Emma's Table: A Novel [Paperback]

Philip Galanes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 2009

From the moment Emma Sutton walks into the FitzCoopers auction house, the disgraced media darling knows exactly what she wants: an antique dining table. What she gets is a chance to set things right.

Fresh from a yearlong stretch in prison, Emma finds her life just as she left it—filled with glittering business successes, bruising personal defeats, rolling television cameras, and awkward Sunday dinners at home. She needs a clean slate—a second chance that might be provided by two unlikely saviors: Benjamin Blackman, a terminally charming social worker and Emma's part-time assistant, and one of Benjamin's most heartbreaking wards, an overweight little girl from Queens named Gracie.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this solid ripped-from-the-headlines effort from Galanes (Father's Day), Emma Sutton—once an Oprah-featured interior design queen, now a newly released convicted tax felon—is determined to regain her balance, personally and professionally. Yet she soon resorts to mild fraud at an auction, proving old habits die hard. Confrontations with her ex-husband (who wants to try again) and her adult daughter (a mass of insecurities and vices) lead to guilt and shame. Meanwhile, Emma's weekend assistant, Benjamin Blackman, is not coping very well with his girlfriend or with his day job as an elementary school social worker. There a troubled, overweight third grader, Gracie Santiago, is losing ground fast, despite her mother's efforts. When Emma decides that she has brought her woes upon herself and can get rid of them the same way, the story lines collide neatly. Galanes's thoughtful, placid novel is overpopulated given the scarcity of plot, but the mother-daughter relationships hold it together. (Aug.)
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.

Review

“In other hands, a novel about a fictionalized Martha Stewart would be an occasion for a hatchet job. But Mr. Galanes...has created a heroine not only capable of but also deserving of kindness” (New York Sun )

“This summer’s delicious read.” (Vogue )

“[Galanes has a] gift for telling detail, rueful but compassionate insight and effortless imagery.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Sophisticated, witty, and fun, Emma’s Table had me hooked from the first page, and smiling through the very last. Philip Galanes serves up a pitch-perfect comedy of manners with a deft and elegant touch.” (Holly Peterson, author of The Manny )

“Delicious…. [A] touchingly bittersweet comedy of modern urban existence…. Anyone who can build nail-biting suspense out of a Sunday dinner gone horribly wrong is deserving of praise.” (Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today )

“Emma’s Table is a charming urban fairy tale about characters who actually learn from their mistakes. Philip Galanes has written a sweet, sly comedy of manners with an oddly familiar and slightly notorious figure at its center.” (Tom Perrotta, author of The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children )

“Emma’s Table is a marvel: a whip-smart juggling act, as light as meringue, with a perfectly tender heart.” (Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (July 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061554073
• ISBN-13: 978-0061554070
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,025,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeper read, August 5, 2008

By 

Tina "Tina" (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Emma's Table: A Novel (Hardcover)

When I first picked up this book, I thought it would be a chick lit book. Its not.

Author Philip Galanes has written a deeply moving, sad but uplifting novel. The storyline starts off at an auction house where our main character Emma (who strangely reminds me of (....). She is determined to get a special dining room table and will go to any lengths to get it. I thought this was a very interesting opening chapter as it totally threw me off for the rest of the book. I was certain we would be heading in the direction of so much of the standard stuff these days - rich celebrity spends too much money and we get to hear all about it. Well, this book is NOT about this in the least.

Once Emma gets her table, it is hardly mentioned again, but we are introduced, slowly to all the other characters who live in this novel. Benjamin is Emma's assistant, who also happens to be a social worker. Casey is Emma's daughter and she is a mess and her father seems to be a huge part of this reason - then we have Tina and Gracie. Tina is Gracie's mother and suffers from every insecurity known to man and little Gracie is a young girl who is suffering emotionally, mentally and physically from being grossly overweight. ALL of the characters in this book are deeply flawed and are not particularly likeable at times.

Yet, this makes the storyline work. It gives the author and the readers a chance to get to know each of them on a very personal level. No one is one dimensional in this book. For every unkind thought Emma has, she will turn around and severely chastise herself for it, for every horrible act of self-desctruction Casey poses, she will try to redeem herself.

Interestingly enough, all of the characters don't actually end up in the same room at the same time until well into the novel - this disappointed me a little. I love the small exposure we get to the blossoming relationship that could have developed between the sad, lonely, broken and older Emma and the sad,lonely, broken and younger Gracie.

This book is not at all what I expected and I am grateful for that. It does not figure into the standard yarn, which makes this story one that needs telling.

The author tends to use flowery descriptions at times, which I thought was appropriate for this book ot storytelling.

You will thoroughly enjoy this read - even if you probably won't end up liking most of its characters.

This is a good buy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars just okay, June 4, 2010

By 

M. Dubois - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Emma's Table: A Novel (Paperback)

This book unfortunately did not do it for me. I realize it is a take on Martha Stewart, but none of the characters maintained much interest with me. There are too many characters with different story lines that get neatly tied up in the end, but their plot endings do not make any sense and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. It is not a terrible book, but based on the reviews I was expecting a bit more. It's an easy read that you can finish quickly and I guess there is something to that.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't be misled by positive reviews, August 1, 2009

By 

San Fran reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emma's Table: A Novel (Paperback)

If ever there was a derivative, shallow piece of writing, this is it. The author borrows heavily from the true story of diva Martha Stewart to create the persona of his "heroine", Emma. The similarities to Stewart are distracting and reflect the lack of originality of this book. To me it did not have the catchiness or interest of a take-off on Ms. Stewart--just the pettiness. The story really goes nowhere. Having seen positive reviews ahead of mine, I thought I would warn potential buyers to beware.