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Book Reviews of This Side of Married

This Side of Married
This Side of Married
Author: Rachel Pastan
ISBN-13: 9780143035435
ISBN-10: 0143035436
Publication Date: 5/31/2005
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 21

3.1 stars, based on 21 ratings
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

11 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

AshleyL avatar reviewed This Side of Married on + 35 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I think this had the potential to be a good book, but I just really couldn't stand it. I didn't care for the writing style, which to me seemed a little choppy and almost juvenile-sounding. The book was also full of strange similes and metaphors like "...his biceps taut under his skin like a mouse inside a snake," and "...a man who filled out his white coat nicely, like a sausage." What...? Not a complete waste of time, but I'm not eager to read more by this author.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 48 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very good. Light reading. This is her first book and I will be watching for more by her.
dbs avatar reviewed This Side of Married on + 329 more book reviews
This book was a nice read on a cold, grey Saturday afternoon.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 6 more book reviews
Wonderful book. Quick and easy read!
reviewed This Side of Married on + 40 more book reviews
Enjoyable read. Light yet a little complex.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 4 more book reviews
I loved listening to this audio CD so much that when I didn't finish it on my long car ride I had to finish listening to it at home! Great story with interesting characters, and well written. Any woman with a Jewish mother and sister(s) (or similar) will relate.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 43 more book reviews
A mother's consuming wish--that her three daughters be happily married! Ah, but real life does not always go as mother had planned. This book was a quick, easy read with fun characters. If you have sisters, or daughters, you should especially like this book.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 16 more book reviews
This book was really cute. A light read, nothing strenuous or anything I had to think hard about. I could just get caught up and enjoy!
skywriter319 avatar reviewed This Side of Married on + 784 more book reviews
Honestly, Jane Austen spinoffs and retellings are hard to pull off, and I have yet to find one that matches the real Austen. Rachel Pastan's debut novel is no different: it's a rather bland walk-through of the beloved PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, only set in modern-day Philadelphia and without the mostly useless Mary and Kitty.

Out of Dr. Evelyn Rubin's three grown daughters, only the middle one, Isabel, is married, to a lawyer named Theo. Alice, at thirty-eight, is the eldest and never seems to have any luck when it comes to long-lasting, marriage-bound relationships. And Tina, twenty-nine, blissfully runs through men like shower water and has only two worries: herself, and her body.

All of a sudden, however, things begin to turn upside down. Alice gets together with a colleague of her mother's, Anthony Wolfe, who seems perfect and completely enchanted with Alice. Meanwhile, Isabel, struggling with her inability to conceive, begins to reevaluate her marriage to Theo and tries to figure out her identity, thanks to the goading of Anthony's smug friend, Simon Goldenstern, whom she takes an immediate dislike to once Simon pegs her as a "little missus" upon first meeting.

The ending is surprising and pleasant only to those who do not know how PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ends. The rest of us will simply be disappointed with how little Pastan's characters live up to who they're clearly based on.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 121 more book reviews
Great read!! It's her first novel so I'm looking for more from her.
reviewed This Side of Married on + 14 more book reviews
Mother tries to marry off each of her three daughters.