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Better Together
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Former Smithsonian editor Zuravleff's logy second novel (after The Frequency of Souls) tracks the mishaps and hard-won triumphs of the staff of a little museum that could, Washington, D.C.'s fictitious Museum of Asian Art. The novel opens on diminutive Promise Whittaker, the acting director, watching the museum's curator of Chinese ceramics drop a priceless Jingdezhen porcelain bowl at the prize acquisition's unveiling ceremony. Backtrack six months: Promise, a 43-year-old, Oklahoma-bred Rumi scholar and devoted wife and mother of two, is as floored by her promotion to interim director as she is by her unexpected pregnancy. Then director Joseph Lattimore, yearning to join a dig in the Taklamakan Desert, is threatened with the museum's extinction unless he brings in significant funding. Meanwhile, the curator of ancient Chinese art, Min Chen, embezzles museum funds to cover fertility treatments. As Joseph is eased into involuntary retirement, Promise injects some much needed energy into the museum's operations, all while maintaining an implausibly ideal home life. Though the plot ranges from shenanigans in D.C. to adventures in Central Asia, it bogs down in art historical detail where it should skip briskly. The shattered bowl becomes a metaphor of Buddhist wisdom, a lesson in patience and fortitude that one can also learn from tireless mothers like Promise. (Apr.) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Promise is having a bad summer. She is unexpectedly and uncomfortably pregnant with her third child. Her affable, activist husband smokes too much pot. Her house is falling apart. Her babysitter is trying to indoctrinate her already neurotic children. To top it all off, Promise has just been named acting director of the Museum of Asian Art, a museum the administration is trying to close. When her best friend, and fellow curator, breaks a porcelain bowl once owned by Thomas Jefferson, it may be the end of all of them, or their saving grace. This enjoyable novel touches on subjects from Asian art and philosophy to cancer and infertility. Although there are a few too many subplots involving characters the author doesn't have time to flesh out, Promise Whittaker is so realistically written she makes those around her look good. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Former Smithsonian editor Zuravleff's logy second novel (after The Frequency of Souls) tracks the mishaps and hard-won triumphs of the staff of a little museum that could, Washington, D.C.'s fictitious Museum of Asian Art. The novel opens on diminutive Promise Whittaker, the acting director, watching the museum's curator of Chinese ceramics drop a priceless Jingdezhen porcelain bowl at the prize acquisition's unveiling ceremony. Backtrack six months: Promise, a 43-year-old, Oklahoma-bred Rumi scholar and devoted wife and mother of two, is as floored by her promotion to interim director as she is by her unexpected pregnancy. Then director Joseph Lattimore, yearning to join a dig in the Taklamakan Desert, is threatened with the museum's extinction unless he brings in significant funding. Meanwhile, the curator of ancient Chinese art, Min Chen, embezzles museum funds to cover fertility treatments. As Joseph is eased into involuntary retirement, Promise injects some much needed energy into the museum's operations, all while maintaining an implausibly ideal home life. Though the plot ranges from shenanigans in D.C. to adventures in Central Asia, it bogs down in art historical detail where it should skip briskly. The shattered bowl becomes a metaphor of Buddhist wisdom, a lesson in patience and fortitude that one can also learn from tireless mothers like Promise. (Apr.) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Promise is having a bad summer. She is unexpectedly and uncomfortably pregnant with her third child. Her affable, activist husband smokes too much pot. Her house is falling apart. Her babysitter is trying to indoctrinate her already neurotic children. To top it all off, Promise has just been named acting director of the Museum of Asian Art, a museum the administration is trying to close. When her best friend, and fellow curator, breaks a porcelain bowl once owned by Thomas Jefferson, it may be the end of all of them, or their saving grace. This enjoyable novel touches on subjects from Asian art and philosophy to cancer and infertility. Although there are a few too many subplots involving characters the author doesn't have time to flesh out, Promise Whittaker is so realistically written she makes those around her look good. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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