Good Company
A Novel
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3.7 • 571 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
"Plumbs the depths of marriage, motherhood and friendship with warmth and wit. I devoured it in one gulp!” —Maria Semple
A warm, incisive new novel about the enduring bonds of marriage and friendship from Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Nest
Flora Mancini has been happily married for more than twenty years. But everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage, and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, is upended when she stumbles upon an envelope containing her husband’s wedding ring—the one he claimed he lost one summer when their daughter, Ruby, was five.
Flora and Julian struggled for years, scraping together just enough acting work to raise Ruby in Manhattan and keep Julian’s small theater company—Good Company—afloat. A move to Los Angeles brought their first real career successes, a chance to breathe easier, and a reunion with Margot, now a bona fide television star. But has their new life been built on lies? What happened that summer all those years ago? And what happens now?
With Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature tenderness, humor, and insight, Good Company tells a bighearted story of the lifelong relationships that both wound and heal us.
A Most Anticipated Book From: OprahMag.com * Refinery29 * Houston Chronicle * The Millions * Elle * Buzzfeed
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Capturing life’s messy details is an art that Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney mastered in her best-selling debut, The Nest. She goes next-level in this heartfelt novel about voiceover actress Flora, who’s built her life around her solid, caring relationships with her sweet fellow-actor husband Julian, their spirited teenage daughter Ruby, and her fabulous TV-star best friend Margot. But Flora’s life rips apart when she finds a long-forgotten envelope, setting off a string of painful discoveries that threaten everything she thinks she knows about herself. Sweeney nimbly shifts perspectives, giving each character a chance to tell their side of this complex and deeply compelling story. In Sweeney’s hands, no one’s entirely a villain or a victim—just a human. Good Company is a three-hankie read that’s also a dramatic, inspiring story of redemption and rebuilding.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sweeney's disappointing latest (after The Nest) revolves around two New York City theater transplants and their daughter and friends in Los Angeles. When musical theater–turned–voiceover actor Flora Mancini discovers her husband Julian Fletcher's wedding ring in their garage, she suspects something is awry: he had told her he lost it swimming in a pond. A meandering set of backstories and present-day happenings ensues, involving the couple's 18-year-old daughter, Ruby, and their best friends: Margot Letta, an actor on a television drama, and her husband, David Pearlman, a former cardiac surgeon whose practice was upended when he had a stroke. In chapters alternating between the characters' points of view, Sweeney unravels the love, pain, and disappointment between them as Flora seeks to discover why Julian lied about the wedding ring, Margot's TV role comes to a close and she reckons with her part in the ring mystery, and Ruby travels to Spain with a boyfriend before starting college. While the deliciously flawed characters are well developed, the lackluster climax and drawn-out therapy scenes involving Flora and Julian are less successful. In the end, readers will long for more drama in a story of people whose lives are steeped in it.
Customer Reviews
Good Company
I was surprised to read the bad reviews of this book as I quite enjoyed it. However, I have a background in little theater, in college and after on the stage but never summer stock. So I found that aspect of the book fun and interesting. I was also a high school guidance counselor and have plenty of experience with therapy sessions, so this part of the book was also interesting. I will agree that it was a little repetitive and drawn out from time to time but I thought generally a good story.
Great book
Loved this book about Relationships and how to navigate marital issues. Interesting character development ! Must read!
Skip the Book
The story seemed captivating at first, but the story ends up dragging. It seemed like nothing ever hit a climax. I kept reading waiting for the aha moment and it never happened, really disappointing.