Customer Reviews

Close Relations

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this book more than 15 years ago, and it was my introduction to Susan Isaacs' work. Since then, my coopy has literally fallen aprt, and I was delighted to see a reprint.

The heroine, Marcia, has a good life. Her family wants her to have a different life. How Marcia gets what she alsways dreamed of and makes her family happy is a funny, bitter, and very true story. Anyone who has ever tried to forge a life of their own will see themselves in Marcia.

I know this book so well, I sometimes quote parts of it. It has never failed to give me pleasure, and it has the right mix of good writing, good characters and good plot to keep the story moving.

Buy it and read it before Labor Day!

Isaacs follows the great COMPROMISING POSITIONS with another winner that follows similar lines. Only in this case it is not middle-America suburbian married life that is being examined but poor Marcia and her gaggle of well-meaning relatives. She is introduced to loser after loser until there he is one day.

The sexual exploits combine with her amateur snooping to create a funny, intriguing book with characters as well-honed as the plot. Isaacs has a way with words and specializes in dialogue of the funny sort. I again laughed out loud over and over and the characters became almost like the people you meet daily. Good fun can be had by all.

As I read Close Relations, I often felt like the weather broadcaster in the movie "Groundhog Day." Our heroine, Marcia, is stuck in an impossible relationship with a thinly-drawn co-worker during a political campaign, and their fights and the campaign scenes are endlessly replayed. As every possible political and relationship cliche is played out, we also have to deal with every possible stereotype of oppressive Jewish relatives hungry for their offspring to marry.

Marcia is supposed to be a high-powered political operative and in demand for her speech-writing skills, but little evidence of this is shown. Given the mess of her personal life, it's a bit hard to imagine she functions so well professionally.

If all of this weren't tedious and insulting enough to the reader, Marcia meets Mr. Right finally and, of course, Mr. Right is not only a perfect conversationalist, a gourmand, good-looking, liberated, and a magnificent lover but also RICH, RICH, RICH! Just like real life.

I generally like Susan Isaacs and her wit and good writing tend to keep me in one of her books to the end, despite its quality. Unfortunately, Close Relations is one of her lesser offerings and I grudgingly gave it only three stars.

In New York City, Marcia Green is a successful political speechwriter. However, her family, instead of marveling at her success, loathe her job that her mom and aunt believe interferes with her meeting a nice Jewish dentist to marry and bear grandchildren. Just because she is thirty five, divorced from Barry Plotnick and happy with her work and sex with Jerry Morrisey are irrelevant to her mom and aunt. They cannot understand how Marcia can live with someone whose DNA runs towards boiled potatoes instead of appreciation of the fine art of a knish.

However, when Marcia meets her Mr. Perfect, she wants to run away before her family stalk him. David Hoffman is affluent, handsome and intelligent as expected of a Harvard Law School Graduate; but his greatest trait besides not mentioning his alma mater is his fearlessness when he enters the Green family jungle. As he falls in love, she remains in a state of "Definitely, Maybe" denial.

This is an entertaining reprint of a 1980 fine character study although the support cast consisting of her family and co-workers are purposely hyperbole stereotypes. Marcia is marvelous as her professional life is perfect (at least she says so) and her personal life a mess (at lest her mom says so). When David enters her life, he nukes her feelings as she reconsiders what she wants in a man looking back to Forest Hills HS and her crush on Barry for guidance. Fans will enjoy this pre-Twitter era tale with a touch of chick lit before that became fashionable.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed Close Relations, didn't realize how long ago the book had been written. However, except for technology the book was up to date.

Isaacs follows the great COMPROMISING POSITIONS with another winner that follows similar lines. Only in this case it is not middle-America suburbian married life that is being examined but poor Marcia and her gaggle of well-meaning relatives. She is introduced to loser after loser until there he is one day.

The sexual exploits combine with her amateur snooping to create a funny, intriguing book with characters as well-honed as the plot. Isaacs has a way with words and specializes in dialogue of the funny sort. I again laughed out loud over and over and the characters became almost like the people you meet daily. Good fun can be had by all.