Who knew? Molly Ringwald's debut, "novel in short stories" was published by Harper Collins, last year I think. It's a story that centers around Greta and Phillip, parents to one daughter, and the demise of their relationship due to infidelity. There are peripheral characters as well. Greta's Mom, Phillip's brother, and the people with whom they begin new relationships. Each chapter moves the story a little further away from Greta and Phillip's specific struggle, but they are all part of the rippling effect of that event in the first few pages.
Ringwald isn't going to win a Pulitzer for this book, but she hasn't embarrassed herself either. I don't need closure in stories or books, so that complaint that has been leveled at the novel didn't bother me. However, the other big complaint, that she spends more time telling you about the internal landscape of her characters than showing you anything real about them, is one with which I agree. It's not that the descriptions aren't compelling, it's just that they don't go anywhere. In fairness, that might also be because often times sadness and anger are immobilizing, but I found myself wanting to know more about what it looked like than what it felt like in places.
Ringwald is really good at Greta's anger and bitterness. Some of the lines she throws at her husband in the later stories, proof that she has not moved past the pain, are daggers. These moments seem very real. That after such disappointment and disloyalty, random anger would rear up displacing any short-lived peace experienced in a familial moment with your shared child. The seething rage "like a sliver embedded deep beneath the flesh, jagged and inflammatory, impossible to extract." You can almost see Andie standing in the hallway tears in her eyes as she confronts Blane about the prom. Honestly that's not fair, but it can be hard to separate the two when you're reading.
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