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Book Review of Fly Away Home

Fly Away Home
Fly Away Home
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
Bookfanatic avatar reviewed on


Some spoilers ahead... The plot could be taken from headline with which we're all too familiar. A Senator's wife is ashamed when a scandal erupts. Her powerful husband has cheated on her with a much younger aide. The infidelity affects not only his political ambition and the decades long marriage, but their two grown daughters as well. Each daughter has her own issues. The eldest is perfect child who ultimately became an ER doctor. The younger daughter is the troubled child in recovery from drug addiction. The wife sacrificed her own legal career to be the dutiful political wife and perfect aide to her husband. I didn't find the heroine all that sympathetic. She seemed clueless and stupid even though she is clearly well-educated. I felt sorry for the two daughters who seemed to have just been photo-ops in their father's career.Even so, the two daughters felt like caricatures. Their characters and the heroine's needed much more development as did the wayward husband's character. I didn't fully understand why he cheated and his remorse wasn't all that obvious. I would have loved to have discovered whether the heroine ultimately reconciled or not. The heroine's mother, a brash retired Judge from NYC, was one of my favorite characters in the book. I'd love to read a book where she's the focus!