The Way Life Should Be [Hardcover]

Christina Baker Kline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2007

Angela Russo finds herself in Maine thanks to a sailing instructor, an impulse, and an idea that in Maine, people live "the way life should be." But reality on Mount Desert Island is not what she expected. Far from everything familiar, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up. Relying on the flair for Italian cooking she inherited from her grandmother, she begins to discover the pleasures and secrets of her new small community—and to connect her heritage to a future she is only beginning to envision.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thirty-three-year-old New Yorker Angela Russo, dissatisfied with a career that amounts to gliding across a smooth plateau of predictability and fed up with abysmal blind dates, responds to an online personal ad written by Rich, a sailing instructor from Mount Desert Island, Maine. Angela begins to fall in love with the idea of Maine life just as much as she finds herself falling for Rich, and when her career suddenly goes up in flames, she moves to Mount Desert Island. Once she arrives, however, she learns that her vision of perfect New England life—and her perfect New England man—is far removed from reality. Rather than return to New York, Angela rents a rundown cottage and begins teaching an impromptu cooking class (based on recipes from her Italian grandmother). She befriends an eclectic handful of locals and carves out a new identity for herself. Initially, this tale of a lovelorn city girl out of her element feels like another foray into well-covered territory. But Kline (Desire Lines; Sweet Water) has a perfect sense of character and timing, and her vivid digressions on food (recipes are included) add sugar and spice to what could have been a stale premise. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Angela Russo, a 33-year-old event planner in New York City, has a job she finds monotonous, a lackluster love life, and a best friend who suggests trying an online dating service. Angela signs up and, on a whim, extends the site's geography search to include Maine, picturing herself in a cozy, rustic cottage by the shore. Before the inveterate Italian cook can say cacciatore, she's met her Maine man—the handsome sailing instructor Richard Saunders. He sends her a flurry of haikus and flirtatious e-mails, and after a professional disaster befalls her, Angela finds herself driving up the coast to explore a new life with him. When she arrives in Maine, however, it is not the picture-perfect storybook scene she anticipated. But with her love of cooking and dreams of a cottage by the sea as guiding lights, Angela learns to live life and achieve success on her own terms. Boyle, Katherine

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060798912
• ISBN-13: 978-0060798918
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer and editor. In addition to Bird in Hand, her novels include The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines and Sweet Water. She is Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University.

Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. In addition to Fordham, she has taught fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, English literature, literary theory, and women's studies at Yale, New York University,and Drew University. She is a recent recipient of a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship, a Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a Fordham Research Grant. She donates her time and editing skills to a number of arts organizations in New Jersey and Maine.

Kline is coeditor, with Anne Burt, of a collection of personal essays called About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror. She also commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow. She is co-author, with her mother, Christina Looper Baker, of a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Yale Review, Southern Living, Ms., Parents, and Family Life, among other places.

Kline has worked as a caterer, cook, and personal chef on the Maine coast, Martha's Vineyard, and in Charlottesville, Virginia. She lives in an old house in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, David Kline; three boys, Hayden, Will, and Eli; and Lucy, an English springer spaniel. She spends summers with extended family in an even older house on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enchanting Story PLUS Great Recipes !!, August 5, 2007

By 

Jo Ana Starr "Mind-Body-Spirit" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way Life Should Be (Hardcover)

The author has written a story about a woman whose life was making her numb and who wanted to change that. Angela took a huge leap of faith to begin a new life in a new place; her willingness to risk it all for love, leaving her comfort zone far behind, is admirable. Although this is an engaging story, Angela's willingness to risk may the most charming part of it.

Following her instincts caused her real disappointment in the love arena, but it was the beginning of a wonderful adventure in new ways of living her life. Cast adrift on Mount Desert Island, ME, Angela digs in and creates a life for herself, minus the guy who was the catalyst for her move to Maine, and yet rich with friends and acquaintances who make up her new family. After a few setbacks, Angela begins to experience the joy and freedom of doing her own thing teaching Italian cooking, which is a major improvement from her mind-numbing life in the city. You will enjoy sharing her ups and downs as she creates for herself, a new life in the wilds of Maine.

This is a very enjoyable book which anyone who has also taken a great leap of faith in her own life, will appreciate. It's full of warmth, humor, great recipes, and a spirit that you will find enchanting. This book is highly recommended.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She Nails It., August 10, 2007

By 

Christine Chronis (Mount Desert Island, ME) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way Life Should Be (Hardcover)

She nails it. From the Impressionist view of land and sea from atop Cadillac Mountain on a foggy day, to the librarian who takes such an interest in one's reading habits that it borders on invasion of privacy, Christina Baker Kline's third novel paints Mount Desert Island, Maine with such accurate detail that some of its inhabitants might wonder if they sat for the portrait. This is a novel about family, about food, about sense of place. Ultimately, it's an examination of what it takes to make a life. At one point, Angela Russo, the protagonist of the story, muses on Maine's state slogan - "The Way Life Should Be." She turns it upside down, reading it as an existential question: what is the way life should be? The answer, of course, is one each of us must puzzle out for ourselves. But in the telling of her tale of one woman's wrestling with this universal concern, Kline provides a roadmap for us all.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be ready to laugh, flinch, cheer, and want to cook!, August 13, 2007

By 

Connie Zerden (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way Life Should Be (Hardcover)

Once you start this book, you won't want to put it down! The Way Life Should Be is not only a fun, fast paced summer read, but also a subtly crafted message on living life to the fullest...with fantastic recipies to boot! You will laugh, flinch, and cheer as Angela Russo and her realistically flawed group of friends maneuver their way through life. Christina Baker Kline gives hope to those of us that, like Angela, are asking ourselves that elusive question; What the heck am I going to do with my life?