Customer Reviews

My Latest Grievance

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was reluctant to write this review, because I'm a huge fan of Lipman's novels and, as I have written elsewhere, think "The Inn at Lake Devine" was one of the best novels of the last decade of the 20th century. Furthermore, I was excited about the premise of this novel, the "Eloise of a women's college" idea.

The plot is thin. Frederica is the child of the Marshalsea (an obvious allusion Lipman misses) for a women's college in Brookline, Mass. Her parents are faculty members who have served as house parents since before she was born; they have no car, and fight the school administration as union activists. Into their lives comes Laura Lee French, who turns out to be David Hatch's ex-wife and cousin, of whose existence Frederica was entirely unaware. Then Laura Lee becomes a house mother on campus, and seduces the new president of the college, causing his wife to attempt suicide and become an invalid. During the great snow of 1978, the plot resolves.

There are good things here. The character of Frederica herself is interesting and charming. The conflict between her labor agitator parents and the anachronistic women's college (formerly a secretarial school) in the late 70's, rings true. So too are the glimpses we see of Frederica's social life, such as it was, at Brookline High School, and the obvious limitations caused by living on a college campus and having parents who don't own a car. The best part of the book was the allegedly democratic way in which Frederica is raised, which is a transparent means by which her parents, and her mother in particular, manipulate her.

The main problem I had with the book was with the engine for the plot, her father's ex-wife and cousin Laura Lee French. To me, Laura Lee enters the novel with the label "literary device" so firmly attached to her forehead I couldn't see past it. Laura Lee, it turns out, is the cause of the family's living on campus, because she has been living off David's alimony since he left her for Aviva, Frederica's mom. David's mother has always preferred her to Aviva. Her own mother and David's mother are close. Yet somehow her very existence was hidden from Frederica for all those years, years during which, it would seem to me, liberal labor activists' views on divorce would have gone through such a transformation as to make the entire story trivial to their daughter. Instead, it is treated like a state secret, making Laura Lee's advent at the college even more of a temptation to Frederica.

The other thing that bothered me about this book is that people always seem to be talking in speeches, not dialogue, and they tend to share what I think were unlikely views of marriage, divorce and sex for the time and the place (in the interests of full disclosure, I was living about five miles away at the time the book took place). Where is the person to say "divorce? who cares?" or "so they're sleeping together, big deal?" This was 1978, the eye of the hurricane between the advent of the pill and the discovery of HIV, the one real time where free love seemed to have no consequences. This book takes place in a women's college in one of the most liberal towns in America at exactly this moment in history, and (despite the hints about what the students themselves are doing), I simply don't recognize the time or the place in this novel.

As a devoted fan of the divine Ms. Elinor Lipman I was a little disappointed with this novel-at first. In the early chapters, which are all background and setting information I thought there was no plot. And in fact, through much of the book, I still thought there was no plot. But then I remembered what I liked about Elinor Lipman.

She tells stories. Real stories like someone would tell to a friend about this crazy/amazing/totally ordinary thing that happened in their life. My first read of hers was Isabel's Bed-which basically has no plot. It's a story-and stories don't need a real plot. They just tell what happens.

So she takes these stories and twists them with an often hilarious narrative point of view. This author does not deserve to be classified as a beach read-she writes real novels. Why is it that ever enjoyable book is stigmatized in some way? I love what Ms. Lipman writes-and no matter what others think I think she deserves awards for it.

The title of the book is not what it seems. Grievance in this setting means a complaint to a union about contractual obligations. In 1978 Frederica Hatch is the 16 year old daughter of two union rabble rising professors-and she's lived her whole life as the campus darling in a dorm apartment. Then, along comes Laura Lee, her father's first, dancing non union, wife-and everything gets stirred up.

This book is a little like a diamond in the rough-it needs some polishing. There are too many chapters that don't advance the story and too many assumptions on behalf of the narrator, some parts are even boring. But other than that this is what Lipman does best-a first person narrative of something that happened to them-told as it would be to a friend.

Four point five stars.

I thought this novel was excellent, keeping me up way too late on several nights that I really shouldn't have stayed up! The story unfolded in a believable way and the characters reminded me of people I know and universities where I lived and studied. Lipman's quick mind shows itself in the things she DOESN'T spell out. In this respect, the dialogue is particularly entertaining. Really wonderful - I hope you like it, too!

As someone who has read ALL of Elinor Lipman books, let me just tell the "first timers" out there that you are in for a treat. All of Lipman's books are literary gems, and My Latest Grievance is no exception. Frederica Hatch and her politically correct "before it was cool" parents will delight and entertain even the most jaded readers- perhaps those most of all. Lipman has a real knack for capturing the idiosyncrasies of academia, and this provides limitless opportunities for brilliant satire.

The complications surrounding the Professors Hatch, an ex-wife, and a precocious daughter are a pleasure to read.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's about a precocious, sometimes obnoxious, usually funny 16-year-old girl named Frederica, who's been raised by sensible, union-friendly parents on the campus of fictitious, all-female Dewing College in Massachusetts. Frederica lives in the dorm where her parents are "houseparents" and secretly longs for a more exciting existence.

This wish is granted when Frederica's father's first wife takes a post as houseparent at Dewey. The first wife, an aspiring dancer and fantasist named Laura Lee, immediately stirs things up on campus by holding hands with a priest (the story takes place in 1978) and later, embarking on an affair with the college president. This affair ends up shaking the college to its very foundations.

As usual, Lipman's dialogue is snappy and refreshing, and sometimes takes exertion to follow (like watching the ball at a high-speed tennis match). Sometimes the characters used words most people wouldn't use in everyday conversation (even the characters flagged as low-brow). But that was okay.

My only complaint with the novel was the almost-lightness with which it treated brain damage. I found this a little offensive. Otherwise, I would say this is Elinor Lipman's best book.

This was the first book of Lipman's that I read, and I bought it based on the reviews that I have read here. While everyone else seems to be big fans of her work, after reading this book I am left wondering what all the hype is about.

This book was about as satisfying as a glass of tap water. Far from being "precocious" and "witty," the narrator Frederica comes off like a garden variety brat. What exists of a plot is weak and uninteresting, and we are left to meander along with the dry, dry characters hoping for something good to happen. I'll save you the $11.16: Nothing happens!

I guess Lipman is writing what she knows about since according to her author's blurb she has experience working for a university (the setting of this novel) and came of age during the same time as our little Frederica, but come on lady, if this is the best story you have inside you, I feel bad.

Another reviewer likened reading this to eating candy. I liken it to chewing a piece of gum that lost its flavor really quickly. Ptooey.

Reading Eleanor Lipman is like eating candy that's good for you. It light, it's quick, and it's delicously easy. Most of the time Lipman's books are great for a quick fix between heftier meals. But "My Latest Greivance" goes a bit further. It may not be War and Peace, but it stands (like Inn at Lake Devine), as one of her best, most satisfying stories.

I've read all of Lipman's novels--all are good and some are great. This one is exceptional--perhaps my favorite, although there will always be a special place in my heart for Then She Found Me.

The protagonist, Frederica, is Eloise at the College--not University, because the school where her intelligent, progressive professor parents teach is definitely small and not particularly selective. Her parents belong to a finer educational sphere, but they toil without complaint, not just as educators but as union reps.

Why are they not at a better school? Fate and the fact that Frederica's father is still paying beaucoup alimony to his ex-wife and cousin. When Frederica discovers the existence of this former wife in an unexpected way, she is fascinated by her, and their ever-morphing relationship is at the heart of this fine novel.

Lipman treads some of the themes she has explored in the past--societal prejudices against cultural Judaism, campus life, marital infidelities, and everyday narcissism. Yet her characters shine through with their own unique light; I was particularly admiring of Frederica's parents and I think the author is, as well. Occasionally, Frederica's arch dialogue is just a bit too precociously clever, but her heart and mind are grounded in healthy and--dare I say it--traditional values.

If you have enjoyed Lipman's work in the past, I suspect you won't grieve over the cost of My Latest Grievance, but consider it money and time well spent.

This book gets 4 stars for being so unique. It is slightly cliched, but I didn't mind. Overall, it was worth my time, and I am looking forward to reading more books from this author.

An academic novel told by the teenage daughter of two earnest 1970s professors who all live in a dorm where the profs serve as house parents to the young women who attend their 3rd-rate college in Brookline, Mass. As usual with a Lipman heroine, Frederica Hatch gets off a lot of great lines, some of them laugh-out-loud funny. The story kicks off when her father's glamorous ex-wife -- whose existence is a complete surprise to Frederica -- arrives on campus to take up her duties as house mother at the dorm next door. While I've enjoyed Lipman's light touch in the past, this novel struck me as a bit too light, a bit too frothy, especially for a story that includes a subplot of adultery, depression and attempted suicide. Perhaps it was the teenage narrator that put me off -- it's a rare fictional teen who grabs my interested these days. Or perhaps it was the 1970s time period that seemed wrong -- I lived it in and around Boston and society depicted in Lipman's novel seemed more like the 1950s to me. For whatever reason, this novel was a disappointment from a writer who has done much, much better work.