Trouble: A Novel [Hardcover]

Kate Christensen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0385527306 | ISBN-13: 978-0385527309

A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of The Great Man

Josie is a Manhattan psychotherapist living a comfortable life with her husband and daughter—until, while suddenly flirting with a man at a party, she is struck with the sudden realization that she must leave her passionless marriage. A thrillingly sordid encounter with a stranger she meets at a bar immediately follows. At the same time, her college friend Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star, is being pilloried in the press for sleeping with a much younger man who happens to have a pregnant girlfriend. This proves to be red meat to the gossip hounds of the Internet. The two friends escape to Mexico City for a Christmas holiday of retreat and rediscovery of their essential selves. Sex has gotten these two bright, complicated women into interesting trouble, and the story of their struggles to get out of that trouble is totally gripping at every turn.

A tragicomedy of marriage and friendship, Trouble is a funny, piercing, and moving examination of the battle between the need for connection and the quest for freedom that every modern woman must fight.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Christensen follows The Great Man with this slightly lesser work, a coming-of-middle-age novel that explores the sexual lives of three women in their 40s. Best friends since their college days, trust-funder Indrani, therapist Josie and L.A. rocker Raquel are like three very different but close sisters. After flirting with a man at a New York party, Josie realizes that she is sexually starving and decides to leave her husband, though Indrani thinks it's a terrible move. Meanwhile, on the left coast, the nearly washed-up ex-junkie Raquel becomes embroiled in a scandal when she's smeared as the other woman to a young actor with a pregnant girlfriend. Raquel hightails it to Mexico City and begs a less than-reluctant Josie to join her. From here the novel takes a predictable route as the women drink their way across the city, Raquel spirals further out of control, and Josie's inner vixen is awakened. The novel loses some of its mojo in the location change—Mexico City seems just out of focus—but the characters are marvelously realized, and when Christensen's on a roll, her wit is irresistible. (June)
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From The New Yorker

Josie Dorvillier, a Manhattan therapist, is trapped in a loveless marriage to an academic. When her best friend from college, a rock star whose best days are behind her, draws ridicule on a celebrity blog for her affair with a much younger television actor, the two friends decide to escape to Mexico City for an uncharacteristically debauched vacation of mescal, marijuana, and men. The subject matter teeters on the edge of tabloid, and the sex scenes with Latin lovers are sometimes just cheesy, but Christensen, a PEN/Faulkner Award winner, generally eschews sentimentality, spinning a stylish, even occasionally suspenseful story of middle-aged sexual awakening and female friendship. Of her troubled companion, Dorvillier muses, “Maybe she and I had failed each other by allowing each other the freedom to be ourselves, and maybe that was the inevitable consequence of true friendship.”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385527306
• ISBN-13: 978-0385527309
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #866,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A therapist who needs professional help, June 20, 2009

By 

anomie - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I'd read quite a few positive reviews for the books of Kate Christensen, so when I saw this book offered on Vine, I grabbed it anticipating a really good read. I was disappointed....

Now I generally really enjoy books about nasty people--especially if they get their comeuppance or if the story is slyly funny (thinking Money from Martin Amis). But Trouble is full of nasty people with swollen egos who never seem to 'get' it. The novel concerns three impossibly attractive and talented women who went to college together. Now in middle age, one is a professor, one is a therapist, and the other is a rock star.

The novel begins with the therapist at a party, flirting with some idiot when she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror and decides--right then and there--that her marriage is over. That night she goes off to a bar and picks up a complete stranger for some quick and dirty hanky panky. Then she goes home and tells her husband she wants a divorce.

The main character, Josie, is superficial, selfish, shallow and completely unbelieveable as a Manhattan therapist. Entirely lacking any self-reflection, she sails off to Mexico with her rock-star friend and embarks on a sexual odyssey. And there are pages of descriptions.

Apart from not being a bit interested in these characters, I found their self-love, their affluent self-indulgence and navel-gazing moments obnoxious. Josie is a character with a past and a present that don't add up, so she is a ridiculous character whose actions don't make sense. This novel is basically about people who are a waste of space, and it wouldn't be so bad if the novel didn't take itself so seriously. Given that the main character is supposed to have some sort of intellectual content, you'd expect some introspection. But instead there's a bimbo on the loose in Mexico, acting as though she's never seen a male torso before.

For animal lovers: descriptive scenes of bull fighting are also included in the novel.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a must read, June 24, 2009

By 

Georgia Mom (Dunwoody, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Okay ladies, I am going to be majorly honest here. I got this book because I saw it was about a women who has an extramarital affair. Considering some of my friends have done the same thing and given the thought has crossed my mind a few times when my husband managed to be a major putz (I have remained strong and faithful), I was curious to read a book that I might possibly relate to. Well I could relate to the main character in some ways but I felt the story line was a bit fluffy. It made me think of those reality shows about housewives. The main character suffers a mid-life crisis. She goes to Mexico to visit her famous singer friend who is hiding from a shameful act and paparazzi, and they proceed to stay drunk the whole time, woohoo, and she gets laid by some hot hispanic guy. Her famous friend is suicidal and I won't spoil it by telling what happens there. I found myself skipping pages because I just wasn't that interested and I don't think many of you will be either.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Terrific Christensen Novel, June 1, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I have been a fan of Kate Christensen's novels since the publication of In The Drink about ten years ago. In Trouble, Christensen takes a genre, in this instance the middle-aged chick lit, and completely turns the genre on its head, defying all expectations with terrific results, just as she did in In the Drink. Trouble opens at a Manhattan cocktail party with the narrator, Josie, a 45 year old married woman flirting with a younger man. She catches sight of herself in a mirror and suddenly realizes that she wants out of her marriage. You think you know where this is going, right? It's not going there. While Trouble certainly has its share of humor, it is of a more sardonic bent than would be expected of a novel with that set up. Trouble is a sharply written, smart work, an honest, frank exploration of women's lives. Josie leaves Manhattan for Mexico at the request of an old college friend trying to escape her own mistakes. There, Josie ruminates on her life, her marriage, her relationship with her daughter. There are no zippy endings here, where all is resolved neatly. Instead, Trouble reaches an honest resolution that is true to life and the messiness it can sometimes bring. Trouble is a terrific, enjoyable read, not light fiction, but smart fiction. Enjoy!