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okiecozyreader's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
What happens when two women accidentally end up with each other’s bags? And do their shoes change their identities and how people see them?
In this book, like in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan or Vanity Fair by Thackeray, this one started off as a short story in the collection Paris for One, originally written for a women’s fashion magazine about a woman who picks up the wrong gym bag. She wanted to write something lighter and it evolved into this book - what happened to the other woman?
Nisha, who owned a fancy, one of a kind set of Louboutins is left with a plain pair of worn shoes. She arrives back at her hotel to an angry husband who pronounces he wants a divorce and leaves her with only the bathrobe she has on, and even refuses to let her get any of her things out of the hotel.
Meanwhile, Sam is making some presentations, and with the fancy shoes, she becomes more confident and alluring. But her husband, in the midst of depression hardly notices her or the difficulties of her job.
Both are mothers of a single child, who they desperately love. Like in Giver of Stars, this becomes a story of female friendship (in this case in the “solidarity of middle aged women”) and the power of women supporting other women. At the age of 40 or 50, everyone is the survivor of something (about 14 min in below video)
“Who are we when are stripped away of our armor?” “Who are we when we are, literally, forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?”
“Who are we without our uniforms?” “Who are we once everything that is familiar is stripped away?”
“The people who love you take away the armor.” Laura Dave
Loved this interview with Laura Dave for Warwicks Books: https://youtu.be/bSOjrmkAOR8
From book:
“Strength - real strength - is not doing what someone asks you, necessarily. Strength is turning up every day to a situation that is intolerable, unbearable even, just or support the people you love. Strength is being in that terrible room hour after hour even though every cell in your body is telling you it’s too much for you to cope with.” P218 (this is said to one more minor character, but I feel like it relates to all the main characters of the book)
“She feels faintly stupid as she speaks, as if everyone is looking at her, as if it is obvious that she is a middle-aged woman in somebody else’s shoes.” P11
“Nisha Cantor, a woman used to turning heads for twenty-five heads, has donned a cheap black top and nylon trousers and, in her service apron, completely disappeared.” P127
In this book, like in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan or Vanity Fair by Thackeray, this one started off as a short story in the collection Paris for One, originally written for a women’s fashion magazine about a woman who picks up the wrong gym bag. She wanted to write something lighter and it evolved into this book - what happened to the other woman?
Nisha, who owned a fancy, one of a kind set of Louboutins is left with a plain pair of worn shoes. She arrives back at her hotel to an angry husband who pronounces he wants a divorce and leaves her with only the bathrobe she has on, and even refuses to let her get any of her things out of the hotel.
Meanwhile, Sam is making some presentations, and with the fancy shoes, she becomes more confident and alluring. But her husband, in the midst of depression hardly notices her or the difficulties of her job.
Both are mothers of a single child, who they desperately love. Like in Giver of Stars, this becomes a story of female friendship (in this case in the “solidarity of middle aged women”) and the power of women supporting other women. At the age of 40 or 50, everyone is the survivor of something (about 14 min in below video)
“Who are we when are stripped away of our armor?” “Who are we when we are, literally, forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?”
“Who are we without our uniforms?” “Who are we once everything that is familiar is stripped away?”
“The people who love you take away the armor.” Laura Dave
Loved this interview with Laura Dave for Warwicks Books: https://youtu.be/bSOjrmkAOR8
From book:
“Strength - real strength - is not doing what someone asks you, necessarily. Strength is turning up every day to a situation that is intolerable, unbearable even, just or support the people you love. Strength is being in that terrible room hour after hour even though every cell in your body is telling you it’s too much for you to cope with.” P218 (this is said to one more minor character, but I feel like it relates to all the main characters of the book)
“She feels faintly stupid as she speaks, as if everyone is looking at her, as if it is obvious that she is a middle-aged woman in somebody else’s shoes.” P11
“Nisha Cantor, a woman used to turning heads for twenty-five heads, has donned a cheap black top and nylon trousers and, in her service apron, completely disappeared.” P127
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, and Sexual harassment