Four of a Kind
A Novel
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4.1 • 41 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Besides the fact that their kids all attend the same fashionable Brooklyn Heights private school, Bess, Robin, Carla, and Alicia have little in common. Thrown together on the tony school’s Diversity Committee, the women impulsively turn their awkward first meeting into a boisterous game of poker. Instead of betting with chips or pocket change, however, they play for intimate secrets about their lives.
As the Diversity Commitee meetings become a highly anticipated monthly ritual, the new friends reveal more with each game. Picture-perfect housewife Bess struggles to relate to her surly teenage daughter and judgmental mother. Robin, a single mom, grapples with the truth concerning her child’s real father. Carla, an ambitious doctor, attempts to balance the colossal demands of her family with her dream of owning her own private practice. And to distract herself from her troubled marriage, shy copywriter Alicia fantasizes about an attractive younger colleague.
Putting all their cards on the table, the four women grow to rely on one another, bracing for one final showdown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this engaging novel, seasoned author Frankel (It's Hard Not to Hate You) creates four compelling female characters who lead wildly different lives but have one thing in common: their children all attend the same New York private school. Under the pretense of creating a Diversity Committee, blonde beauty Bess Steeple invites the three other women Robin, Carla, and Alicia over to her Brooklyn townhouse for a meeting. To break the ice, the women engage in a poker game where the betting currency isn't money but secrets. As the game progresses, it's revealed that Alicia's in a sex-starved marriage; Robin's daughter is the result of a one-night stand; Carla's uptight husband is the source of endless stress; and Bess's mother is a famous feminist. The meeting turns into a monthly poker game, where the women forge a strong bond while struggling, individually, with life's challenges. While the "life is a card game" metaphors are overdone at times, the fresh dialogue, three-dimensional characters, and fast-moving plot lines are solidly entertaining.
Customer Reviews
Liked it anyway!
...I didn't want to like this - another one if those "4 (or 5) very different women meet & change due to friendship" stories.
But I liked it anyway.
After reading Lorna Landvik's extremely mediocre "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons," I swore off ANY "chick lit" AND any book club that would make me read it. I really like to get out of the present-day American upper-middle-class thing when I read.
But Frankel shows more creativity in a story line because she doesn't marginalize men or stereotype women like Lanvik did. Every marriage is not destined to have problems: a hearty Thank You to Frankel for recognizing nice men and lovely marriages do actually exist.
(...But still ...Couldn't it have been 3 women & a gay man?? Or 2 women?? Or ...) Finding myself still immensely disliking the chick-lit "formula," no matter what a decent author can do with it.
Enjoyed!
Nice read to relax with
Four of a Kind
Loved this book! Never got bored, started well, ended well, kept me reading.