Jennifer Weiner scored a major hit with her first novel, “Good in Bed.”
That was followed by “In Her Shoes,” made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette.
Now she continues her successful run with “The Guy Not Taken” (Atria, 304 pages, $25), a compilation of 11 short stories, some which Weiner wrote recently, others as early as when she was a teenager.
The stories are a readable mix of love, angst, disappointment and hope.
She arranges the stories chronologically, beginning with young Josie Krystal, on break after her first year at college, and ending with Dora, a retiree living in Florida.
“I think each one illustrates a particular moment in a character’s life and illuminates the choices men and women make about how they love, and who, and why,” she writes.
“Tour of Duty,” which Weiner wrote in 1992, tells the story of mother and son Marion and Jason Meyers on a road trip to visit Ivy League colleges.
The tension builds until Marion bursts out with the reason why Jason’s father hasn’t accompanied them on the trip.
“She drew another shaking breath, let it out slowly and said what she hadn’t let herself say for days since Hal had told her. `It’s just that your father is moving out.’
“For a moment the two of them stood silently, looking at each other, posed like swimmers at the end of the pool, holding on to the concrete ledge, readying themselves for the turn. In the distance, Marion could hear the staccato rhythms of a campus tour, the gunshot of the guide’s high heels along the slate path, the rhythm of questions and answers.”
In “Oranges From Florida,” Weiner views a broken marriage through the eyes of the husband, who is so eager for companionship that he may just lose a second chance for love.
“The Mother’s Hour” focuses on the current standards that “parents hold themselves up to, the way mothers judge themselves and one another, the debate between working versus stay-at-home mothers, those who stay in the city versus those who go to the suburbs, those who hire nannies versus those who opt for day care,” Weiner says.
The end result of that debate is Weiner’s troubling story about a young mother who’s harshly judged by a mother’s group because she’s different from the other moms, even though her child is a model citizen compared with their offspring.
If you weren’t previously a fan of Weiner’s, you will be after reading her latest.
