DNF at 65%.

What the heck happened in Ms. Quindlen's latest book Alternate Side??? Seriously, I'm dumbfounded and disappointed. Where's the plot??? I can't believe this is the same author who wrote Black and Blue, One True Thing and Every Last One, which are all books I quite enjoyed.

Alternate Side is certainly a character driven narrative and we get to know the characters quite well....but man are there ever a lot of them! It took me a third of the book to finally figure out who everyone was only to have more characters introduced. I will concede that the writing is superb and ALMOST kept me invested enough to finish the book. This is also the reason for my 2 stars rather than 1. Unfortunately the story didn't seem to lead anywhere. I kept waiting and waiting....It took almost half the book to get to "the incident" and even that was a letdown. Ms. Quindlen's past books focus on shocking and unthinkable events. Quite frankly, Alternate Side was dull and inconsequential.

I know this author can deliver so I'm going to assume that this was just a once off miss. I'm definitely prepared to give her future books a try. Readers that enjoy a well written character study may actually enjoy this story much more than I did. It mainly focuses on what it's like to live in New York and the growing pains of an established marriage. Crossing fingers that her next book delivers more of a plot punch.

A gracious thank you to Netgalley, Random House and Anna Quindlen for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I love every single thing about this book and about the author. She never disappoints.

I enjoyed this-- the writing is really great and the story is quite engrossing despite not too many big events happening. Certainly a very detailed slice of a certain type of life. However, it's hard at times to feel much sympathy or connection to the characters because so many of them are so incredibly wealthy, their dissatisfaction can come to feel off-putting.

ALTERNATE SIDE (2018)
By Anna Quindlen
Random House, 304 pages
★★★

On a scale from zero to five, how should one rate a very well written novel populated with no one you find remotely interesting or likable? Anna Quindlen’s latest, Alternate Side, takes us inside a single cul-de-sac block. Residents sport surnames such as Nolan, Fenstermacher, Lessman, Fisk, and Rizzoli but the only diversity you find in this neighborhood is the imported help. How much do you care about rich, over-privileged, over-pampered Manhattanites? I couldn't care less.

Ostensibly Alternate Sides revolves around Nora and Charlie Nolan, who have been married for 25 years. They have twins, Rachel and Oliver, who still address their parents as “Mommy” and “Daddy,” though they are both about to enter elite colleges. But maybe infantilization should be expected within a family where the emotional and physical heavy lifting is done by Charity, the Nolans’ nanny/housekeeper. As everyone tells them, the Nolans have a golden marriage, which is of course, a version of Chekov’s gun that tells us they don’t. It’s also pretty obvious by the middle of the first chapter that Charlie is a jerk who wants to be a player, and a shallow and dull one to boot. He’s the sort that likes to speak in One. Word. Sentences. This annoys Nora no end and she’s grown bored with him. Not that Nora is the deep end of the pool herself. She abandoned her college idealism and now runs the Museum of Jewelry, a vanity enterprise whose owner used her own stash to build the permanent collection. Nora’s also being courted by a wealthy entrepreneur to head his private foundation, which would make Nora the player Charlie will never be.

Clearly Ms. Quindlen has other fish to fry in addition to autopsying a failing marriage. The novel’s title alludes to New York City’s infamous even side/odd side parking scheme. It also signifies class distinctions and a central who-did-what-and-why dispute that magnifies the class divide. Quindlen’s hidden objective is to deliver a mash note to New York. In this sense, the alternate sides are Manhattan’s seductive allure and mythos versus the reality of chaos, dodgy street characters, decaying infrastructure, and class-defiant rats. Among the many ways Quindlen highlights this is by abutting the street of the haute bourgeoisie with SRO apartments.

In a sense, Quindlen offers a fictional update to Jacob Riis’s 1890 look at New York’s bifurcations in How the Other Half Lives, though the Nolans and their neighbors are pretty far north of the halfway marker on the SES pole. The novel’s central device underscores this. Charlie is ecstatic when he becomes eligible to rent one of six parking spaces in a lot near his home. Never mind that keeping a car in Manhattan is roughly as useful as owning a Zamboni in Ecuador, it bespeaks the Nolans’ wealth that Charlie thinks nothing of spending $325 a month to park a car he seldom uses. The space isn’t about being pragmatic; it’s a status-conferring form of conspicuous consumption. If the Nolans’ golden marriage is Checkov’s gun, that space is his rifle or, more properly speaking, a club through which class conflict erupts and neighbors must take sides.

Perhaps you see my dilemma. Quindlen’s novel is exceedingly well crafted and its prose flows far more smoothly than Midtown traffic. The novel falters, though, because Quindlen focuses on the wrong side of the class chasm. Although (for plot purposes) Nora visits the Bronx and abstractly sympathizes with a Latino handyman after an attack—something many of her neighbors can’t comprehend—when she ultimately must change her life, she simply slides from one version of privilege to another. Is she supposed to be our sympathetic character? From where I sit she is as unspeakably awful as everyone else in her neighborhood, simply in a quieter and more dignified fashion.

Throughout the novel characters used the phrase “first-world problem” when trying to put things into proper perspective. Alas, none of them actually has any genuine perspective. I’ll go on record and say that only Los Angeles celebrities are more smug and out-of-touch than wealthy New Yorkers. I didn’t feel anyone’s pain in Alternate Side. Do I care about people who worry about good plastic surgeons, pedicures, hold hen sessions at trendy restaurants, and bemoan how hard it is to get a good Cobb salad? As much as I admire Anna Quindlen as an author, the experience of reading Alternate Side is like being trapped inside of one of Woody Allen’s particularly unctuous New York movies. Thus, when Nora reminds us of the many reasons she could never leave Manhattan, we can but shrug over her impoverished imagination. Give Quindlen three stars: five as a writer and one for characterization.

Rob Weir

Alternate Side will be released on March 18. I read an advance copy courtesy of Random House and NetGalley.

I am a fan of Anna Quindlen, and was excited to receive a copy of this book through Net Galley. I wish I could say that I like this as much as I do her other books, but I could not. The setting is a neighborhood in New York City. Ann and Charlie are empty-nesters. Charlie is disillusioned with city life, but Nora is not ready to make the changes. An act of violence in their neighborhood draws lines in the sand and forces Nora to take a long hard look at herself and life. Sometimes it only takes a simple thing to cause us to reflect on life, where we are and who we have become; Ann is no exception to this.

I love Quindlen's writing style, and the way she personifies her characters. Their dialogues are real and believable, and even the strife the characters encounter are true-to-life. In a way many readers can relate to obsessing over both big and small things in life. Charlie's obsession with his hard won parking spot is a prime example of something ludicrous and certainly something I cannot relate to well. It may be that it was hard for me to move beyond that opening gambit. I can still recognize that each of us have our own triggers and idiocies.

I will continue to read Anna Quindlen, even if this was not one of my favorite of her stories. She has such a talent with words and emotions, and how women think. I am grateful for the opportunity to have read this book.

Nora and Charlie Nolan live on a dead-end street in Manhattan, where neighbors know each other well, for better or worse. The Nolan's twins are now in college, and their empty nest has underscored this middle aged couple's differences, especially their commitment to living in New York, which Nora is passionate about while Charlie isn't. Their careers -- Charlie as an investment banker and Nora as a museum administrator--highlight divergent directions, as do their relationships with their neighbors' foibles and dramas. This is the story of a well-to-do Manhattan couple navigating middle age, mostly with grace.

First I want to say I looked forward to reading this book by Anna Quindlen having read some of her other books which I loved. Having lived in NYC I got the premise of the book, although wondering how it could maintain the interest of a private parking car lot, while realizing the prize in obtaining one. Nora and Charlie were married and had identical twins Rachel and Oliver. Charlie has always had the dream of living down south, in a warmer climate, near beaches while Nora holds onto her desired love/hate relationship of living in NYC. Charlie is beyond happy when he finally buys a space in the parking lot. There are pages and pages of descriptions of many characters, neighbors, and too much detail of irrelevant digressions that made the first part of this book tiresome to read for me. The plot finally picks up about a third of the way into the book with the incident involving the parking lot tragedy. Neighbors against neighbors takes off, and the rift grows as sides are taken for everyone. I was struck by a quote that seemed to relate to this story - "NYC - an inchoate search for authenticity when imitations was always dangled before you like a great price". I thought the title Alternate Side was a good one, there are many thought provoking sides to this book and the ending was well written tying together many questions.

I’ve found my enjoyment of Quindlen’s books to be spotty but I was captivated by this one from the start. The neighborhood setting was like a Petrie dish for a class study. I found the huge cast of characters hard to sort out and remember who did what so I finally jotted them down - very helpful.

Nora and Charlie live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in a brownstone on a dead end street where they had raised their college aged twins. Over the years, the isolation of the street creates a club of sorts between the neighbors. Everyone is a college-educated professional and they are united by their wealth but through Nora’s eyes we see their paths change as they lose their youthful ideals. “The price so many of them had paid for prosperity was amnesia. They’d forgotten where they’d come from, how they’d started out. They’d forgotten what the city really was, and how small a part of it they truly were.”

The lack of honest communication between Nora and Charlie creates huge fissures in their relationship as the empty nest and circumstances in the neighborhood leave them reassessing their roles and directions. One of Nora’s friends quips that “monogamy had worked better when people didn’t live past fifty.” As they finally do get honest with each other, they realize they have been living parallel lives. Nora observes that Charlie is a man from the generation that expected the basic maintenance of his life to be handled by women - his assistant, his housekeeper, and “to a lesser and less solicitous and therefore less satisfactory extend his wife. But arranging things for someone is not he same as loving him. It’s work, not devotion.”

Nora’s fabulous museum job ends at about the same time and she ends up in a new field that has her writing a grant for a computer lab in a school that had relied on old desktops. When the principal began to cry, Nora did too. After all the years of asking rich people for money she realized how much more pleasurable it was to give it away where it truly was needed. Oh, for more Noras.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Alternate Sides. The last Anna Quindlen book I read was Every Last One. That was a superbly written book but it left me emotionally wrung out.
This book was definitely lighter. I kept waiting for the "thing" in the book to happen that the story would be about. Although there was an incident in her neighborhood that became a catalyst for the final unwinding of the main character's (Nora) marriage, it wasn't on the scale of what I had been waiting for. Everything is told from Nora's point of view so we only have her perception of her marriage, her relationship with her kids, & the relationships in her neighborhood. We sort of go about her day with her; Nora goes on a run in the morning, she meets an annoying neighbor on her way to work, outside of work she talks to a homeless man, at work she solves a problem. And then I slowly realized that really this book has a pace much like real life. And the message seemed to say this is real life, we all are just blundering along doing our best, not knowing if the choices we make that take us down one path versus the other are the best choices.
Nora lightly pokes at the lifestyle of her social circle (the haves) and gap between social classes in New York while reminiscing about "old" New York. It often feels like Nora accidentally wound up in her life and sort of stayed in stasis as her kids grew up and her marriage became strained and lonely. It left me feeling like Nora's story could be anyone's story and there is some strange comfort in that.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: March 2018

The author, Anna Quindlen, writes something you do not often find: bestseller literary fiction. Most books on the bestseller list are usually commercial fiction, not literary. Both types of fiction require talent. But the aim of commercial fiction is entertainment. The aim of literary fiction is art. Generally, there is a more intention to style. Also, the plot is usually less obvious. I’m a big fan of literary fiction. In Quindlen’s novel, “Alternate Side” (referring to alternate side parking) you will find a good example of such a style.

She writes about the residents who live on a dead-end block in NYC where all own their brownstones. Each brownstone belongs to a single family. If you are a New Yorker, you know that only the ultra rich can afford to own a house in Manhattan. We meet a husband, wife, their college-aged twins and their Australian sheepdog. The story goes back and forth in time. We read about when the couple met in college. They move into NYC because of its hip reputation. They do not have any money so they live in closet-sized rooms in cockroach infested buildings. Even with the lack of space, and the pesky bugs, they fall in love with the city. By the time they are in their 50s, they are overly privileged and their marriage is in trouble. (Next sentence is a spoiler). The marriage dissolves without any major blowups, or indiscretions, but simply becuse they have nothing left to say to one another. Plus, the husband is ready to move out of the city and the wife’s love affair with the Big Apple is as strong as when they were a young. “There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy. There's only you and me and we just disagree”

Their block is a tight-knit community. They are excited when a new puppy arrives on the dead-end and mourn with the owner when a pet dies. They have an annual summer barbeque, one with a police permit, not like those in other, less desirable, neighborhoods. One resident throws an elaborate, yearly Christmas party. At this time of year, all put wreaths on their door. That is how you can tell if someone is renting: no wreath. The owners don’t mingle with the renters but are welcoming when the owners return.

Despite being so friendly, we learn that not all the owners are so fond of each other. But, they keep each other’s secrets. At parties, a dignified older woman is usually fall-down drunk. No one gossips about her drinking problem. When she goes away for a month or so, no one asks any questions. One self-appointed resident makes himself the official rule man on the block, sending the others’ silly emails regarding what is and isn’t acceptable. They tolerate him but inside they are laughing at him. There is one guy known for his explosive temper. Oddly, he is married to a psychotherapist. But no one questions why a woman who helps others is not able to help herself and stays married to a creep.

If you are familiar with alternate side parking in NYC, you know that people have been known to sleep in their car to ensure that they move their car at the set time and have a space in the morning. On the dead-end, a brownstone burned down and the owner chose not to rebuild. The other residents turn the space into a small parking lot for the block only. The space is not large enough to accommodate all residents. You have to earn it. The author doesn’t explain how one earns it, but income is implied. The husband is so thrilled with getting the spot that he sends his kids a text with a picture of their car in the lot.

There is an act of violence that happens around this parking lot and the community begins to show their true feelings about their neighbors. Stewing class and racial tensions boil over when an arrogant, rich, white lawyer resident (spoiler) hits a local Latino handyman with a golf club for blocking the entrance to the parking lot. The block cannot do without this man’s services. When the handyman is in the hospital, needing numerous surgeries for his broken bones, all on the block have something in their homes that needs to be fixed. The do not wish to find someone new for various different reasons. Furthermore, it becomes clear that some genuinely enjoy the handyman’s company. While others see him only as the hired help. After the incident, arguments break out. Even though all like the culprit’s wife, some turn on her for a good reason. She becomes annoyed when a money collection is created for the injured man, and some have visited him in the hospital. She agrees her husband is in the wrong and is horrified at what he did. Still, there is the possibility of losing their money in a lawsuit, so she asks her neighbors not to help the man because it implies her husband’s guilt.

You begin to realize that the married couple is not really the protagonists after all. The story is really about the enviable dead-end block which turns into a metaphor of a divided city. The author is subtle; still, you begin to realize how this novel is direct in other arenas. She never mentions politics, but the reader cannot help but think about how recently the United States is making news head-lines for being a divided county. If you are not accustomed to literary fiction, you may find the book a bit slow for your tastes. And, for me, there are a few paragraphs that where too lengthy reading more like a poem than a novel. But overall, Quindlen’s novel is a remarkable character study on the complexities of neighborhood relationships, as well as the difficulties now going on in the United States.

Too much philosophizing, not enough plot. Nora kinda' likes her husband, but kinda' doesn't. She kinda' likes living in New York City, but kinda' doesn't. It was a dull slog of a read and, in my opinion, not up to Anna Quindlen's normal standards.

Received from Net-Galley.

I started this book a few times but couldn't make progress or get interested. Sorry notmuch to add.

Netgalley gave me the chance to preview this book before its published and for that I’m very grateful. I would call this genre, a slice of life. Nora and Charlie Nolan live in a small, close-knit neighborhood in New York. Not only do all the neighbors know each other’s business, but parking spaces are in short supply. I enjoy the rich language Quindlen employs in her storytelling. The beginning of Alternate Side put me off because all the characters, their children and dogs were introduced at once. I never did keep all of them straight because of that.

It was hard for me to identify with the issues in this book because I live where there’s plenty of parking and don’t know most of my neighbors at all. I kept wishing there was more forward action.

I checked out other reviews to make sure it wasn’t me that had these problems with the book and reviewers are divided about equally with those who loved it and those who had the same criticism as I did. So, if you like the slice-of-life genre, you may very well enjoy Alternate Side.

I started reading this title while on a flight and was almost sad when the plane landed! Although I'm not finished (yet), I have thoroughly enjoyed the book thus far and plan to nominate it. Another high quality, engrossing read by a wonderful, talented and proven author.

Alternate Side is a character-driven slice-of-life story, the type at which Anna Quindlen excels. You get to know her people as though they were friends. As with most of us, their lives have moments of drama among mostly no-big-deal daily stuff, but because you know these people, you’re interested. If, perchance, you can identify with them and their problems, all the better.

Nora Nolan and her husband, Charlie, live in a closely knit New York City neighborhood of comfortably rich people with housekeepers and a shared handyman. They all know each other, socialize at catered neighborhood events, but are not quite friends. In other words, they don’t bare their hearts to one another. Still, they care about each other, and when something happens to one, the others come to help.

After thirty years together, Nora and Charlie have grown apart. Their twins are graduating from college and moving on with their lives, leaving an empty nest. While Nora loves New York City life, Charlie wants to move to a warm climate where he can golf year-round. She has a job she enjoys; he’s not all that happy in his. Little things he does are starting to annoy her. He’s threatened by the possibility that she will take a new position with status greater than his. When an act of violence rocks the neighborhood, she and he see the incident very differently.

Having grown up in a friendly Midwestern neighborhood where block parties were common, I could identify with the measured camaraderie among neighbors. And being of a certain age, I could understand how Nora and Charlie felt. This story also deals with race relations, class privilege, and what are often referred to as first-world problems, yet refrains from passing judgment. If you are looking for fast-paced action , mystery, or romance, this book is not for you. But if you enjoy fine writing, Alternate Side is that.

Honestly, at first, I was not sure if I liked this book but as I kept reading and became more acquainted with the characters, I really enjoyed it. Set in a neighborhood of NYC, it is the story of life being fairly normal and comfortable until a tragic event occurs. Life changes drastically for most of the neighborhood. This book made me sad in some ways and it made me think. Life doesn’t stay the same even though we think it will.

I am a long-time fan of Anna Quindlen's books. I have always enjoyed her style and her in-depth characterizations. 'Alternate Side' explores the lives of Nora & Charlie Nola, their NYC neighbors on the dead-end block and the everyday occurrences we all go through- in the city or suburbs- such as children moving out, neighbors, job issues and marital strain and stress. It was an interesting read on how people respond to issues differently and what it does to their happiness. While this is not one of my favorite of her books, it was very well written and I was intrigued by the descriptions of the city and relationships between the neighbors enough to read it through. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy.

I liked this book more after I finished it then while I was reading it. The writing is good but the story moved slow and at times seemed so trite. The ending pulled it all together and had me thinking about its message after finishing the book.

The story is set in Manhattan in a small upper class neighborhood. Nora and Charlie live with their grown children who are ready to head off to college. They are living the American dream with a nanny/housekeeper, careers, and no financial worries. They've drifted apart over the years which doesn't become apparent until a neighborhood incident has them taking opposite sides. For the first time in a long time, they see each other differently and realize that their future desires take them in different directions.

It's an interesting perspective on how little people know themselves or their partners and how fragile relationships can be.

An act of violence exposes the fragility of relationships in a close knit neighborhood in New York's upper west side. A great choice to stimulate discussion at your book club.

I love Anna Quindlen and when I saw her new book on Netgalley I scooped it up. Alternate Side is all about a dead end street in New York City and the families that live there. Specifically Nora and Charlie and their fraternal twins, Rachel and Oliver. I guess I was so excited to read this that I didn’t look at the summary when I requested it because I was shocked at the turning point on the block. Something bad happens and the ripples from that event change Nora, her home, her family, her job and her marriage. Basically everything. Through all of this though Nora and Quindlen are writing a love letter to New York City. After the event, and even before, Charlie wants to leave the city. Nora refuses. It is her city. She can’t fathom leaving and being herself somewhere else. This is what I loved most. I loved the characters and the story but because I love NYC so much I basically loved all the praise towards it. So beautifully written. However, I hate this cover. The whole location of the book revolves around Nora living on a dead end street in New York City. A lot of the plot surrounds this. And yet the cover, what I assume to be a street diagram, does not display a dead end street anywhere. It could be a road map to anything. I do not like it. One bit.