A review by katiez624
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
5.0
This book is an absolute delight! From the first page, we watch the interesting dynamic between Graham and his wife Audra, who enjoys having conversations with everyone she encounters. Audra is a vivacious and charming gossip and is partial to dishing out white lies in social situations. But for Graham, her ceaseless verbosity and flippancy are difficult to relate to or keep up with. As an introvert myself, with a husband who loves lengthy goodbyes, certain scenarios between the couple resonated deeply with me.
When Graham happens to run into his ex-wife, Elspeth, his curiosity is piqued as to how he could have chosen two distinctly different women for marriage. This book paints a vivid picture of how marriages evolve over time, fidelity, divorce, and realizing no one is a perfect fit for another person. Growth and sacrifice from both partners are crucial to maintaining a healthy marriage. The narrative also delves deeply into caring for a special needs child and the challenges associated with that. The tone is light throughout, but still offers a plethora of insights and astute commentary on life.
The banter in this book is done impressively well. The incessant chatter of Audra and Graham's inner dialogue gives the reader a glimpse into their marriage and their individual personalities. The observational humor infused throughout comes across as organic and pithy and thoroughly entertaining.
This is not a plot-driven novel, which may explain the rather low rating it has received. But this book is undeniably well-written, somewhat random and quirky in its approach, and gives a fascinating take on marriage and parenthood.
When Graham happens to run into his ex-wife, Elspeth, his curiosity is piqued as to how he could have chosen two distinctly different women for marriage. This book paints a vivid picture of how marriages evolve over time, fidelity, divorce, and realizing no one is a perfect fit for another person. Growth and sacrifice from both partners are crucial to maintaining a healthy marriage. The narrative also delves deeply into caring for a special needs child and the challenges associated with that. The tone is light throughout, but still offers a plethora of insights and astute commentary on life.
The banter in this book is done impressively well. The incessant chatter of Audra and Graham's inner dialogue gives the reader a glimpse into their marriage and their individual personalities. The observational humor infused throughout comes across as organic and pithy and thoroughly entertaining.
War is hell, yes; but so is Cub Scouts. Or at least being the parent of a Cub Scout is. A subtler kind of hell where the people have no sense of irony, and they make you go camping in cold weather, and you have to carve small race cars out of blocks of wood, and sing songs that have a lot of verses, and attend den meetings, and help your child obtain all sorts of useless (and nearly unobtainable) badges. And then, after years of encouraging your kid to like Cub Scouts, you have to quick discourage him from liking it around age twelve so it doesn't adversely affect his social life. Plus, they ban alcohol.
This is not a plot-driven novel, which may explain the rather low rating it has received. But this book is undeniably well-written, somewhat random and quirky in its approach, and gives a fascinating take on marriage and parenthood.