Go Gentle: Oprah's Book Club
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB • “For all those who crave a good page-turner, this is one wild ride of a story that carries equal parts wit and wisdom. I learned so much about Stoicism—I laughed out loud for real. And underneath the humor there was always something tender . . . a quiet truth about relationships, identity, and what it means to find peace with yourself.”—OPRAH WINFREY
"Maria Semple is a treasure." —Los Angeles Times
The New York Times bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette returns to form in her most exuberant and life-affirming novel yet with the story of one woman’s cheerful determination to live a life of the mind only to have the heart force its way in.
Adora Hazzard has it all figured out. A Stoic philosopher and divorcée, she lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side. Having discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have, she’s applied this insight to blissful effect: relishing her teenage daughter, the freedom of being solo, and her job as a moral tutor for the twin boys of an old-money family. She’s even assembled a "coven"—like-minded women who live on the same floor in the legendary Ansonia—and is making active efforts to grow its membership. Adora’s carefully curated life is humming along brilliantly until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger.
Soon, her ordered world is upended by black-market art deals, secret rendezvous, and international intrigue . . . and her past—which she has worked so hard to bury—lands like a bomb in her present. Inflamed by unquenchable desire, Adora finds herself a woman wanting more: and she’ll risk everything to get it.
Adora Hazzard’s journey of self-discovery will grip you from the start. Romantic, hilarious, intelligent, and bursting with the stuff of life, Go Gentle is a thrilling story of one woman’s mid-life transformation, cementing Maria Semple in the pantheon of our most exciting and important contemporary writers.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this lively, offbeat novel, the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette explores what happens when a middle-aged woman’s carefully managed life collides with everything it was designed to avoid. Adora Hazzard has built a comfortable world around the idea of control, finding peace in wanting only what she already has. That is, until an unexpected encounter at the ballet pulls her into an increasingly complicated web of relationships tied to money, art, and power. Maria Semple leans into her signature mix of sharp humour and emotional insight here, but in refreshingly frisky and unpredictable ways. We loved how Adora’s wise, warm, and funny voice grounds the story as it shifts between philosophical introspection, social satire, and high-stakes drama. Go Gentle is both a fun poolside read and a surefire book club conversation starter.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette) delivers an energetic caper about a woman who gets roped into blue-blooded family drama and a potential smuggling scheme. Among the terms of philosopher Adora Hazzard's fellowship at the Lockwood museum in New York City is that she provide "moral training" to owners Layla and Lionel Lockwood's tween twins. Adora, who is divorced, lives nearby in the famed Ansonia building with her surly 15-year-old daughter, Viv, where she has assembled a "coven" of fellow middle-aged single ladies who live on the same floor. The plot kicks into gear when Adora gives an extra ballet ticket to the mysterious David Ignatius "Digby" Beale, and the pair begin a romance, threatening to break the rules of her coven. Soon Digby reveals they met not by chance but because he was following her, and he wants her to deliver a sealed letter to Layla. Initially convinced Digby is attempting to recover a stolen artwork from the museum's collection, Adora sets out to investigate, and a series of increasingly alarming misunderstandings ensue. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the freewheeling plot, but Semple's writing is as limber as ever (defining stoicism for Digby, Adora says, "It's not Keep Calm and Carry On. It's Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On"). There's plenty to enjoy in this rollicking adventure.
