We Are All Fine Here [Hardcover]

Mary Guterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

A thoroughly irresistible debut novel about a discontented woman (married, with a teenage son, and fast approaching middle age) who dallies in her past-with startling, humorous, and bittersweet consequences.

Julia has been married to Jim for fifteen years, but she has never really stopped thinking about the man who came before: Ray, the love of her life. Pushing forty, trapped in a job she doesn't care for, growing ever more distant from her son, and fed up with her husband's flirtation with a much younger coworker, Julia accompanies Ray to a wedding of friends and has a quick tryst in the bathroom. Several weeks later, she learns she's pregnant, and because she's also recently slept with Jim-a rare event of late-she can't be quite certain of the baby's paternity.

How Julia deals with this knotty problem (and with her prickly mother, her childless sister, her best friend, her husband's family, not to mention all the men in her life) is the core of this laugh-out-loud and wholly recognizable, unforgettable, and intelligent swift gulp of a novel-which also delivers unexpected heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"So, I figured, what the hell." That's Julia's response to just about anything, including marriage, pregnancy and cheating on her husband—not necessarily in that order. In this wry, brutally honest debut novel, Guterson slashes into the happy homilies of chick lit, revealing the underside of happily ever after. Part-time middle-school teacher Julia is nearing 40 and married to more-or-less satisfactory Jim, a Seattle sports writer, with whom she has a 15-year-old son, Chad. For years, she's been pining away for her first love, Ray, and when she sees him at a wedding—"looking for all the world like a sun-drenched god"—she promptly follows him into the bathroom. Soon she's pregnant, and she can't be sure whether the father is Jim or Ray. Meanwhile, clueless Jim is distracted by a painfully obvious crush on his young, beautiful officemate Patricia, which prevents him from taking the moral high ground. What distinguishes this book from its genre counterparts is author Guterson's unabashed willingness to let Julia voice the sort of thoughts that are publicly eschewed, and these glimpses into the mind of her tell-it-like-it-is narrator make for some liberating, laugh-out– loud passages. There are also moments of heartbreak and kindness—particularly in Julia's relationship with Chad—which are all the more potent for their understatement.
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Review

...Mary Guterson is witty, wily, and wonderful. -- Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

A brisk and irreverent romp through the panic fields of contemporary marriage. Mary Guterson is wickedly, bruisingly funny. -- Robert Cohen, author of Inspired Sleep

A gracefully imagined and bluntly expressed novel, a rare combination. It speaks directly to the heart about the heart... -- Kaye Gibbons, author of Divining Women

A real winner. What a voice: laugh-aloud hilarious, full of naked truth. -- Amy Tan, author of The Opposite of Fate

Mary Guterson's first novel is a short and funny read, and describes an aging married woman's anomie. -- Booklist, January 1 & 15, 2005

We Are All Fine Here was written...by a woman who pays attention to nuance. Desperate Housewives eat your heart out. -- PW Daily, January 13, 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039915230X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399152306
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,859,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hello and thanks for clicking on this page, whoever you are. This is the part where i'm supposed to tell you something interesting about myself, something that will make you think, gosh she's really cool, i think i'll buy her book! But you know what? I'm not going to do that. Because i have more respect for you than that. You don't need me to tell you that my new book Gone to the Dogs is fabulous, or that it's going to be one of your favorite books EVER, or that you're going to want to buy it for every one of your friends. That would be rude and uncouth of me, and one thing i know for sure is that i am never rude or uncouth. Last thing people say about me--that mary guterson, man, she is rude and uncouth. So, no. Decide for yourself. You can do it. And remember, my book isn't all that expensive, even in these nasty economic times.
but i'm not going to say anymore. i leave it up to you.
Reader, you are the best.
xooxoxo mary guterson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic debut - We want more!!!, January 29, 2005

By 

Maudeen Wachsmith "BeachReader" (Port Townsend, WA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: We Are All Fine Here (Hardcover)

When I first read a review of this book, I thought this is a book I have to have as it sounds interesting and the author lives in the town where I lived for the majority of the 1990s. So when my husband was near a local bookstore a few hours later, I asked him to pick it up for me. I was surprised when he got it home and it was so, well, small. I thought I had wasted my money on this tiny little book that I didn't know much about. I had even thought of returning it.

But this was an amazing little book. It was so full of stark reality and LOL funny in some places. She had a dark sense of humor which I really enjoyed. Basically, Julia is a woman caught between two men - Jim, the one she married after she got pregnant with his child 16 years previously and Ray, her college sweetheart who she has never gotten out of her mind. When he calls her and asks her to accompany him to the wedding of old friends, she jumps at the chance not only to see many people she's lost touch with, but to spend time with Ray-her true love. But when she gets pregnant and doesn't know who the father might be as she also had one of her rare sexual encounters with her husband during this same time, things get, well, complicated.

Mary Guterson, sister of Snow Falling on Cedars author David Guterson, has an acerbic wit, and is often sarcastic as well as blunt as she writes in Julia's point of view. My only complaint is that the book could have been longer and suffered from a few typos that threw me out of the story; but those are minor quibbles in the bigger scheme of things. I will be waiting with baited breath for her next book

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!!, October 6, 2006

By 

Reader in New York (New York , NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Are All Fine Here (Hardcover)

I feel so strongly that this is indeed the best book ever, that I used eight exclamation points (one more than the reviewer who deemed it the "worst book ever") in order to convey my enthusiasm. Come on, Ms. Hebert, are you crazy?! The book is so insightful and funny. Where's your sense of humor? Is there a Hebert brother who got all the humor in the family?
Read this book; you'll love it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FUNNY writing style yet tender, serious story as well, May 3, 2005

By 

mamareadssomuch "mamareadssomuch" - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Are All Fine Here (Hardcover)

This book is actually a 4.5 star read for me ~ there should be 1/2 stars options :)

Julia has been married to Jim for 15 years; they have a son, Chad, who is your typical teenager. Julia yearns for more in her life but not sure what and finds herself thinking about Ray, her college lover, more often than not.

Julia finds herself in a life-changing situation. She becomes pregnant and has an idea who the father of the baby is; you have to read the book to find out more!

Nicely written and funny in all the right parts. The ending surprised me but was beautiful.