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A review by infinite_kay
The Smart One by Jennifer Close
3.0
I wasn't sure about The Smart One when I started reading it. Claire and Martha, Weezy's daughters, weren't characters I really liked or could really relate too. Both of them were clearly depressed (not clinically, just in a "life is hard" way) and there wasn't much joy in their life - which ironically, made them a bit judgmental.
But then we get to Cleo - and that's when I got really hooked into the novel. I guess it shows my current passion for YA fiction, since Cleo is the youngest of the girls. Still in college, she is the girlfriend of the youngest child in the family, Max. She wasn't perfect, either, keeping people at a distance and being slightly impulsive; but she also seemed to have a big heart and a head on her shoulders, so I was immediately drawn to her character.
I found it interesting that the author chose to write from the point of view of Cleo rather than Max. She's not part of the family, exactly; Weezy finds her too beautiful for her son (she will obviously break his heart!) and the sisters are sort of intimidated by her and a little bit distant. She's only the college girlfriend, after all! But having the narration telling her side of the story was very interesting. First, because it offered a different appreciation of the family, and second, because it made The Smart One less about family, and more about the different relationships between sisters, women, mothers and daughters. The men in the story are, in fact, very secondary to them all.
I think that, from the cover and the summary, I expected something a little lighter. It's a pleasant surprise though that Jennifer Close gave complexity to her characters. I do wish all of their anxieties would have been balanced by a few more happier or funnier moments. The book was surprisingly... cynical, I guess? For instance, I was expecting Claire to heal and get into a huge romance, but instead, she spends most of her time with a divorced guy who lives in his parents' basement. So the book was definitely more realistic, and less "romantic fantasy".
In the end, The Smart One was a pleasant read, even though its characters weren't always so pleasant (but that's life, too!) I think many women and young women could relate to the book, whether they are mothers, sisters, daughters - or a little of each.
But then we get to Cleo - and that's when I got really hooked into the novel. I guess it shows my current passion for YA fiction, since Cleo is the youngest of the girls. Still in college, she is the girlfriend of the youngest child in the family, Max. She wasn't perfect, either, keeping people at a distance and being slightly impulsive; but she also seemed to have a big heart and a head on her shoulders, so I was immediately drawn to her character.
I found it interesting that the author chose to write from the point of view of Cleo rather than Max. She's not part of the family, exactly; Weezy finds her too beautiful for her son (she will obviously break his heart!) and the sisters are sort of intimidated by her and a little bit distant. She's only the college girlfriend, after all! But having the narration telling her side of the story was very interesting. First, because it offered a different appreciation of the family, and second, because it made The Smart One less about family, and more about the different relationships between sisters, women, mothers and daughters. The men in the story are, in fact, very secondary to them all.
I think that, from the cover and the summary, I expected something a little lighter. It's a pleasant surprise though that Jennifer Close gave complexity to her characters. I do wish all of their anxieties would have been balanced by a few more happier or funnier moments. The book was surprisingly... cynical, I guess? For instance, I was expecting Claire to heal and get into a huge romance, but instead, she spends most of her time with a divorced guy who lives in his parents' basement. So the book was definitely more realistic, and less "romantic fantasy".
In the end, The Smart One was a pleasant read, even though its characters weren't always so pleasant (but that's life, too!) I think many women and young women could relate to the book, whether they are mothers, sisters, daughters - or a little of each.