Customer Reviews

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx: A Novel

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If after death you had the choice to visit your family and friends, and understand their thoughts, would you? Molly Marx is 35 when she dies in an unexplained bicycle accident, and she chooses to "visit" during the first year after her death.
Molly is married to a successful plastic surgeon (who comes equipped with a stereotypical over protective Jewish mother), has a four year-old daughter she loves with all her heart, close relationships with her family, good friends, a fulfilling and creative career, and a handsome, romantic lover. Molly's life is cut short during a bicycle ride in Riverside Park on a rainy day, and she suddenly finds herself in a place called the Duration.
From the Duration, and newly equipped with a fully functioning bull*&$) meter, Molly watches as life goes on without her. Nicely juxtaposed with important events that occurred before Molly's death, the reader is treated to perspectives of Molly's life from her memories, current events, the thoughts of her loved ones, and even an NYC detective who is trying to discover how Molly died. In the end, we discover how Molly died is less important than how she lived, and how pieces of Molly lived on in other long after she was gone.
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is simultaneously funny and sad. Molly's life was complicated and messy, and her death brought out the best and worst of her family and friends. It is an engaging book, keeping the reader immersed to discover how Molly died and what happens afterwards, and an enjoyable read from beginning to end.

Molly Marx, beautiful thirty-five year old wife of a rich plastic surgeon, narrates the intricate tale of her life and mysterious death from the Duration, a purgatory-like stopover between Life and whatever lies beyond. Although Molly's narrative voice is wry and funny, the story of her troubled marriage to her cheating husband, her own infidelity and her complicated relationships with her extended entourage of friends and family is very serious subject matter indeed.

From her vantage point in the Duration, Molly is able to not only follow the events which ensue after her untimely demise, but is able to look back at the choices she made in her life which led her to be on that Riverside Park bike trail where she dies. The novel opens with Molly observing her own funeral, and then following the police investigation into her death which continues throughout the book. Until the very end of the novel, the reader is left in limbo as to whether Molly's death is accidental, suicide or murder.

Although I found parts of this novel very touching, and I thought that the author maintained a lively, witty voice for her title character, overall I was not drawn into this plot. In fact, for the most part I found the plot off-putting. The main reason was that I could not get a handle on what message the author was trying to convey.

The book is too frothy to be really poignant. The grim topics of death, adultery and guilt are often handled in the breezily farcical manner that many a chick lit heroine uses to describe her battle with ten extra pounds or her propensity to spend too much money on shoes. This might not be so unnerving if the reader was not forced to keep reminding herself that she is being told about these events by a dead person. So there is no chance for redemption or do-overs here.

The overall tone of the book is puzzling and off-kilter. It's neither satirically funny enough to be true black humor, nor serious enough to engender deep-seated philosophical revelation for the reader. It's as though the author was trying to write a kind of humorous version of The Lovely Bones but could not quite strike the right note. I was reminded a little of Gail Parent's [[ASIN:1585674710 Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York], but in that book, the heroine is saved at the last moment. In this novel, there is no going back for Molly. Yet, the reader is not left with any clear notion of what Molly's purpose is in the Duration. There seems to be no going forward for our heroine, either.

It also really bothered me that there is a truly evil character in the novel who is never really acknowledged in any meaningful way. The ending of the book is marred by this revelation. Because of the closing chapters, I found myself questioning whether the author might have been trying to imply all through the novel that Molly (and thus the reader) is being misled for some reason in what she is seeing and remembering.

Ultimately the book is at once so flippant in tone, and yet so serious in content that I became increasingly frustrated because I lost my trust in where this author was leading me. I do not know how I am supposed to feel about Molly, about her life or about the lessons (if any) she has learned.

The bottom line is that while the novel has some genuinely fascinating facets, well-drawn characters and displays many imaginative details, I find the incongruity between the light-hearted narrative voice and the gravity of the subject matter to be inappropriate. For these reasons, I cannot recommend it.

I was looking forward to reading this book because the opening was so clever, so witty, and clever and witty aren't easy to come by these days.

But while clever and witty are artfully handled by the likes of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, they can easily become ponderous if attention is paid primarily to the form and not so much the substance. Given the plot outline and the tone of the work, I had hoped for fresh insight and something at the very least touching. What I got, though, was Erma Bombeck meets Our Town via Here Comes Mr Jordan.

Without revealing the end of the book, the plot is at best a cheat. After leading the reader on to expect one thing, the author decides in the last dozen pages that the book is about something else entirely, but what that something is is so trivial and shallow that one feels more than a little bamboozled for having worked his way through 300 pages to get there (one cannot escape the feeling that the author ran out of time and had to get it off the following day).

Nor is there anything fresh or original about the characters. You have the heroine (surprisingly shallow), the philandering husband (though the heroine is no slacker herself), the anal-retentive and disapproving mother-in-law, the Bohemian best friend, the difficult sister and so forth. None of them are fully realized, even the heroine. And while the dialog isn't exactly forced, neither is this how people really talk to each other (unless Manhattanites talk to their friends and family members in a remarkably superficial way).

The structure of the book is also somewhat annoying but convenient for those who tire of the seeming endlessness of it and want to speed through to the end, alternating as it does the expository chapters with those that advance the "plot". This particular structure is not uncommon in fiction today, but it does reflect either an inability to weave the two functions together into a narrative whole or pressure from the publisher to "get it done" because of an approaching deadline.

As for its view of the afterlife, which is essentially something from a 1940s B-movie, the less said, the better. But since the author seems not to have been going for any profound meaning here, how much more fun would it have been to abandon the pretense and have the ghost of the dead wife direct the lieutenant's investigation from the grave?

Now that could have been funny.

Molly Divine Marx is dead!

But that's just the beginning of this book. Molly is in her "Duration". Duration= being able to see your friends, family, etc. and hear their thoughts, yet not be able to do anything to contribute to what they're thinking, feeling, etc. (a little reminiscent of The Lovely Bones). With her guide "Bob" she is able to navigate through this new state of being and is able to flit from one person to another as they try to solve the mystery of her death.

The story starts at Molly's funeral and shows us how her husband, daughter, parents, sister and friends are all affected and are coping with her untimely death. Oh yea, and of course, the investigator who is handling her case and is trying to decipher whether her death was an accident, suicide or murder.

Through flashbacks we are able to read about Molly's relationships with her husband (who is quite the cheater and a very despicable character) and then there's Luke (the man that Molly was in love with). We are able to relive some of the best moments as well as some of the mistakes she made in her life.

I absolutely - hands down - adored this book. I thought Molly was such a lovely narrator. She was just so funny, likeable and so full of life - that it was sad to think that she was dead from the start of her story. Ms. Koslow's characters are well-developed and singularly distinct with little quirks and flaws that make them real. This is one of those rare books that draws you in and you feel as if you are experiencing it rather than just reading it.

Was Molly in such a slump in life that she couldn't find any other way out of her situation other than to kill herself? Or was she murdered? You'll have to read this gem of a book to find out - but I will warn you, this book isn't so much about solving a mystery as it is about relationships. I enjoyed this very much and I highly recommend it.

The setup for this novel is promising - the newly-dead narrator finds herself in an ecumenical limbo called the Duration, where she is able to see those she left behind and know what they think and if they are telling the truth. But although Molly uses her special powers often, she is unable to answer the central question driving the novel -- how exactly did she die, and who is responsible? Eventually she is able to remember what happened, but the reader still has to puzzle out the details. She conveniently visits the future to wrap things up, but it is too much too fast, and reads like a holiday newsletter. I think Molly was supposed to learn Big Lessons in the Duration, but I found myself not caring much. She seemed obsessed with appearances (hair, clothes, and decorating style noted for everyone always) and the whole environment of privilege, nannies, and infidelity made her seem shallow. The writing is skillful and sometimes funny, and the premise is interesting enough to make this a quick read, but for me it ultimately fell flat.

Molly Devine Marx is dead (I'm not giving anything away; it's right there in the title) but not exactly gone. She's stuck in between life and the afterlife, watching over her innocent daughter, philandering husband, overly-involved mother-in-law, quirky sister, loving parents, possible lover, and best friend as they come to terms with her untimely death and try to determine how she died. Was it murder, suicide, or simply an unfortunate accident?

The book alternates between Molly's current observations from 'above' and flashbacks from earlier moments in Molly's life on earth. The mystery surrounding Molly's death serves as the story arc, but the real fun in this book comes from the characters. All of the friends and loved ones in Molly's life are fully formed and well developed. We get a good idea of who they are as people with all their assets and flaws, and also how they fit together and relate to each other to create Molly's social life, support system, and foundation. The added element of who-done-it adds spice to the story as we try to figure out which person (if any) could be capable of murder.

Overall, this was an entertaining, quick read. The ending was a bit too neat, but at the same time, I am happy to have learned how everyone and everything turned out in the end. A fun book that I'll be passing along.

I'm a new mom and was looking for a light read in the evenings to wind down before bed. I saw this book in Real Simple magazine and thought it sounded enjoyable. I felt like I was trudging through it, and like many other reviewers, I kept reading because the book has a mystery aspect that requires you to read to the end to see how she died. It's a not a book that lays clues so you can figure out what happened on your own. In the end it was unsatisfying, I knew what happened but by then I didn't care and I felt frustrated by the ending. I think if you're looking for a book club read I could see the interest in this book becuase it will generate a lot of chatter, still...I can think of better titles. I'd have to suggest you pass on this one.

I really wanted to like this book. I truly did. The premise, a woman hangs around in the "Duration" watching over her loved ones, waiting for them to solve the mystery of her death, has rich potential. Unfortunately the lead character, the titular Molly, never captures your attention. Non-descript in life, she is not improved by her death. After building up to the "reveal", the ending feels rushed and you discover that how Molly died isn't that important after all. Such a letdown after investing so much time into trying to figure out the lame "mystery". The only character that seemed genuine was that of Luke, Molly's discarded lover. His pain over the untidy demise of their affair, as well as Molly's death is very nearly palpable. I would not recommend this book and would like to request that the time I spent reading it be added back to my life!

Enjoyed the book a lot, just wasn't crazy about the ending. I felt like I missed something, but maybe the concept was deeper than my mind could wrap itself around. Seemed like it was building to a conclusion, and the point of the story was unraveling what happened to Molly... but then in the last chapters it veered off in another direction. I guess I know "who did it"... but it was unsatisfying. I still don't quite understand her final moments. The story got murky and you had to read between the lines when the rest of the book had been much more clear. We never got to know how Molly felt about realizing who was responsible. It ended up not mattering? I also didn't care for the jump into the future in the last chapter. I ended up feeling like in the end, not a whole lot matters.

The idea of this story was original and entertaining to begin with, but the plot itself could have moved along a little quicker. Molly is a likable enough gal, but sometimes I found myself wondering where she was going with some of her ramblings (and why was she dragging me along?!?) Parts of the story lagged (I got bored from time to time with her incessant thoughts about what I deemed to be irrelevent to the situation at hand), and the ending of the book seemed a bit rushed and not quite thought out.

I'm still unsure of what Molly's purpose in the Duration was. Was she supposed to learn some important life lessons there? And if she was already dead, did it really matter if she learned anything anyway? I was confused by this point and I'm still not sure about the purpose of her time spent there but I guess that's part of the attraction of this story. If we had a chance, after death, to observe our loved ones and possibly answer some of the more challenging questions about the life we lived on earth, would we take it? It would certainly be tempting.

All in all, this was not a terrible book, but I expected so much better. It had its good spots and its confusing ones, but it managed to hold my interest long enough to finish it. I was a bit disappointed and confused by the ending, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the wit and humor along the way.