'Fly Away Home' entertaining, but perhaps inappropriate for family time

In preparation for a 28-hour (roundtrip) car trip with my folks to the St. Louis area for my cousin's wedding last weekend, I went to the local library and checked out four audiobooks. I picked the last in the Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (which I'd been meaning to read anyway); Jennifer Weiner's "Fly Away Home" (chick lit - sure to please my mom); John Irving's latest, "Last Night In Twisted River," which clocked in at an impressive 24 hours (but I feared we might not finish during the trip); and Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol," a thriller I thought might hold my stepdad's interest.

Before we set off, I let my mom choose which book she'd like to listen to for the trip. (It was her car, after all). She picked Weiner's novel, "Fly Away Home," read by actress Judith Light. The novel (Simon & Schuster, 2011, 432 pp., trade paperback, $17. Audio version currently selling for about $30 on Amazon.com) promised to occupy 14 hours of our trip.

Mom wasn't familiar with Weiner's books, but her interest was piqued when I told her that the author had worked, for a time in the 1990s, as a reporter for her local State College newspaper, The Centre Daily Times. I also mentioned that Weiner's novel "In Her Shoes" had been made into a movie featuring Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz, and Shirley MacLaine. Mom didn't recall seeing the movie, but she was sold.

And so we started off on a beautiful, unseasonably warm fall day, heading east on Route 80 and acquainting ourselves with the Woodruff family. The novel is told, in turn, from the view points of Sylvie (Serfer) Woodruff, 57, a senator's wife and judge's daughter, and her two grown daughters, Diana and Lizzie.

Click here to see a video of Weiner and Light talking about the book.
Click here for a YouTube recording of the first chapter. Here you can read the first chapter.

Sylvie's life seems almost picture perfect. She's still very much in love with her husband of several decades, but her own desires have gotten lost in the shuffle of managing his life. Though Sylvie has a law degree, her job for year has been taking care of her husband, Richard. And, as she calls it, being a professional dieter to keep herself thin for photos and appearances.

Her daughter Diana, around 29, is a successful ER physician in Philly with a young son and a husband with a good career. Younger daughter Lizzie, 24, is a recovering drug addict, and is fresh out of rehab when we meet her.

Her husband Richard is a New York state senator, esteemed, popular and seemingly beyond reproach. But we discover pretty quickly that Richard has been having a dalliance with a much younger staffer. Sylvie has no idea about the transgression until the story breaks on TV one day, as she's traveling home from yet another day of being her husband's rock.

Let me pause here to add that I've read all of Weiner's novels except the latest one, "Then Came You," which was just published in July. I recall characters I could relate to, and some sexual innuendo, sure, in the books with names such as "Good in Bed" and "Certain Girls." But I never expected some of the language I heard while whizzing down the interstate in the car with my mom and stepdad. I will not repeat these things, which would not have been so shocking had a not been sitting next to my ma. But be forewarned that there are some sexy passages in "Fly Away Home."

You see, Diana, for all her hard work and perfect life, is unsatisfied in her marriage. She's got a humdinger of an affair going on with a hunky younger guy at work. And they do it. A LOT. In ways that - and using language that - certainly had my stepdad taking interest in the story. And Lizzie, too, has some intimate moments, current and remembered, that got a little sticky while hearing about them an arm's distance from my 'rents.

At one point fairly early on that first day in the car, as I blushed at one of Diana's energetic encounters with her beau, I took out my iPhone and tweeted Weiner (who resides in the Philly area, by the way). She gamely responded. Here's that exchange:

mercbiz Michelle Karas @jenniferweiner Listening to the audiobook of "Fly Away Home" on a long car trip w/ my folks. My, there are a lot of sexy passages! #awkward Oct 06, 11:01 AM via Twitter for iPhone

jenniferweiner Jennifer Weiner @mercbiz Oof. A thousand pardons. It is not, in fact, fun for the whole family. Oct 06, 11:45 AM via Mobile Web

Nonetheless, I felt like the prude of the bunch on this car trip, for sure. My mom and stepdad became engrossed in the tale and didn't let some sexy writing get in the way of their enjoying the story. My stepdad actually learned the names of the characters and followed along. And not just for the juicy bits.

The family saga/love story that's both funny and sad is highly entertaining. It's several stories in one, blended together gracefully.

JENNIFER WEINER

I was quite impressed with the vocal stylings of Judith Light ("Who's The Boss?"), who did distinct voices for all the characters, which included Sylvie's hard-nosed, old-school Brooklyn-accented mother and her 6-year-old grandson, Milo.

In the end Sylvie makes choices that change her life and the lives of everyone in her family. The route she takes from the backseat of a limo screaming down the New Jersey turnpike while watching the shocking news about her husband's affair to making firm and empowered decisions about the fate of her marriage and her future is intriguing. This would be a great beach read or weekend escape.

I'd like to add that after the audiobook had run its course, and we were not quite back from our St. Louis trip (maybe somewhere in Ohio?), my stepdad said thoughtfully that there had to be more - he wanted to know more about the characters. He was especially concerned with what would become of Diana's "mouth-breathing" whiny husband, Gary, and about Lizzie and what would become of her. I'd say that makes a great story, when you want to know more.

"Fly Away Home" is worth the trip. But you may want to leave your parents at home.

About the author (from her website):

Jennifer Weiner was born in 1970 on an army base in Louisiana. She grew up in Connecticut and graduated with a degree in English literature from Princeton University in 1991. She worked as a newspaper reporter in central Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Philadelphia until the publication of her first novel in 2001, and has been a full-time fiction writer ever since.

Her books include GOOD IN BED (2001); IN HER SHOES (2002), which was turned into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine; LITTLE EARTHQUAKES, (2004); GOODNIGHT NOBODY (2005); the short story collection THE GUY NOT TAKEN (2006); CERTAIN GIRLS (2008), the sequel to GOOD IN BED, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (2009); FLY AWAY HOME (2010); and THEN CAME YOU (2011). She is also the co-creator and executive producer of the (now canceled) ABC Family show State of Georgia.

Weiner is married with two daughters and makes her home in Philadelphia. She's active on Twitter and, according to Wikipedia, Weiner is "known for 'live-tweeting' episodes of the reality dating shows "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette." (very true)  

Learn more about Weiner on her website.

Best Friends Forever

I wanted to read "Best Friends Forever " by Jennifer Weiner (Atria. 362 pp. $26.99) as soon as it was released this summer ... but I couldn't touch it at the Pottstown Library. The reserve list started in the hundreds.

So I waited. And waited (it's quite a rare occasion that I will buy a new book these days, and this was not one of them). Until finally one day last month my avid-reader boss, who had purchased a hardcover copy of the book, brought it into work to share.

I thoroughly enjoy Jennifer Weiner's books. They're the kind of engrossing, escapist chick lit reading you just want to tear through after a crappy day. She's a writing talent who intrigues me, as she wrote at my hometown paper, the Centre Daily Times, in the early 1990s and later was hired as a columnist and reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Here's someone who was once in my line of work and, well, made it ... in the bigtime sense.

The author makes Philly her home today. Check out her fun website, JenniferWeiner.com, to learn more about Weiner and her books, which include her debut "Good In Bed" and the more ubiquitous "In Her Shoes," made into a popular movie starring Toni Collette and and Cameron Diaz.

"Best Friends Forever" is the story of Addie and Val, who were best friends as girls who parted ways after some bad thing happened in high school. At the outset of the novel is their reunion, on the eve of their 15th high-school reunion, when Val shows up unannounced late at night at Addie’s door saying “Something horrible happened, and you’re the only one who can help.”

Weiner, a master of keeping her readers hanging from chapter to chapter, waits to reveal what exactly it was that made the girls take a 15-year hiatus from their friendship. We learn that both Addie and Val have undergone massive transformations over that time. Addie, who had been a chubby kid who ate her emotions, has lost a lot of weight and gained some healthy habits, such as eating right and exercising. Val has "blossomed" into a gorgeous yet shallow TV news personality who has a knack for using people to get what she wants.

This is where the story gets a little played out for me. In many of Weiner's previous novels, notably "In Her Shoes," this same theme has come up: Mildly unattractive girl with a heart of gold gets taken advantage of by her beautiful yet mean/troubled sister/friend. Unattractive girl has an epiphany of sorts and starts working out. Despite bad behavior of now morally reforming pretty bad-girl friend gets the guy. Bad-girl friend steps up to the plate in the end.

And there you have a basic sketch of what goes on in "BFF" - and other Weiner novels. Val gets Addie involved in a bunch of bad situations, steals/spends her money, nearly gets her arrested. Addie overcomes and comes out of it all with a new lease on life, her BFF back and a loving new BF.

On her blog, wittily named A Moment of Jen, Weiner says this book differs from her previous tomes in that it has a main male character. That would be Jordan Novick, the cop who ends up investigating Addie and Val. I have to agree, the male POV is new, and I liked it. Like Addie, he's a real person with real faults and an interesting past.

Despite having heard it all - or at least some of it - before, "Best Friends Forever" was a fun mind-candy kind of read. A nice digression from the more serious (boring, slow) books that have graced my nightstand lately. And so, as it's been since the day I finished reading her first novel, I look forward to whatever Weiner has coming out next and hope to run into her in Philly someday. I wonder if she salsas?

A long wait for my BFF

I just became the 124th Montgomery County resident to request Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, "Best Friends Forever," from the library system.

I'm a fan of Weiner's work, and am fascinated by the fact that she got her start at my hometown paper, The Centre Daily Times, then worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is now a wildly successful novelist. Pie in the sky? Perhaps not.

So I tried to persuade Simon and Shuster to mail me a free "review" copy of the book, which is just out this month. No dice. No. 124 it is.

Below is the Associated Press review of the book (the reporter didn't like it so much).

It might be some time before I can write my own...

'Best Friends Forever' - not Weiner's best book

By ALICIA RANCILIO

Associated Press Writer

"Best Friends Forever" (Simon & Schuster, 368 pages, $26.99), by Jennifer Weiner: Addie Downs and Valerie Adler became BFFs when they were both 9. Then something happened. And, as it goes with so many best friends, it was TTYN — talk to you never.

Jennifer Weiner introduces us to the lonely, single Addie in her newest exploration of women, friendship, relationships and the random emotions of life in "Best Friends Forever."

Addie, who lives in her parents' house and takes care of her damaged brother, searches for love on the Internet. Then, she gets an unexpected late night visit from her former childhood friend, Valerie, who needs Addie's help because Valerie may have seriously injured a former school classmate at their high school reunion. Unlike Addie, Valerie has built a successful career as a TV weather reporter.

Addie's parents have both died and her brother has a brain injury. She was very overweight until recently. (Weight, a problem that has challenged the author, is a recurring theme in Weiner's books from her very first, "Good in Bed.") Addie was made fun of so much as a child that she's isolated herself as an adult.

Weiner knows how to create characters that make you care about them. She mastered this from the get-go with "Good in Bed." There, lead character, Cannie Shapiro, was so likable she made a cameo in Weiner's second book as a wink to readers. And last year, Weiner published a sequel to Cannie's story called, "Certain Girls."

Addie Downs is similar to Cannie Shapiro in that she's got self-esteem issues and you want her to be OK. Valerie Adler is just the opposite: She's self-absorbed, flighty and where she's intended to be quirky she's annoying.

Once back in Addie's life, the two women leave town to figure out what happened. They again elevate each other to best friend status in a way that feels superficial, insincere and silly. Meanwhile, a detective investigating the case pieces together details about Addie's life and finds himself falling for her.

The book leaves you feeling as though Weiner thought her first draft was too long so she highlighted random chunks of detail and hit the delete button. There are conclusions that seem unnatural and poorly developed secondary characters, such as police officers investigating the case who seem unnecessary.

While Weiner's writing has heart, it falls flat and doesn't measure up to her previous works. She can do better. Much better.

Sadly, the plot doesn't pull you in the way "Good in Bed" and "In Her Shoes" do, and one endearing character can't save the story.