Nursery Crimes...
Written: Nov 22 '02 (Updated Nov 28 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Entertaining, thought-provoking, great characters
Cons: Nary a one.
The Bottom Line: A great series from a wonderful author.
|
|
|
| murasaki's Full Review: Ayelet Waldman - Nursery Crimes |
I was in the mood for something light after some of the weightier topics I’ve been reading lately for my classes. I had heard of Ayelet (pronounced I-yell-it) Waldman, mostly because of her husband, but did not decide to check out her books until I ran across the author herself in a book forum on the internet. I am, however, glad that I did.
The Plot
Juliet Applebaum is a Harvard Law graduate and former LA public defender who gave it all up to stay at home after the birth of her daughter Ruby. She’s married to a screenwriter who’s a participatory father; their daughter is a smart two and a half year old with definite opinions; Juliet has a solid marriage and she’s eight months pregnant with their second child (a boy). What could possibly be wrong? Juliet is bored out of her mind.
The book opens with Juliet, Peter and Ruby on their way to an interview with “the” premiere nursery school in Los Angeles. Two other couples and their children attend the interview with them. Ruby doesn’t get in. Neither does the child of a studio magnate, Bruce LeCrone, who threatens the school’s founder and principal, Abigail Hathaway. Peter defuses the situation and the families go home. That evening, Abigail Hathaway dies in a hit and run accident.
Juliet’s not so sure the hit-and-run is an accident and she starts poking around. First she ingratiates herself with the LeCrone child’s nanny, then she starts following Abigail Hathaway’s New Age husband after his strange behavior toward his stepdaughter, Audrey, at Abigail’s funeral. More than one person, it seems, wanted Abigail dead.
Elements of Style
Waldman narrates her story through Juliet’s eyes and her laugh-out-loud internal commentary. Nothing is sacred from Juliet’s candor, from the I’m-so-fat feelings of advanced pregnancy to a harried mom’s secret pleading for two minutes alone to intentionally manipulating her husband with the merest mention of sanitary napkins. Juliet is at once confident in her abilities, but conflicted about motherhood and whether she’s a “good” mom, even if she yells from time to time. She wants to give her daughter the best, but is slowly beginning to realize that she’s not her best self when she has no outside interests.
The plot moves along at a brisk pace and I devoured the entire book in a few sittings. I did figure out the murderer before Juliet seemed to catch on, but primarily because I’ve read a lot of mysteries and there weren’t that many characters to eliminate. For me, though, the plot has secondary consideration. I was riveted to this book because Juliet is such a fascinating character. She’s contradictory with a frankness that makes her seem like a real person.
Quite obviously, Waldman is an ardent feminist (so am I), and it comes through in her writing, though not in a preachy or alienating way. The whole idea of the stay-at-home mother is based on a 19th century social construct after the rise of a middle class society; this construct, however anachronistic, has stuck around and still informs the way women are viewed by society, especially when they are also mothers. Juliet’s observations of her reality are succinct and full of common sense, and Waldman does an excellent job of navigating the treacherous issue of whether women should stay at home with their kids or continue to work. Waldman maintains respect and approval for a variety of choices and does not condemn women who work as “bad mothers” or infantilize stay-at-home-moms as women who can’t cut the job market or are submissive moochers.
Overall
Waldman and/or her publisher are calling her series, so far three books following Juliet’s adventures, “Mommy-Track Mysteries.” I like the marketing ploy as well as the play on words with Mommy Track and with the titles of the books I’ve read so far (Nursery Crimes and The Big Nap). Before I was halfway into Nursery Crimes, I knew that I’d be adding Waldman and Mommy-Track Mysteries to my list of authors/series that I follow and snatch up as soon as they’re published. Although Nursery Crimes seemed as though it would be “light” reading, there’s a whole lot more going on--and that’s a good thing.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
murasaki
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: here, there, everywhere
Reviews written: 176
Trusted by: 157 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.