Elsey Come Home is a pretty quick read that manages to pack a punch. It explores the challenges of marriage, motherhood, and addiction in a manner that's likely to be relatable to most (even if you're none of these things). The novel starts with Elsey getting ready to go on a yoga retreat that her husband has strongly encouraged her to attend. We get the feeling that Elsey's husband is at his wits end and that their marriage will be in danger if she doesn't attempt to make some changes. This book was so easy to identify with, as we all have questioned aspects of our lives as we grow up and change.

Elsey Come Home is the story of a woman whose husband is fed up with her drinking and aimlessly floating through her days and asks her to check into a mountain retreat that will supposedly help calm her anxieties.
While the plot is good and Elsey is an interesting character, it seems that the inner structure of the story isn't completely fleshed out. We never get a sense of who Elsey truly is and it's hard to bond with her at any level.
The book is worth reading, but probably keep your expectations low.

This quiet novel of a woman’s growth out of darkness into healing has received deserved accolades from Marie Claire, O Magazine, the Huffington Post, and many other publications.

Elsey, a once successful painter and mother of two young daughters in Beijing, China, manages emotional pain with frequent drinking. She is sent by her husband on an “or else” yoga retreat to try to save their marriage. There, she makes life-altering connections, as well as the difficult decision to return to her childhood home to confront the roots of her anguish. A moving, authentic and deeply absorbing story of the issues women face as they try to balance motherhood, marriage and personhood. 4/5

Pub Date 15 Jan 2019.

Thanks to the author, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#ElseyComeHome #NetGalley

Elsey's life unfolded from the very beginning in which her husband gave her tickets to go with him to a village, and that if she did not go with him, her marriage with him may be ruined. She has two kids, Myla and Elisabeth. Interestingly, the whole family lives in China. From the way Susan Conley described Elsey, it seemed as if Elsey was discontent with her day to day life. Her experiences into the retreat in the mountains of China, trying to overcome the barriers she set for herself, her alcoholism etc.
The books itself focused more on the development of the character and less of a story.

This feels more like a memoir than a novel. It's almost like reading someones journal entries. We bounce around inside Elsey's head with her as she faces an ultimatum from her husband, to go on a week-long mountain retreat, or accept that her marriage may be over. A major factor in this ultimatum is Elsey's drinking. Having quit drinking last year, I understood Elsey's struggle on a deep level, and I grew to like her a lot. The writing style is unique, and she creates a scene well. While slow at times, the overall story is enjoyable.

This novel propelled me into the world of Elsey, an expat American living in Beijing. Cultural crosscurrents of contemporary China (dissident art, rural life, personal freedom, friendship, relationships) weave through the main plot. Elsey gets lost in her roles as wife and mother, heads to a rural village for a yoga retreat (prodded by her husband) and eventually finds her way back to a new way of being in the world. There are subtexts of alcohol addiction, career vs. motherhood, marital tension, unresolved childhood grief, and exploration (yoga, hiking, nature, artistic imagination, friendship). The tone of the book is wryly humorous while excavating serious themes. Will appeal to any housewife who has wondered what it would be like to run away, if only for a week. Emotionally resonant for those experiencing the wilds of midlife motherhood.

At Elsey's husband's insistence she checks her self in to a yoga/rehab due to her excessive drinking. To me this felt like a very quiet and an emotional novel, at times I had trouble keeping the character straight . Somehow I just never clicked with Elsie and her problems, that being said I didn't finish this book and I want to thank you for my advanced copy.

Susan Conley’s <i>Elsey Come Home</i> revolves around alcoholism, marriage, and motherhood. Maine-born and -bred Elsey lives in Beijing with Lukas, her Danish electronic musician husband and their two young daughters. Elsey tells us that <i>”. . . I didn’t know how to be in a marriage. A real marriage. I’m not sure he did, either.”</i> Once a commercially successful artist represented by no less than Saatchi, Elsey has stopped painting. Her recovery from thyroid surgery and her recurring arm pain sap her energy, leaving her unable to paint and with limited attention for her daughters. She seeks solace and obliteration in alcohol. Hoping to jolt Elsey out of her downward self-destructive cycle and to remove her from easy access to alcohol, her husband gives her a week’s yoga retreat in Shashan, a remote village. Elsey’s reluctant to go, but <i>”she felt it was crucial and that things in. . . [her] marriage were at stake”</i>. Despite her disdain for the predictable rituals of the retreat—the talking circle, the day of silence—it helps to generate in Elsey the wherewithal and resolve eventually to right herself. <I>Elsey Come Home</i> feels heartfelt and ultimately optimistic: Conley’s Elsey is its most understandable and convincing character. Three stars.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf for providing me with an e-copy of <i>Elsey Come Home</i> in exchange for a review.

A pretty decent read for me. I felt more invested in some parts and less in others, but overall a strong read. I really liked the idea and concept for this book. I think we all wish to just escape and find ourselves when we have difficult things happen to us in life, and I enjoyed Elsey's journey. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my free copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was all about the quality of the writing for me. Dark, spare and deliberately simple, with occasional bursts of the profound. I also love a good anti-hero, and Elsey ticks that box in every possible way. The plot is slow-moving, but I found myself so invested in Elsey that I couldn't put this one down. Highly recommend.

I had a hard time getting into the story of Elsey as she is struggling through the conflict of now that she was a mother she could no longer be an artist. The conflict caused her to drink and the drink some more. Her husband suggests she go on a retreat to find her identity and perhaps sober up.

This book was okay...sometimes a little boring with too many characters and then the main characters lacked depth.

It’s possible that there is just too much going on in this book. There is Elsey – wry, clever, falling apart Elsey – an artist who has lost her will to paint in the wake of motherhood. There is Elsey’s alcohol problem, which her DJ husband decides to solve by sending her to a retreat in the Chinese mountains. (They live in China, it should be mentioned.) There are the fellow lost souls she meets there, and Elsey’s long-buried trauma, and her feelings of unworthiness. And all the time you’re worried about those kids. It’s definitely an interesting book, one to keep you reading and one that raises some questions about how to fit yourself into someone else’s life without disappearing completely. But it just has a lot going on. It’s wonderfully-written, though, and life as an expat in China is captured pretty much perfectly. – Maura Tan

3 1/2 stars.

This review appears in Romantic Intentions Quarterly #4.

Not quite my cup of tea even though the writing was good and the setting (Bejing) interesting. But the story couldn't captivate me.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Raw novel about a woman's struggle with alcoholism while trying to balance her marriage, motherhood, and her career.

I enjoyed reading a depiction of motherhood that was not all sunshine and roses! Excellent depiction of a woman struggingly as a woman, artist and mother. Having it set in China was interesting too.