Publisher's Weekly Review
In Greathead's warmhearted debut novel, spanning 1980 to 1995, Laura, a quiet woman in her early 30s from Manhattan's Upper East Side, attempts to balance her progressive ideals with the lavish lifestyle she lives thanks to a trust fund. After a one-night stand with her brother's friend leads to pregnancy, Laura tries to forge a life for herself and her daughter, Emma, on her own terms-while also staying near home and accepting the help of her old-money family. The supporting characters who come in and out of Laura's life over the years sparkle with idiosyncrasies, especially Laura's mother, Bibs, and Emma's devoted pediatrician. The novel is told in short scenes; major events can happen off the page, as with the death of a loved one, which is revealed by a scene set at the reception held after the funeral. Greathead is a talented writer of detail, particularly in her evocations of New York life-subway sobbing, could-be celebrity sightings, the joy of a favorite grocery store-and specifically of New York's elite-board meetings, private preschool admissions, "the impermeable serenity of a Manhattan courtyard," and the specific difference between an address on 96th and Park and 96th and Lexington. This is a thoughtful novel of trying to find oneself despite an assigned place in the world. Agent: Amy Williams, the Williams Company. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Fifteen years in the life of a woman who is constitutionally out of step with her privileged New York family.We meet Laura in 1980, waking up from a nightmare, thinking it would be nice if she had a husband to discuss it with. The only other time she misses having a partner is if something breaks around the apartment after 9 p.m., too late to call the super. Laura is an odd duck in many ways. She has little interest in clothes, "but what people assumed was her absentminded ignorance of fashion" is actually ecological conscientiousness. Since everything she owns will one day end up in a landfill, she avoids acquisition as much as possible. In 1979, the fashion-on-the-street photographer Bill Cunningham took a picture of her in a Laura Ashley skirt, white turtleneck, and Frye boots; she is still talking about it, and wearing the same outfit, in 1995. Though she rejects her family's lifestyle in some respects, she does take their money and holds a job at the museum now located in her great-grandfather's mansion. Wedding coordination is a position for which she is quite unsuited, but because of the special allowances the library makes due to her connections, she will never leave. In this very quiet life of hers, one thunderbolt strikes. In her single experience of sexual intercourse, which occurs under conditions which are both very sad and very funny, she gets pregnant. Reproduction is certainly not part of her plan to save the planet, but on the day of her scheduled abortion, a sparrow gets into her room and changes her mind. So all-by-herself Laura becomes Laura and Emma, per the title of Greathead's debut. Although having a child should by all rights open the windows of Laura's life, it doesn't. Her daughter, on the other hand, turns out to be a totally different sort of person.This ultimately rather mysterious book, with its attenuated plot and restrained humor, is like a person who speaks so softly that you end up paying very close attention. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The darkly funny way that single, thirtysomething Laura gets pregnant in 1981 sets the tone for Greathead's polished debut. Laura worries about overpopulation but, with no interest in partnering off, chooses to accept this surprise pathway to motherhood. And so the curious new human called Emma joins Laura's family of eminent Upper East Side WASPs. Laura, something of an outsider because she cares about the planet and dresses unfashionably, is unable to understand conflict, let alone mitigate it. Outspoken Emma wears her hardy heart on her sleeve from the start, though, and as she grows, she directs Laura's attention to oddities of their world she might never have otherwise noticed. Their story unfolds in richly interiorized episodes organized by year through 1995. Some years pass in a single page, giving due credit to the utter obliquity of time. Most impressive are the ways Greathead restrainedly shows her characters stretching at the seams of their own by-now-inherited restraint, and she paints their immense privilege with knowing nuance. Greathead's smart and original take on the mother-daughter novel impresses and charms.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Laura naïvely considers herself to be living a modest life. She does have a job after all-never mind it's one created for her and sustained by her family connections. And she lives in a comparatively modest penthouse that is Harlem-adjacent. Despite her supposed frugality, she has never really had to work for anything and drifts along with a sense of financial security and being taken care of. Her passive take on life leads to an unexpected pregnancy that she doesn't terminate, more by distracted accident than by intention. And so she has a daughter named Emma. Motherhood doesn't much change the haphazard way Laura is used to dealing with life. When Emma develops into an independent young woman, it seems more in spite of her mother rather than because of her. VERDICT This novel makes a seemingly unlikable character sympathetic and interesting to the point that her story becomes unputdownable. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s to mid-1990s, this debut by a Moth -StorySLAM champion will appeal to readers of character-driven women's fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]-Karen Core, Detroit P.L. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
