Customer Reviews

What to Keep: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

At first glance, it might be tempting to file WHAT TO KEEP under the category of "Chick Lit." All the familiar elements of the genre are here: the single woman finding her way in New York, her conflicts with wacky family members, her struggles for career success. But this tender first novel by Rachel Cline couldn't be farther from the typical Chick Lit confection. Instead, it's simultaneously a poignant character study and a moving meditation on the changing definitions of family.

The novel is divided into three parts, each of which focuses on a particular moment in the life of its heroine, Denny Roman. In the first part, she's twelve and about to star in her school play. Her recently separated parents, both brilliant doctors, are too distracted by their own concerns to pay much attention to Denny or to show up for her performance. Instead, Denny's only parental figure --- "the only adult to whom she was neither confounding nor overwhelming" --- is the agoraphobic Maureen, who runs a business organizing the lives of successful but clueless folks like Denny's parents.

In the novel's second section, Denny, now in her mid-twenties and a struggling actress in Los Angeles, returns home to Ohio to help her mother and stepfather prepare for their move to New York City. As Denny decides which of her childhood memorabilia to keep and which to sell at a garage sale, her failed relationship with her mother comes to a head.

The final part, set in 2000 in New York City, shows us Denny as an up-and-coming playwright. This time her parents are willing to see her play, a fairly transparent allegory of their relationship. Meanwhile, Denny has a surprise visitor --- the twelve-year-old son of Maureen, who's now deceased. As Denny works to make sense of her relationship with her own mother, she considers whether she's ready to be a mother of sorts to young Luke.

WHAT TO KEEP is an unusual novel, with characters both quirky and pathetic (sometimes at the same time). Denny is an appealing and compelling character, growing from an awkward preteen starved for attention into a complex, confident woman who found success despite her mother's emotional absence. Instead of being resentful and bitter toward her mother, Denny develops a capacity to forgive and even to erase the mistakes of the past by becoming a mother figure herself.

The theme of moving runs throughout the novel, as does the theme of acting. Denny moves from Ohio to Los Angeles to New York, ironically following the parents who have for so long moved away from her both physically and emotionally. As she does so, she constantly reinvents herself, drawing on her own acting talents and her odd family dynamics to create her art and her life. Readers should consider themselves fortunate to be able to take this journey along with her.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

I have to say right off the bat that I had really high expectations for this novel; everything I read made it sound really terrific. While the novel is good, it did not live up to my expectations, but I would still recommend it. The story concerns Denny Roman at three points in her life. We meet her at age twelve, where much of the focus in the narrative is on what happens to her mother on her 41st birthday. We next meet Denny in her mid-twenties, as she returns to her native Ohio to sort through her things before her mother moves to New York City. The final section of the novel takes place during Denny's mid-thirties, where she faces what could be a life-altering decision to assume responsibility for the son of a dear friend, Maureen. The writing in What to Keep is excellent, but the novel lacks, I don't know, that little extra oomph for a five-star rating. That being said, this novel is much, much better than most (if not all) chick lit, which apparently this novel is being marketed as.

This is a great first novel. Although the story spans 3 acts, over 25 years, I was instantly drawn into the characters and became a member of the extended, but surely disfunctional family. Rachel Cline has made her characters grow throughout the story; it was a pleasure to go with them.

Brava.

I really enjoyed this impressive first novel because it captured two of life's essential themes through a contemporary lens: struggling when life does not deal us all the cards that we would have liked, and our search for meaning in life when we are coming to terms with that reality. From the beginning of the story, the main character reflects a common experience of coping with parental imprefections, divorce, adolescent social tensions, and the like in a very human way. Like the other main characters, her thoughts are described in a way that makes her human and complicated. I don't want to give away the final scenes, but her attempt to find something in life that will give greater meaning to her existence is poignant and makes the reader ponder his own similiar quest.

I read a lot of really good reviews about this book before ordering it. Then I read it and I was left wondering if I had ordered the right book. Cline distances herself from readers as much as the characters in the novel distance themselves from each other. Not only was the story underwhelming but the characters were completely flat.

I agree with the previous reviewer that this book came highly recommended but proved to be a real disappointment. I didn't find the characters interesting or compelling, and I'm not even really sure there was a plot. More just a series of events which lacked climax. It is broken into three chronological "acts" but relies too heavily on flashbacks to seal the gaps between.

The editing is also poor; the main character is twelve in 1976 but is something like 32 in 1990. The writing is uninspired and resorts to telling the reader what she is supposed to feel. The dialogue is unbelievable and often doesn't fit the character.

There was one section of the book in the middle that seemed more carefully written and almost captured my imagination, but even that failed in the end.

I could go on, but I will stop at saying that I am not inspired to read any more books from 2004 if this is "one of the best" of the year.

WHAT TO KEEP by Rachel Cline
May 15, 2005


WHAT TO KEEP by Rachel Cline was an interestingly written novel about Denny (Eden) Roman and her dysfunctional family, at different times of her life. The book is separated into three parts, and in each part the reader sees a glimpse of the main character at the age of 12, 26, and finally at age 36.

The book right away depicts the family as a victim of divorce. Denny's parents are brain surgeons and do not have much time for family life, including their daughter Denny. Lily and Charles Roman are already divorced in the opening of the novel, but both parents do play a role in Denny's life. A third adult, Maureen, plays a much more important role than her own parents do. She runs an answering service, but her duties soon move into family territory by helping to run the household and be there for Denny when she needs her.

The three parts of WHAT TO KEEP are comparable to snapshots taken at different times of their lives. With Denny at 12, she is struggling to find an identity, yearning for her parents' attention but knows always that she'll come up short. Maureen is what saves Denny during these growing up years.

At age 26, Denny is now a struggling actress, and her mother is married to Phil, a man she once had a fling with back in part one, and the two of them are moving to New York. Denny again is struggling with her relationship with her mother, and seems more focused on her career and her memories in the house she grew up in, rather than being there emotionally for her mother. She doesn't feel she gets any support from Lily, and when Denny finds out she's up for a movie roll in a film by Robert Altman, she tries to find a way to go back to Los Angeles earlier than she had planned. A significant turning point does occur in this time of her life, something that happens between Phil and herself. It changes their relationship, oddly enough for the better.

At age 36, Denny is now a playwright and is about to have her first play open. She is nervous but proud that she has reached this point in her life. It is yet another pivotal part of her life, and again her relationship with her mother comes into play.

Throughout all three sections, Maureen seems to play a large part in Denny's life. While at first she seems to be in the background, it slowly becomes apparent how Maureen is really the surrogate parent that Denny needed, in childhood as well as an adult. It is Maureen that is there for Denny during key moments such as a school play. It is sad to know that Denny's own biological parents are not able to fulfill that role, but at the same time it is interesting to read about the dynamics that make this family work.

What was most enjoyable about this book were scenes that the author chose to use to describe this family. Quirky scenes, such as Lily's adventures after being involved in a car accident, are part of the charm of WHAT TO KEEP. And the fact that each person in this novel is not a typical "normal" person, but someone that seems to stand out in one way or another. While Maureen is described as an agoraphobe, in some ways she seemed to be the most normal person in the book, at least to me.

I really can't say enough about this book, and that I am most certainly going to be reading any future books by Rachel Cline. She's an author to keep an eye out for.

Am shocked so many people loved this book. There were tons of gaps, ideas (to give credit - many good ones) with lacking plots and poor character development. Definitely not a page turner. Feel bad I recommended this for my book club. All girls (except one who seemed to like it) dreaded picking it up to read, but wanted to finish it for sake of discussion at book club. There really wasn't much to talk about at the book club. Disappointing. A friend made a good point that this is written like a screenplay, so maybe it's meant for people to visualize more and would probably be better as a movie. Good read for a screenplay writer I guess...

I'm the first person to admit that I read a lot of "chick books", in among the other genres I enjoy. And this seemed like standard chick-book fare -- divorce, hints at borderline sexual abuse, a problematic relationship between a girl/woman and her mother, the death of a substitute mother, the adoption of her teenaged son -- with a few twists, but it was told in such a cumbersome way that at times I had a hard time getting through it. The prose simply didn't flow well for me. However, for what it is, it was worth reading once, and I did enjoy some aspects of it.

I really enjoyed this book. I was looking for a new writer and a good story - and with this book I found both and more. I read the book in a couple of days - because I just enjoyed the story so much. The characters were interesting without being so self-absorbed that they became not fun to read. I was engaged and found myself rooting for all the characters in their own unique ways - I definitely recommend it.