All Fall Down
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 23 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes her “best book yet” (Philadelphia Inquirer), a “compulsively readable” novel that shows “there’s no doubt Weiner knows how to deliver a certain kind of story, and well” (The New York Times Book Review).
Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician’s office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder…Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class…or if your husband ignores you? She tells herself that the pills help her make it through her days…but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that’s becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?
Hailed as “a witty, realistic criticism on the modern age” (Boston Herald), this remarkable story of a woman’s fall into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again is Jennifer Weiner’s most masterful, moving, and celebrated work yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestselling author Weiner (The Next Best Thing) takes us down the slippery slope of prescription drug addiction in this page-turning saga about a working mom, Allison Weiss, who uses pills to deal with recurrent pain, not to mention life's increasing challenges. These include being the family's major breadwinner; raising a difficult five-year-old daughter, Ellie; helping her mother deal with her father's worsening Alzheimer's; and maintaining a relationship with her ever-distant husband, Dave. While Weiner covers no new territory, she makes a good case for how a well-educated, self-aware woman can become dependent on drugs through legal prescriptions. Even her closest friend, Janet, turns to something in her case, alcohol to take the edge off the burden of being the perfect wife and mom. Allison's experience of rehab is what we might expect: a drab place where she "doesn't belong," feels superior to the staff and fellow addicts, and finds the AA philosophy off-putting and outmoded. Although the ultimate explanation for Allison's problems is clich d, Weiner doesn't take Allison's path to redemption lightly, and convincingly shows that addiction can, indeed, be overcome, but only with genuine commitment and hard, hard work.
