So this is a strange book. It's about affluence/wealth, work, motherhood, family dynamics and the complex friendships between women, which sounds really up my alley, but this wasn't a four star book -- more like 3-1/2. It sounded right up my alley and Iiked it, but can't say I would recommend it. Sometimes it was uncomfortable to read, it was very raw and almost too real.

Elizabeth is not a happy camper. She seems to be in a happy marriage and has two young children, but is weighed down by the challenges in her life (and there are many) and only seems truly happy when she is running in the early morning or ruminating about her childhood friend, Sasha.

In Want, and through the author’s stream of conscious writing style, we’re absorbed into Elizabeth’s life and understand what she wants from life: financial stability, a job she likes where she can earn a decent living and have health insurance, and resolving a long standing fractured relationship. This writing style could be confusing at times but reflected the conflicts in her life and her strong need to try and resolve her wants.

Want is an interesting book and she tackles a number of timely issues with themes of dysfunctional family relationships, the “business” of education today, sexual harassment in higher education, the struggle to live in a large city, and the challenges faced by people who are highly educated but low paid.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Company for the opportunity to read Want in exchange for an honest review.

A perfect read for the times. As a full time working mom, I could relate well to the main character in wanting and longing for things outside my current familial role. I read this in one morning and thoroughly enjoyed.

This book felt like living inside the main character's brain. As though it was her stream of consciousness had been put on paper for us to follow. The character, Elizabeth, is in her early 30s, married, with two kids, and two jobs. Living in NYC she is over educated and underpaid. This is easy to relate to no matter where you live if you are of a certain age. Those of us raised in the 80s and 90s have been set up to believe higher education is a must and saddled ourselves with student loan debt. Then our parents are often shocked to learn we're all in debt up to our eyeballs. Elizabeth and her husband are no exception. Elizabeth's parents are wealthy though and would probably bail them out had Elizabeth not screamed at them and cut them out of her life for a bit. The money struggles are a part of this story of want. The other want Elizabeth has is the return of her childhood friend, Sasha. As a woman this is also easy to relate to - having a close friend in our youth only to grow apart as adulthood responsibilities take over. Elizabeth does what every person in this day and age does -stalk Sasha on social media. They do reunite in a way, but it's not the level Elizabeth misses from her youth. Overall this story definitely shows the many wants of modern day life. As we are still in the midst of a pandemic and people have learned to live with less of everything I wonder if our wants will lessen also. Or at least turn into wanting more simple things like human connection over the material things we've all been trained to chase.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

A novel about being trapped in exactly the life you were privileged enough to lead. The narrator of this novel, 34 year old Elizabeth, is white and has a Ph.D., but she works as an adjunct and, without insurance, has been bankrupted by a Caesarian and bad teeth. Her husband has a few more degrees of freedom...but this isn't a novel of overt resentment over women's lives overrun by children an responsibilities, so much as it is a relentlessly truthful, ruthlessly intelligent story of a woman looking at her life and asking: "Is it worth it?" and finding out that her answer is 'yes.'

Favorite quote: “We cannot live outside the systems and the structures, but, it turns out, I cannot live within them either anymore.”

That sounds fairly bleak, as far as life philosophies go, only Elizabeth is insightful enough to understand that her ability to experience her own life fully as she lives it, day to day, is exactly what makes it meaningful

I typically love books that are character-driven, but for me to enjoy stories with little plot I have to actually care about something related to the novel. With "Want," I didn't particularly care about any of the characters, including the protagonist.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a riveting account of female rage and unhappiness. The narrator, who remains nameless for most of the book, slips in and out of past and present, friendships and jobs in one of the better streams of consciousness I've read recently. I really enjoyed this one.

What on the surface appears to be a random assortment of thoughts and diary entry-ish musings is actually a heart breaking story of the things we WANT but give up for one reason or another.

Lynn tells this story in a stream of consciousness narrative. There are not set chapters, there is not a setup to a problem (it is known from the early pages Elizabeth and her family as in financial trouble), there isn't a happy resolution and there is no tidy wrap up at the end. This is just life, it is messy and layered and that is reflected fully in this novel.

The story follows Elizabeth who grew up wanting for nothing and is now in bankruptcy, in a job she hates and doesn't fit in and has lost touch with her best friend all while dealing with crippling depression, parental disappointment and the looming burden of being unable to provide for her children. It is an honest reflection of what how hard it can be to have what you want line up with reality.

Elizabeth is smart, Ivy league graduate smart. Devours books in single sittings. Completely undone by her inability to cope with life sometimes and yet she is funny, loves her kids and her husband is daily just tries not to succumb to the panic ever lurking in her veins. She is almost every woman I have ever known at some point in their lives.

As women we fight to be everything to everyone. It was so validating to read about a woman who admits it is impossible to be that without it causing you to loose part of yourself in the process. I found myself nodding and saying "ugggh yes this...omg yes this" over and over.

This won't be like other books you read. As I said it is written in a flowing prose that can feel like it is wondering all over the place but really if you hang on it finds its way back. And aren't' we all like that? Just trying to hang on, doing our best for those we love, all while feeling like a fish flopping on a deck trying to catch our breath.

Thank you first to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC of Want by Lynn Steger Strong. I thought that the character of Elizabeth - her simmering fury, frustration, exhaustion and the myriad ways she is just barely holding it all together - leapt so intuitively and realistically off the page. The novel is written in an incredibly introspective, rambling thought-consciousness form of first person. It is Elizabeth’s innermost thoughts, jumping from the present to the far and recent past as we see all the ways in which her life goes farther and farther off its expected track. We don’t know her name until almost the very end, or that of her husband or children ever in this book. We are too deep inside her head to need her name and her husband is simply ‘my husband.’ Her children ‘the four year old’ and ‘the two year old.’ While this might seem impersonal, it reads as somehow more introspective as this is how she refers to them in her head, in the thoughts that fly wildly. Elizabeth’s exhaustion is palpable in this book - she is tired of her two jobs which she and her husband need to make ends meet, tired of raising her two little ones one of whom is still nursing, tired of the roles that as women we are thrust into without ever asking us permission: mother, wife, friend, caregiver, nurturer, teacher. And she is ashamed and angry that she and her husband naively squandered away the life of affluence and privilege that they were born into. And yet even still, she is self aware enough to realize, perhaps because of the school where she teaches, one in which all the children are students of color, that her life with its debts and daily worries is still inherently an easier one based on her race. There is so much going on in this novel - topics of class, race, domestic issues, ownership. I thought it was incredibly well done. These are huge issues and yet I read this book in a day, but it never made light of them. A very thought-provoking novel.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Want by Lynn Steger Strong. First-the cover is absolutely beautiful! This story follows thirty-something Elizabeth, who is a married mother of two children. She teaches at a middle school by day, where she often feels disconnected with her younger co-workers, and then teaches one evening course at a nearby college. Juggling life as a mom, wife, teacher, and everything else is becoming more overwhelming by the day. In the midst of everything, Elizabeth and her husband are having problems with money and end up filing for bankruptcy. While all this is going on, we are introduced to Sasha, who was a close friend to Elizabeth while they both were growing up. Elizabeth has barely kept in touch with Sasha over the years-meaning a glance here or there at Sasha’s sister’s social media page to see what Sasha has been up to. On a whim she reaches out and texts Sasha.and they begin to reconnect. As they begin to chat, Elizabeth realizes she isn’t the only one struggling. Want is an interesting book. As a mother of two middle grade students, I could relate in many ways. I understand a lot of her rage and frustration with daily life. I did feel the story line became a little disjointed as it went back and forth between the present and past with her friendship with Sasha. Overall I did enjoy the book and look forward to other works by Strong.

A very timely book about a privileged woman who is dealing with real-life problems and is ill-equipt to deal with them. She chose to go into a profession that doesn't afford her the lifestyle she once had and that she seems to assume was her right. It was hard to identify with her but I think a lot of (mostly white) women feel a lot like her--entitled and shocked that what they are doing isn't enough to get what they bizarrely feel is their birthright.

This one was a little bit too character driven for me. I might give it another chance later, character driven novels are not working for me during corana.

*Thank you to Net Galley and Henry Holt and Company for this advance copy*

Want reads like the never ending stream of consciousness of Elizabeth, a wife and mother of two girls who teaches at a charter high school by day and moonlights as a professor one evening a week. Despite her two jobs, they're about to declare bankruptcy.

Elizabeth appreciates what she has: a loving husband committed to his family and two intelligent and beautiful daughters. She lacks satisfaction in her job, struggles to have a positive relationship with her parents, and, most of all, she misses her friendship with Sasha, her best friend from childhood. Her narration alternates between present day events and the moments when her friendship with Sasha was falling apart.

I really enjoyed the style of this book. The narration is almost poetic. Elizabeth's a very relatable character with reasonable wants and needs. She doesn't hate her life, but she doesn't love it either. She's flawed, and while some of her moves made me anxious, they turned out to be the right choice for her.

This book made me think of friendships of mine that have fallen apart and how I contributed to them. It also made me reflect and appreciate what I have while also recognizing that it's okay to want more.

Read this in two sittings, was completely entranced and amazed by the voice and story. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time and can't wait to talk to others about it. A complete original that is so timely and necessary.

Elizabeth comes from a privileged background, has a doctoral Ivy League education, and is trying to support her family while her husband aims to have his dream career. She’s working two jobs—at a charter high school in the Bronx and then as a professor in the evenings— to still come home and be a mother to two small children. It’s about the struggle to be female right now, relatable and real.
Told from Elizabeth’s point of view, it read like she was divulging her deepest desires: the want of financial security, the want for a partner to mutually support and understand, the want of feeling fulfilled professionally and the want of friendship as she lays out her history with her oldest friend Sasha.
I love a character study and I appreciate a book that really connects emotionally. I devoured this on Monday and I’m still thinking about it. •
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Wow! This read like a memoir, and was so fantastic. It is a woman reinventing herself during midlife that I think so many readers can relate to. Pick up this book ASAP!

I really wanted to like this, but I just felt very bothered by the main character and couldn't get past it to really get into the book. Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC.

This book isn't what I thought it was going to be. The overall plot was pretty basic. It was also shockingly predictable. I knew exactly what was going to happen less than 50 pages in. The main thing that irked was the writing style. I had to re-read every other sentence like 3 times because the writing was so clunky and confusing. I also didn't like the main character. She was so desperate, whiny, and immature. I'm tired of female protagonists bitching about their "imperfect" lives every five minutes. Enough is enough. The cover art was the best thing about this book.

Thank you, Netgalley and Henry Holt for the digital ARC.

Release date: July 7, 2020

44 // “I want everything both ways all the time and I’m tired of feeling sorry for this.”
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WANT is a book that explores both what we want and also the cost of wanting. Elizabeth is trying to do it all and be it all as a wife and a mother, while also working two jobs, but she finds herself wanting more—financial stability, meaningful work, deeper relationships. I loved the reading experience of this book namely because of the contrast between the mundane, daily life Elizabeth is living and the deep things she’s struggling with: motherhood, mental health, broken friendships, and economic privilege. 4/5 ⭐️—I liked it!

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.
I like that it opens with a story of adolescent female friendship… but the sentence that really got me was from the following chapter that is still very close to the beginning of the novel:
“My body is outside the halo of hot water and my skin mottles and I shiver and am cold as I wait for him to come.”
This novel is doing a lot of work from the beginning but it’s read with ease. This will be a fun summer read.