Object Lessons [Mass Market Paperback]

Anna Quindlen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1992

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
"Elaborate and playful...Honest and deeply felt....Here is the Quindlen wit, the sharp eye for the details of class and manners, [and] the ardent reading of domestic lives."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
It is the 1960s, in suburban New York City. Maggie and her family, are in the thrall of her powerful grandfather Jack Scanlan. In the summer of her twelfth year, Maggie is despertately trying to master the object lessons her grandfather fills her head with. But there is too much going on to concentrate. Everything at home is in upheaval, her grandfather is changing, and Maggie is unsure if what she wants is worth having....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this absorbing coming-of-age novel, a Literary Guild selection in cloth that spent 10 weeks on PW 's bestseller list, New York Times columnist Quindlen skillfully conveys the fierce ethnic pride of Irish and Italian communities.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- This first novel is an insightful family chronicle, an informed commentary on the '60s, and the coming-of-age depiction of a mother and daughter. As 13-year-old Maggie struggles with her identity within the boisterous Scanlan clan, her mother also finds her own place within the patriarchal family that has never accepted her. Both women experience rites of passage during the fateful summer that a housing development is being built behind their home, infringing on their emotional and physical spaces. A fast-paced plot involves small fires set in the development by Maggie's friends and romantic tension between her mother and a man from her past. Readers will appreciate Maggie's dilemmas as she grapples with peer pressure and sexual bewilderment, and as she begins to understand her mother, whose discontent oddly parallels her own. --Jackie Gropman, Richard Byrd Library, Springfield, VA-
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ivy Books (March 22, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080410946X
• ISBN-13: 978-0804109468
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,620,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anna Quindlen is the author of three bestselling novels, Object Lessons, One True Thing and Black and Blue, and three non-fiction books, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud and A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Her New York Times column 'Public and Private' won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. She is currently a columnist for Newsweek and lives with her husband and children in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites . . ., August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Object Lessons (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Every now and again, we may come across an author whose writing style really touches us. And, every now and again, we may come across a story that stirs in us some indescribable, inexplicable, deep emotion within the core of our very soul. I believe I have found that author and that book. Anna Quindlen would be that author, and Object Lessons would be that book.

The first book I had read by Anna Quindlen was Black and Blue, which I had borrowed from my sister. Black and Blue was a highly captivating book because there was a lot going on with the plot of the book, but it was a bit sad at the same time. Black and Blue dealt with an abused woman who ran away with her son, and changed her identity so her husband wouldn't find her. As a result, that book was a bit on the darker side. Object Lessons has a total different feel to it. In this book, it's about an Irish-Italian family named the Scanlan's. This book centers mostly around Tommy Scanlan, and his Italian wife, Connie, and their 12-year-old daughter, Maggie. The couple has three other boys who are mentioned, but only in passing. The other three children are just background characters. Many a time, there's too many characters in a book, and in this case, it's very obvious that Anna Quindlen had an objective to focus on only a few main characters.

Tommy had married Connie when she became pregnant, and his Irish family -- his father, John Scanlan, in particular -- didn't approve. Since then, Connie had felt like an outsider with the other wives, and more than put out by her controlling father-in-law. John Scanlan was one of those larger-than-life characters, as he made a drama about most everything, and felt he had to control his sons, and only daughter, Margaret. Margaret escaped by going into the convent, but Tommy, as well as his brothers, found that John would take control of their lives by putting them in the family business, or buying a house, or sending their children to private school. John had such control over Mark, one of Tommy's brothers, that he prevented him and his wife from adopting children, as Mark had difficulty getting his wife pregnant. John Scanlan even had control over his wife, Mary Frances, making her drift into the background like faded wallpaper. Without much warning, John Scanlan became gravely ill one day when he had a stroke, and the family started changing. Maggie, Tommy's and Connie's daughter (and John Scanlan's favorite grandchild), was going through a tough growing-pain period. She was about to enter her teen years, and she was having a hard time coping with the things that were happening around her. Her relationship with her best friend, Debbie, was changing when Debbie started hanging around other kids who had a negative influence on her. Maggie's parents always seem to be distant or fighting, and now her grandfather was sick and she was seeing how her family was changing. This wonderful story takes you though this family's life, the Scanlan's, in such a realistic and creative way.

One of Anna Quindlen's best talents as a writer is her characterization. This is only the second book I've read of hers (One True Thing is another book I have put aside to read in the future), but I can safely say that her characters are so three-dimensional, and full of depth. They are so human. You don't only get a peek into the minds of her characters, but you also get a glimpse of what is in their hearts. Feelings are what Anna Quindlen is all about. I especially had a kinship with Connie and Maggie Scanlan. I could relate to the feelings of this mother-daughter pair, and I loved getting to know them with such intimacy.

I cannot rave enough about this book, because there are no accurate words to describe how good it really is. To experience it, you would have to read it for yourself.

I do know that this is one of my favorite books, and I do know that Anna Quindlen is one of my favorite authors. She's right up there with other favorites of mine: Connie May Fowler, Pearl Cleage, Alice Hoffman, , and Wally Lamb. Each of these authors are special in his/her own way, and Anna Quindlen has her own voice, and it's a strong one that you can't help but listen to.

Object Lessons was truly an enjoyable experience to read, and it's a book I'm going to have to purchase for myself (since I borrowed it from the library). It's one of those books you would want to go back to for seconds.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, but not bad either., September 5, 1999

By 

"rahrae" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Object Lessons (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read One True Thing and Black and Blue, I knew I could rely on Quindlen to teach me new things about myself and my family--that she does, quite well. However, Object Lessons is much more weighed down by direct narrative than the other two books--at times, I found myself wishing the characters would talk to each other and quit thinking so much. I also found Maggie's age implausible--even the most precocious 12 and 13 year olds do not possess her incredible depth.

Connie's relationship with Tommy and subsequent realizations about what marriage is are the most powerful points in the book, and I credit Quindlen with another "perfect" ending--she is one author who does not leave her readers confused or disappointed on the final page.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to give it more stars ...., August 6, 2002

By 

Robert Reardon (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Object Lessons (Mass Market Paperback)

I wanted to, I really did! But I just can't bring myself to do it. I read "One True Thing" and "Black and Blue" and loved them both. My copy of "Object Lessons" mentions B&B on it, which should have been a dead givaway that this was a weak fledgling effort first novel by the author, which it was. Oh, it had it's moments, but they were few and far between. Overall the feeling was just sadness bordering on depression, the kind of novels that were in abundance in the 70's. Perhaps that's when she wrote it. I would not recommend it to anyone.