Sarah Conley [Paperback]

Ellen Gilchrist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 1998

A New York City magazine editor and novelist returns home to the South when her closest childhood friend falls ill--and finds herself forced to choose between pursuing her career and rekindling her relationship with the man she has long considered the love of her life. NPR sponsorship.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

National Book Award winner Gilchrist (author, most recently, of Courts of Love, LJ 9/15/96) has blessed her followers with another entertaining work of fiction. It presents a complex cast?not the least of these being the central character for whom the novel is named. At fiftysomething, Sarah is a high-powered editor at Time magazine and a successful novelist. At the novel's beginning, a childhood friend has died, and an old love?the husband of that friend?has reentered her life. What seems like an easy opportunity to rekindle an old flame is more akin to mixing fire and gasoline. Gilchrist leads readers between past and present in Sarah's life and explores the marked differences between her dynamic, stressful, urban existence in both New York City and Paris and the possibility of a suburban albeit more emotionally complex life in Nashville. For general fiction collections.?Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Readers of good fiction love Gilchrist's books for their feisty heroines, complex emotional predicaments, supple humor, and suspense. Her newest novel seems to promise all of the above, but somehow, Sarah Conley, Gilchrist's latest strong-minded woman narrator, leaves us cold. It could be because she's so aloof, controlling, ambitious, and vain, but the real problem lies in Gilchrist's drift into the oversimplification of pop romance. Instead of psychology, social commentary, or reflections on the human spirit, we get a tallying of items such as designer clothes, luxury automobiles, expensive jewels, and extravagant homes. The plot, too, is hackneyed. Sarah and her best friend, Eugenie (both beautiful, blond, and brilliant), marry two handsome brothers, although both are in love with Jack. Eugenie saw him first, and they stay together after Sarah's marriage falls apart and she loses custody of her son. Sarah channels her anger into a couple of successful novels and a career in journalism. Long out of touch with Eugenie and Jack, she enters her fifth decade as an editor at Time and the sugar momma for a guy in his early thirties. Then Eugenie dies, Sarah and Jack immediately become lovers, and Jack buys an engagement ring, ready for wife number two. But Sarah has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime: several months in Paris to write a screenplay for a big-money Hollywood movie. Will she and Jack work it out? Do we care? Sarah insists that she isn't selling out. Maybe not, but it sure feels as though Gilchrist has. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 259 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1st Back Bay Pbk. Ed edition (August 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316314927
• ISBN-13: 978-0316314923
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,071,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging story of an earthy, accomplished woman., June 27, 1998

By 

John Meyers (St Petersburg, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarah Conley: A Novel (Hardcover)

Gilchrist's stories of flawed but strong Southern women highlight the passions, pleasures and sorrows that all her readers experience in their lives. That is why she is popular. Sarah Conley is certainly more accomplished than most of us but we share her views on life and indeed learn about movie- making and the joys of life in NYC and Paris. In fact, Sarah seems to be what Ellen G is or strives to be in her own life...capable, independent and sensibally sensual. Sarah's life makes me want to know more about the author who writes so well about the concerns and emotions of her characters and, for that matter, her readers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as her other works, but okay, May 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sarah Conley (Paperback)

I love Gilchrist's work, and I was prepared to love Sarah Conley, too, but I just didn't. I agree with another Amazon reviewer-- I would have liked to see more of the teenage Sarah, and her complicated relationship with Eugenie's family. Some of the side plots in Sarah's adult life seemed poorly thought-out and stereotypical-- I was expecting better from Gilchrist. The book does have its likable moments, however, and if you enjoy most of her other books, you won't hate it. If you're just starting out with Gilchrist, read Victory over Japan or Light can be both Wave and Particle first, not Sarah Conley.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, November 24, 2009

By 

M.D.C (Southwest Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarah Conley (Paperback)

When it became apparent to me that this book was boring, I kept reading anyway, simply because it was so bad. There is no one to like in this story. The self-centered, whiny characters don't even like each other. Jack and Eugenie don't like their kids. Eugenie didn't want them because she doesn't like kids. Yet she's a pediatrician? What was the author thinking in that choice?

The narrative is yawn-worthy. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. She walked to the elevator and pushed the button. She went to the sixth floor and got off. She went to her office and took off her coat. She worked until ten o'clock.

Shifts in point of view from author to characters is clumsy. It's mostly third person narrative and suddenly Jack or Sarah is thinking, in first person. The dialogue is trite and unnatural, as if it's a script and the actors are reading their lines in dress rehearsal. When Jack and Sarah are together, the dialogue slips into the stuff of romance novels. Sometimes they sound like teenagers.