The Intermission
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- ¥1,500
Publisher Description
A HelloGiggles Best New Release
A PopSugar Best Book of July
A BookBub Editor's Pick
A SheReads Best Book of Summer
A GoodReads Buzzy New Release
A Mind Body Green Best Book of July
A PureWow Best Beach Read of Summer 2018
"An effortless page-turner, almost a movie treatment more than a novel...intelligent commercial fiction."--The Wall Street Journal
After five years of marriage, Cass Coyne has lost some of her boundless confidence. Her husband sees their ups and downs as normal challenges in a healthy relationship, but Cass lies awake at night wondering what you do when you need a break from your marriage?
It comes as a shock to Jonathan when Cass persuades him to try a marital "intermission": a six-month separation during which they'll decide if the comfortable life they've built together is still the one they both want.
Six months apart from their beloved dog is a different story, so they agree to meet once a month for a custody exchange. Time apart on opposite coasts makes the Coynes realize their problems may lie deeper than sweaty gym socks left on the bed and an empty container of milk put back in the fridge.
Can a marriage experiment go too far for two people who once thought they had it all figured out?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This entertaining marriage saga from Friedland (Love and Miss Communication) unravels the minutiae of everyday life in a broken marriage. It takes five years for the charm to fade from Cass Coyne's marriage. Generally insecure and daunted by the prospect of becoming a mother, Cass informs her husband that they'll be taking a six-month "intermission" and live seperately. While Cass has relished the stability, luxury, and love she's found with hedge fund analyst Jonathan, she can't quite move past her impoverished and neglected childhood or the guilt of secretly orchestrating her initial meeting with Jonathan. Told from both Cass's and Jonathan's perspectives, the story follows Cass as she leaves her posh New York apartment and begins an affair with a manipulative Hollywood producer in L.A. In Cass's absence, Jonathan reaches out to his high school sweetheart and attempts to reconcile a disturbing indiscretion from his prep school past. Told in direct prose, Friedland's emotionally fraught narrative shows how seemingly insignificant events inform and hide the "deep, dark truths... that reveal weaknesses in the fibers" in the Coynes' relationship. In the end, their intermission might have to be permanent. Although the characters are frustratingly feckless and the ending is too abrupt, Friedland insightfully dissects motives, lies, and love in this engrossing deconstruction of a bad marriage.
