Rachel Pastan’s first novel is pure pleasure-a crisp and witty page-turner for smart women everywhere. The Rubin daughters are three eligible sisters from an affluent suburban Philadelphia family whose well-meaning but domineering mother is single-mindedly determined to see them all happily married.
The book opens at a Sunday brunch where Dr. Rubin, mother and obstetrician, is scheming to introduce her eldest daughter, Alice, to a doctor who is almost too good to be true. But why hasn’t Alice been able to find a husband on her own? Is her sister Isabel, the real heroine of the story, genuinely happy in her marriage? And is Tina, the youngest of the sisters, as shallow as she seems, or is she something worse than shallow?
Reminiscent of the work of Laurie Colwin, This Side of Married is a brilliant, ironic domestic comedy of manners. Full of surprises, yet filled with feeling, This Side of Married is witty, intelligent, and utterly delicious.
