Customer Reviews

Trouble: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Christensen's novel is a cross between mid-life crisis and the excesses of Spring Break as two mid-forties college friends escape their problems at home for a Mexico retreat. Raquel Dominquez, an LA-based rock singer nearing her expiration date, has a new album coming out but is fleeing a scandal with a boyfriend half her age that sports a pregnant ex-girlfriend. Raquel wants to "get her head together" and spend some quality time with Josie, a Manhattan psychotherapist. For her part, Josie has just realized that her marriage is a shambles, hoping to begin her life again when she returns from their South-of-the-Border sojourn. A third friend, Indriani, a trust-fund single unable to sustain a committed relationship, remains on the sidelines in New York, vaguely judgmental of the behavior of her two best college friends.

What begins as an escape from responsibility ultimately yields tragic results as Raquel and Josie submerge themselves in the culture of their contemporaries in Mexico, a group of musicians, artists and social activists that consume massive amounts of alcohol during dusk `til dawn forays into the local night life. Once freed from their personal problems in LA and New York, Josie and Raquel dive into excess, embracing Scarlet O'Hara's mantra, "I'll think about it tomorrow." Unfortunately, tomorrow arrives with painful consequences.

Christensen is a fluid writer whose prose is compelling, if not her obstreperous characters. Given the outrageous actions of her protagonists, I find myself ambivalent, a voyeur watching a train wreck. I don't know these people, nor do I empathize with them, their casual physical encounters and extravagant tastes. Nor am I seduced by their tragedy: I still don't like them or sympathize with the plight of wither woman. Nevertheless, this author undeniably has the goods- she kept me engaged- and an acute sense of observation for the exotic, both in New York and Mexico. Her awareness of place is impressive as are her storytelling skills. Her angst-riddled, entitled protagonists, not so much. Luan Gaines/2009.

How can a person write so engagingly and make one care about people who are so entirely unbelievable and, if one could believe in them, thunderingly unlikeable? I have no answer to that question really, but it's on my mind after finishing "Trouble" in a record-breaking 1 day (I couldn't put it down).

At least in the first third of the novel, one has the suspense of wondering what the heroine Josie's husband Anthony will have to say when he finds out that a glimpse of herself in the mirror (talk about Narcissus!) has persuaded his wife of 15 years to leave him. But once that (it turns out to be rather disappointing) event has taken place and Josie has gone off to hide from the paparazzi with her rock-star college buddy Raquel, we lose all real reason to keep reading.

But by then, though, I was hooked like a drunk on bad tequila (which gives some flavor of the last two-thirds of the novel -- the romp in Mexico City). It might be because the lavish and seductive descriptions of food, drink, and (yes) steamy sex are actually pretty compelling. As the scrumptious mocha-colored man-candy Felipe comments to the unbeguiling but electrically attractive Josie, "You love to eat. How are you so thin?" This is a question that was on my mind too as I raced through so many descriptions of tortillas, chorizo, chocolate cake, cheesy omelettes, mescal, beer, and so forth that I thought I was gaining weight through my eyes. But what a seductive and carnal feast! It brings its own rewards.

I also suspect that Kate Christensen, a writer I admire greatly from "The Epicure's Lament," is more aware of the flaws in these characters than most readers here are giving her credit for. It's easy to make fun of the book just by quoting it. But Indrani, the third college friend, could have written some of these negative reviews, as she tears into Josie for her outsize sense of privilege and irresponsibility. Likewise, Christiansen reveals that Josie's judgments of other characters are clearly defective (e.g., David whom she suspects of harboring motives we discover are impossible).

Kate Christensen is a gifted writer. Her dialogue sparkles. Her characterization of Josie's daughter, the teeny-bopper Wendy, is delightful. This is a flawed book, but it has gusto.

"Thelma and Louise" this book is not.

I don't know why reviewers and marketers do that to us, raise our expectations. In some ways TROUBLE is more thoughtful than T & L. It is also not as daring. After all this is a new millennium and, though women must still deal with including an unlevel playing field, we have made strides that probably make at least some of us more mellow. Make that less radical. And, yes, maybe more responsible.

So that disconnect seemed to be part of my problem. This generational/feminist thing. I began to wonder if my lack of involvement with Josie, the protagonist-therapist from New York, is generational.

I found the first chapter--primarily a scene depicting a cocktail party flirtation between two strangers--not only shallow but irksome. If it hadn't been for the promise of some original language from Kate Christensen, I may not have kept reading.

I found disturbing the idea that the need for something more exciting as one reaches one's middlelife crisis excuses one from behaving responsibly. I know that a character arc is required to make a story work and expected that Josie was sure to come around eventually; it never really happened. Things changed, of course, and I came to understand Josie better. Accept her, even. But sympathize with her? Not really.

What I loved about this book was the way Christensen dealt with Josie's best friend's addiction, the setting in Mexico City--those thoroughly foreign smells and colors and flavors--and the well-written bed scenes written with enough delayed tension to make them sexy, not so much restraint as to make them dull or unrealistic.

I also liked that Christensen herself seemed occasionally to try to make Josie's choices acceptable, layering excuses for why she would leave a marriage to a good man with whom she had a child, but never really with any conviction. I wonder if the author herself was a bit disappointed in the values of her own leading woman and, if--just maybe--that was really what she (subsconsiously?) wanted the reader to take away from her story.

Yes..this books a keeper !

Written for the real modern --today---woman......

It tackles real stories so many of its readers could be facing at the moment as well.

The characters are well written for this sort of novel / semi romance --with tinges of danger and lots of interest. She fills them out nicely at least to a point where you can FEEL them as if they were real people .

The way she intertwines current events with the characters ---keeps you into the book and reading with interest to the end.

No fillers here--no multiply pages saying nothing but taking up space. In this book--every page says something about the characters or what one of them is feeling or doing...or why.

This book was written for real woman...adult woman.I don't think young persons would really understand the interactions of a long time married woman or the problems that such a person would face....divorce..nor other woman functioning as modern day cougars !

I do not normally enjoy novels that much . ...but this one kept me turning the pages and enjoying every minute of it !

I enjoyed reading a story about a woman's midlife crisis. We always hear so much about what guys go through, it was refreshing to read a passionate tale of what one particular, successful woman encounters when she realizes the passion is gone in her marriage and what choices she makes to move on with her life. As well as the importance of friends and how they truly love us and are always there for us. A fun, interesting read.

Fantastic book that I could not put down about three independent women who have been friends since college: Indrani is a single professor and a perfectionist, Josie is a married Manhattan psychotherapist with an adopted tween, who has just decided to separate from her husband, and Raquel lives in Los Angeles and is a famous rock star who hasn't put out a hit album in years. Indrani, who has long struggled with her own relationships with men, disapproves of Raquel's affair as well as Josie's decision to just "let" her marriage go without trying to work things out. They are now all in their mid-forties.

After Raquel is in the tabloids for being with an actor in his twenties (who has a pregnant girlfriend), she escapes to Mexico City and begs Josie to join her. She's upset and needs her old friend down there for support. Josie sees it as a great opportunity for an escape from New York and to catch up with her close friend. The two women have a wonderful time exploring the city, drinking and eating, and catching up. But Raquel's depression and addiction return and the vacation takes a traumatic turn. Trouble is about strong, unconditional love and female friendships. It is also about lifelong dreams and career goals and what makes us happy. Christensen is a brilliant writer who creates believable, empathetic characters to whom you can instantly relate and bond with throughout her novels. When Trouble ends, you will still think about the characters.

Midlife crises always seem ridiculous to people viewing them from the outside. While we can understand some peoples need, or possibly their borderline obsession to leave some mark on the world, most people can only shake their heads in wonder at why someone feels the need to buy a 60,000 dollar car or a boat they'll use twice then forget all about. Josie's midlife crisis involves her leaving her husband and flying off the Mexico City with a long time friend in search of sexual fulfillment.

I have never before encountered a main character I more wanted to die in the first ten pages before. While I'm certainly not Kate Christensen's primary audience, they sheer awfulness of the first dozen or so pages had me praying that Josie would be run down by a bus or brutally murdered by a junkie in an alleyway. The character oscillates wildly between evoking the image of a mid-life whore looking for any convenient excuse to hump something with a pulse other than her dull as dishwater husband, and at other times as a tragic victim of a seemingly loveless, and more importantly sexless, marriage. At the same time she teams up with Raquel, a celebrity fleeing paparazzi for sleeping with the soon to be father of a pregnant teen. While this reads like something you could hear conceivably hear off of E, so much of it is as believable as diamonds raining from the sky.

The plot line eventually picks up and actually becomes something decent, but starting from such a poisoned well made this an agonizing read for me, as I'm sure it would be for people of my particular mindset, which, if there is a just God in this world, isn't very many. Regardless, bizarre twists and incredibly hard to swallow plot points, combined with the beginning pages that I've waxed openly about make this something to avoid.

Considering I'm fully expecting the negative marks to begin spiraling upwards, please at least leave a comment why you don't like my review, apart from me snubbing your favorite author.