to say that I didn't like it very much. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic or even likable and it's hard to work your way through a novel if you aren't rooting for at least ONE person to succeed. In fact, if I hadn't had limited reading materials available to me on a recent trip I would have skimmed to the end and then returned it. Perhaps it's because I've passed the age that the author is writing about?

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