Dinner With Anna Karenina [Paperback]

Gloria Goldreich (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Six women discover their lives enriched and transformed by their shared passion for books in Goldreich's delightful tribute to friendship. Cynthia, Jen, Elizabeth, Trish, Rina and Donna participate in an informal Manhattan book club that exposes "their dreams, their deepest fears, their brightest hopes" while they discuss great literature and enjoy wonderful meals. The group's tranquility shatters when Cynthia, the most glamorous of the six, announces before an Anna Karenina discussion that she's divorcing her husband, Eric, a highly successful documentary filmmaker. Cynthia refuses to explain why she suddenly can no longer live with Eric, leaving her friends shocked and curious. For a whole year, as the other five endlessly speculate about Cynthia and face their own personal problems, the women probe the riches of authors like Tolstoy, Flaubert, Plath and Nabokov. In the end, their emotional support of each other grows as they learn to understand and forgive each other's weaknesses. Goldreich's novel Leah's Journey won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

When a book club comprising six well--educated New York women gathers to discuss Anna Karenina, their lives change. Cynthia, the hostess, lives in a beautiful house and has a fantastic career, two wonderful children, and the perfect husband, but she has asked him to leave and will not tell the group why. Although they're not close-knit, this singular event has repercussions, forcing each woman to confront her own shortcomings and try to improve her life. As the group meets throughout the year, the book discussions become more meaningful as evaluating books allows them to open up and talk about themselves, listen more generously to each other, and try to transform their lives rather than passively accepting them. Goldreich dramatizes the balancing act that modern women must perform to achieve success at work and at home with honesty, sympathy, and skill, making the reader feel as though she is part of the group and able, like them, to take charge of her life. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mira; Original edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778325946
• ISBN-13: 978-0778325949
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,012,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memorable and moving novel, January 8, 2006

By 

Carol Carney "C2" (Rockville MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dinner With Anna Karenina (Hardcover)

Gloria Goldreich's "Dinner with Anna Karenina" is a wonderful novel about women's friendships and the power of literature to illuminate and transform lives. Six women members of a Manhattan book club meet regularly to share dinner and literary insights about novels ranging from Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" to Edith Wharton's "The Reef." The novel isn't so much an in depth critical review of the chosen novels, as it is a reminder of how great novels force readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships, and how novels and book clubs have the power to expand personal horizons and nurture and deepen friendships. The members of the book club are all intelligent, interesting, and believable women. Readers will feel a kinship with all of them, and will feel satisfied by the end of the novel at how their various situations are resolved. Frankly, I felt as though I were a seventh member of the group, and having at one time or another read all but one of their picks, I vicariously participated in their discussions. Although the novel ends exactly when it should, on the perfect note, I know I will miss these sympathetic characters who Goldreich so skillfully brings to life. This is a wise, moving, and memorable contemporary novel.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful relationship drama, January 3, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dinner With Anna Karenina (Hardcover)

The six women who make up the book club meet monthly to discuss a chosen tale. Trish is married to Jason; Donna has two men in her life; Rina is a single mom; Jen is married to Ian, Elizabeth has Bert. However, all envy the sixth member Cynthia. She has a great job as marketing director of Nightingale's Boutique department Store; her sensitive husband Eric is a renowned documentary filmmaker; and they have two perfect twin children. Thus the other five are stunned when Cynthia informs them that she is divorcing Eric, but she refuses to provide reasons beyond that she cannot forgive him.

The other five speculate on what he did, but Cynthia remains stubborn refusing to divulge her secret. After a time of failed sleuthing, each of the other five begins to look inward at their own flawed relationships wondering what they can do to strengthen them. No one knows why the perfect marriage dissolved during their DINNER WITH ANNA KARENINA, but no one wants to follow suit.

Once again the great Gloria Goldreich provides a powerful relationship drama starring a wounded woman who feels so betrayed that she no longer trusts the man she loves. Readers will join the quintet trying to learn what he did and how can he atone for his transgression that destroyed their marriage. However, the key to this deep tale is the ensemble cast that comes across as differing individuals with varying needs, worrying about their own relationships with loved ones. Fans of powerful character studies will want to read this strong look at trust lost.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Book I've Ever Read, January 4, 2007

By 

Joanne "bookgirl" (Lake Jackson, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dinner With Anna Karenina (Hardcover)

I am a voracious reader and this has to be the all-time worst book ever written. If this author used one more adverb I was going to hurl. If you enjoy super mushy descriptions and extremely predictable cliche'd writing this is the book for you. If you are even a "semi" well-read person you will toss this book in the nearest trashcan. The irony of this whole disaster is it's about a woman's bookclub! If any of the women in this novel's bookclub had picked out this book for their reading I'm certain none of them would even have the stomach to finish it. Leo Tolstoy and the other author's novels mentioned in this book must be turning over in their graves...