Member Reviews
(Thanks to @doubledaybooks #gifted.) ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ฅ was one of my all time favorite debuts. Ever since finishing it, Iโve eagerly awaited Claire Lombardoโs sophomore novel. That wait is finally over and for me ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ ๐ช๐๐ฆ did not disappoint! Like her first, this book focuses on a family full of love, but also with a complicated history and present day problems.โฃโฃ
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The central character is Julia who has been married to Mark for nearly 30 years. Everything that happens in this story, good and bad, flows through her. Sheโs a complex woman, still grappling with her past as she also navigates the land mines that can detonate with an 18 year old daughter and 24 year old son.โฃโฃ
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โ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข๐ช๐ณ.โโฃโฃ
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Donโt go into this expecting a cozy family saga. Instead, be prepared for complications that may cause you to dislike characters along the way. Also know that the more you read, the more you will understand these people, the more you will care about them, the more your heart might hurt for them, and the harder youโll root for them.โฃโฃ
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โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ง๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ด๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ธ, ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ตโ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ด - ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ, ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ - ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ง.โโฃโฃ
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The wait was worth it. Thank you, Claire Lombardo, for another unforgettable family story. โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ๐ซ
This is my first book by this author and I found the writing truly captivating. Iโve become fond of novels that portray older women and mothers who have lived full lives centered around their children and families. This one is a family saga, not unlike families I know, families who are faced with tragedy and hardships yet continue to push through looking for resolution. The main character is a woman named Julia who is married with children. In many ways, I could identify with her as a wife and mother but there were instances where I couldnโt understand her disconnected thoughts in regard to her family. This is a long novel and sometimes it felt lengthy, but as the story unfolded, I became invested in this family and was glad I read it.
โIsnโt that part of what define every relationship? That mixture of how much you need someone and how much they need you back?โ
This story explores friendship, marriage and motherhood through the lens of the life of one woman (Julia). This was incredibly raw and emotional. I felt as if I had lived through what Julia had in a way that is sometimes hard to read, sometimes extremely relateable, and sometimes heartwarming. Julia is not always likeable but that is what I found to be the most real thing about this book.
It is beautifully written with rich descriptions. However, I found the book to be extremely repetitive and boring at times. I literally never skim books and I was skimming all over the place to try and finish. The book maybe could have used a more heavy hand on the editing ๐ข
To be honest, I would recommend THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD over this one. If you love family dramas and slow character driven books, try that one one first.
When I read Lombardoโs first novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, I thought it was an astonishingly authentic look at an American suburban family, many warts and all. I normally run as fast as I can from dysfunctional family stories, because the characters are usually so tiresome. But even though Lombardoโs characters can be irritating, as her story progresses she peels back the layers of the characters and relationships, allowing the reader to understand them. I end up feeling like they are so real that itโs hard to believe they end when the book is over. For me, itโs also a bonus that she sets her books in the Chicago suburbs, which Iโm familiar with. In this case, the particular suburb seems like itโs probably Oak Park or River Forest. Not the ultra-wealthy North Shore towns, but still nice and full of executive-class types. (It was a small thrill for me when her main character talks about having lived, when young, on the same street I lived on for a couple of years in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.)
My husband asked me what I was reading that was so engrossing me; what was it about. It was hard for me to describe the book. I could say itโs about this woman, Julia, and her life from young adulthood until her kids are grown, itโs about her relationships with her mother, her husband, her daughter, her sonโand Helen, the stranger she met who became so important to her, someone she felt really got her. But all that, while true, would have been inadequate. Because it doesnโt convey that itโs a book about love in all its messiness, and how the inability to express love can really mess things up, but if youโre lucky and you eventually break through that inability, things wonโt be messed up forever.
Lombardoโs writing is just so gorgeous and evocativeโand often funny. So many times I laughed out loud. Like when she describes a party Julia and her husband are hosting, and when Julia is out of the room, one of the guests, โapparently trying to drive them all to self harm, has turned on Joni Mitchell.โ Like all couples, Julia and her husband Mark have developed their own dialog quirks. In their case, a typical exchange is when theyโre discussing some friends who said couple share everything. When Mark says to Julia, we share everything, donโt we, she insouciantly asks whether this is his way of telling her he has chlamydia. Great line, I thought.
I did think that the book could have used some judicious editing; I sometimes felt like there was too much detailed and repetitive dwelling on Juliaโs emotional issues. But then I got to the luminescent last chapter or so, and all I can remember is the afterglow.
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read an ARC of the Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo. This is my second book by this author and I was again blown away by her ability to articulate the inner thoughts, feelings and an entire lives of a character. Her books are unlike anything else I've read. This was another beautiful literary family drama. They are truly masterpieces for this particular genre. This is a slow paced book and it requires the reader to soak it in. This genre isn't a go to for me and I generally don't like these types of books. However, I will read anything Claire Lombardo publishes.
Wow! What an emotional rideโlike a roller coaster, exhilarating highs, and then a plunge into the depths of real family drama. This book accurately captures the reality of family, the change in relationships between generations, and the nature of relationships that will NEVER be good. This character-drive narrative presents disappointments, regrets, challenges with which this reader could identify. Itโs fiction thatโs real.
Itโs a big that I can see myself reading again.
Claire Lombardoโs The Most Fun We Ever Had is one of my favorite books of all time, so when I heard she had another 500-page family drama coming out, reader, I squealed.
This story is about a middle-aged woman named Julia. Sheโs married with two kids, one of whom is unexpectedly getting married after his girlfriend got pregnant, and the other of whom is about to graduate high school. We flash back and forth between past and present, first to a damning inflection point in her marriage and then even further back, to the childhood that led her to become estranged from her mother and mistrust her own capacity for all kinds of relationships.
The Most Fun We Ever Had was more of my KIND of story because it broke your heart via beautifully loving relationships and family dynamics, whereas this book was about much messier relationships and the lingering impact of trauma and betrayal. Julia is also often unlikeable, even though itโs easy to sympathize with her. So those 500 pages felt a biiiit sloggier for me this time around. But still, thereโs no denying that Lombardo is an absolute master of character and relationship work on the page. Sheโs not afraid to give us a chunky book that dives deep into those interpersonal dynamics and really excavate their complicated layers. Her ability to create characters so vivid that they break your heart is top-notch โ and at the end of the day, thatโs the mark of a great literary fiction novel for me.
Julia Ames does not feel like she is equipped to handle the world. She feels she struggles where so many others find life easy. Several times, she almost completely derails her life and those around her.
I think this could be a case of just not all books are for all readers. I found myself dreading picking this story up. After 35% I decided that my time could be spent on other things. There were several portions of the book that I found 100% relatable and why I continued with the story.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This new literary fiction from acclaimed writer Clare Lombardo felt like a fan's loyalty test. If the author offers her readers a prickly protagonist who seems to get along with no one and whose standoffishness challenges every interaction- will you be willing to go along for the ride for hundreds upon hundreds of pages? Will you stick around for her origin story in the book's final quarter, a sympathetic portrayal of childhood trauma, but have no reason to root for her until then?
A fan will stay to revel in Lombardo's finely crafted sentence structure, marinate in her character descriptions, take in a slice-of-life scene in a way you haven't before, and hope that the ending will be worth the effort in this midlife season exploration.
We are drawn into a mystery involving two friends whose friendship fell apart years ago. They unexpectedly encounter each other at their local grocery store eighteen years later. Julia and Helen are in their 50s and 80s now, but seeing her friend ignites Julia's memories of her early years of motherhood when she left behind her career as a librarian to pursue a rocky motherhood terrain where she felt untethered and lonely.
It seems Julia is Helen's latest conquest, a woman who easily collects a merry-go-round of friends and dispenses sage advice with a well-weathered hand after raising five boys. Helen is older, assured, and communal and offers Julia an olive branch when she sees her struggling with her toddler on an outing.
But as quickly as Julia becomes a fixture, she almost as easily slips out of Helen's life when a misstep with a family member challenges not only the friendship but also her marriage.
Now older, she faces two significant crossroads- her daughter heading to college and her son's unexpected marriage proposal and baby announcement have her contemplating her life as a grandmother, mother-in-law, and empty nester.
Julia's unexpected glimpse at this fractured friendship offers readers a portal to her young and floundering relationships and a tender portrayal of a woman who feels out of her element as a mother. These timelines transition seamlessly with little setup, giving us two lenses to view Julia, who feels not at home at either stage.
But as we meander to the end of this novel, her writing turns sharply into the most effective and magnificent portraits of marriage and life in all its heartache and beauty, which made me weep at its revelations.
Did the ending make it worth the journey for me? Yes, for me, but I resonate deeply with Lombardo's prose. It never quite reaches the magic of The Most Fun We Ever Had, as it took me ages to warm up to these characters. While Lombardo enthusiasts will enjoy the journey, this novel could challenge readers who are not drawn to character-driven stories.
As hard as I try to be, Iโm just not a fan of this author ๐ซค I felt almost exactly the same about this book as I did about her debut novel. This 500+ page family drama was too damn long. I was sucked in at the start, but it lost me at about 40%. I found myself dragging through the rest and genuinely losing interest in the outcome. The writing is at times beautiful, but so incredibly dense. Everything felt like a run on sentence. Sad, but I do think many out there would enjoy (especially if you liked her first!)
2 stars โญ๏ธ โญ๏ธ
If you enjoy character-driven family dramas, this new novel is for you! I really enjoyed โThe Most Fun We Ever Hadโ and was so excited to receive a #gifted digital copy of this one.
Julia Ames appears to have the perfect stable life. She enjoys her job as a librarian, has 2 almost grown children and what appears to be a healthy marriage. But a chance encounter with an estranged friend, Helen, opens up the cracks that Julia has spent years filling in. And, her perfect little boy is marrying his pregnant girlfriend while her feisty teenage daughter is about to leave for college. Itโs a lot for Julia to process and adapt to and finds herself flailingโฆ again.
As Julia navigates the twists and turns of her once stable life, she is drawn into the past, when she was struggling with motherhood, self-identity, trauma of her childhood and her difficult relationship with her own mother.
Once again, Lombardo has brought us such well-developed, yet flawed and real characters and explores the hidden truths behind any family. While the world keeps turning and changing, some things (like love, loyalty, familial bonds, friendship) do stay the same as they always were, even if they look a little different.
Thank you to @netgalley @doubledaybooks
I'm torn with this book. I thought the writing was beautiful and the story an intricate look at family dynamics, motherhood, and mental health. The characters were complex and multi-dimensional.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't connect with the characters and found myself frustrated with the main character, Julia. Also this book was just so long and drawn out that the plot felt stagnant in places. Finally, I felt like there was very little hope throughout this book and everything was negative. There was no joy and everything that happened and all of the characters were just miserable all the time. It got to be quite tedious to keep reading the negative with no positive to balance it out.
Overall, I just don't think I connect with this book and the characters. But I could see people who enjoy character driven novels, enjoying this one.
This book is long, and some of it is slow in places. But I liked the dual timeline, and the look back on Julia's life and what happened to make her have the reaction of seeing Helen again.
This book has a lot going on, but it gives a really good look at family and how it grows and changes over time.
I think it would make a good book for discussion for book clubs.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.
Tears in my eyes after finishing this intimate and moving portrait of a marriage and the intricacies of the relationships of others tethered to it. The time period and general pacing of the novel changes frequently but it is done in this gorgeous way she writes. It is a long novel, more than 500 pages, but it doesnโt feel that way once you get into the first 50 or so. In fact, I could have read so much more about Julia, Mark, Ben, Sunny, Alma, Helen and Anita. Julia was so relatable to me on huge levels but also the very small levels where it just made me smile to see the similarities. There are so many snippets of wisdom disguised in this book, not the least of which is the importance of happiness and recognizing it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This novel is available now - highly recommend! It will likely be on my favorite list for 2024. Fantastic.
I really liked this book, it could be hard to get into but once you were in it it was good. I like Claire's books because they are so true to real life relationships and situations. I couldnt relate to the main character on some aspects but saw her as other people I know in my family. I still prefer Claire's debut novel over this one but I would recommend both to friends and book club readers. And I do agree with other readers sentiments, the ending was sad.
Reading this, I thought, "Well, second wave feminism, if it did nothing else, gave us suburban ennui novels from the wife's perspective." This reminded me of Cheever or Updike, but with a female gaze. I liked the end a lot and wish the start had been written more tightly.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.
This 500 page novel was an undertaking, but one that I wanted to conquer based on early buzz. We first meet Julia as she runs into an old friend Helen in the grocery store and are made aware that some incident had happened between the two causing a rift in their friendship. Julia is now navigating life parenting a teenager and adult child alongside her affable husband Mark. We are soon toggling between Juliaโs current life and her early life as wife and a struggling mom of a preschooler.
As with any motherhood experience, each will be different and one can expect the same with their reading experience of this novel. For me, as a mom of a five year old, there are some things that of course I relate to but at the same time, I wonder if writers have relied too heavily on on the tired mom narrative. Juliaโs inner dialogue became tiring and I felt bogged down by her melancholic resignation to her life and her role in her family. She often felt so focused on her own shortcomings, that there was not room for growth. In the final quarter of the novel, Lombardo unpacks the layers of Juliaโs past and how it has shaped her. Within the last chapter, Julia confesses she still finds herself โwithout a full toolbox of human emotionsโ which I appreciated, but I feel like we landed on too late in the story.
All of the characters were deeply flawed and complex. Lombardo does a great job at creating well-rounded characters. However, I found the line to overstep between real, raw characters and overused stereotype. I found myself questioning the realistic nature between Julia and Helenโs friendship and often found themes of codependency and obsession within their relationship.
That being said, this book may be for you if you enjoy:
- Female friendship
- Relatable motherhood narratives
- Complex mother daughter relationships
- Marriage struggles
- Decades long character arcs
- Complex character studies
(3.5โญ๏ธ)
Same as it Ever Was is the second book Iโve read by Claire. I liked it more than the last one. This story can very easily be relatable to many people I believe. I enjoy books that have past and present telling because it dives into the character life more and really helps the reader understand their characters. This made me like Julia.
This was a wonderful insight on parent/child relationships and how things change as go through life. There was drama and the ups and down we face in marriage. I felt the ending was happy with great closure. I would recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me with the arc to review and to provide my honest opinions.
Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC.
I was captivated at the beginning of this novel with the writing style and plot of motherhood from a fresh perspective. Unfortunately, I could only get through about 60% of this book. It started to feel super drawn out and depressing, so once I realized it was a 400 page book and I still had a few hours left, I had to DNF.
I think some will love this if you like a character driven plot with lots of morally grey decisions.
From the first lines of Julia shopping for a celebratory meal for her husband, I was captivated by Claire Lombardo's SAME AS IT EVER WAS. Not having read her prior work, I fell headlong into literary girl crush, loving the moments, the pitch perfect descriptions of a vividly lived albeit small life with the predictable upheaval that comes when you think your life is heading one way and it veers off into another. Children play a large part as do parents in this story of a woman navigating the everyday miracles, joys, and tragedies of mid-life. I especially enjoyed the narrator's wry asides and commentary on the way we live, the woman hoping her sloppy outfit is mistaken for effortless chic, the dialogue that feels so real, and the times I found myself swiping away a tear and reading way too late into the night. I received a copy of this book and these are my own, unbiased thoughts.