The Divorce Papers by Susan Reiger
Release Date: March 18 2014
Have you ever wanted to like a book so much that it hurt when it wasn't great? That was The Divorce Papers.
Release Date: March 18 2014
Have you ever wanted to like a book so much that it hurt when it wasn't great? That was The Divorce Papers.
Official Summary: Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s her first divorce, too.
Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn’t leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships—not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.
I've read Where’d You Go, Bernadette. This is not Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
While I enjoyed reading this book, I don't know what kind of commercial success it will have.
The official summary describes Divorce Papers as "playful" but it really isn't. It's over 400 pages of legal documents. There's no funny in dividing up assets.
To break up the legalese there is correspondence between Sophie and her mentor/boss/crush, Sophie and her best friend Maggie, and Mia's letters. The emails between Sophie and Maggie are long and rambling and they do nothing but slow everything down.
The only saving grace about The Divorce Papers is Mia. As my grandmother would say, she's got some moxie. My other grandmother would say that she don't take no shit. Both are right. Mia's handwritten notes are the only thing that lifts The Divorce Papers from a case study to a novel.
Bottom line: Don't waste your time.