Julie’s Review: A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

A Window Opens
written by Elisabeth Egan
published by Simon & Schuster, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble (Nook) (print), Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book: No. I forced myself to finish this book for the sake of book club. I was also holding out hope that the plot would pick up (or develop!). No such luck. I found the character development to be lacking, with the exception of the protagonist’s father. Alice’s dad was an endearing character who added some much-needed humor to the book. Unfortunately, he left the novel too early in this reader’s opinion.

A Window Opens promised to be a modern account of a working mother trying to have it all–it fell flat with ordinary prose and a less than compelling plot.

Would I recommend it: No. I’m fairly certain that most of my fellow book lovers would be disappointed.

 

~ Julie ~

 

About the book – from Goodreads: For fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?.

In A Window Opens, beloved books editor at Glamour magazine, Elisabeth Egan, brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age.

Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a mostly-happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.

Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up and her work takes an unexpected turn. Readers will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all, but what does she―Alice Pearse―really want?