How Could She
A Novel
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3.2 • 45 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Named a Best Book of 2019 by Esquire and a Best Book of 2019 (So Far) by Real Simple and Glamour
"Bitingly funny and often painfully realistic."
--Entertainment Weekly
"Brilliant. . . . Devastating, reliably hilarious." --Nylon
"[A] compulsively readable page-turner."
--Cosmopolitan
An assured and savagely funny novel about three old friends as they navigate careers, husbands, an ex-fiancé, new suitors, and, most importantly, their relationships with one another
After a devastating break-up with her fiancé, Geraldine is struggling to get her life back on track in Toronto. Her two old friends, Sunny and Rachel, left ages ago for New York, where they've landed good jobs, handsome husbands, and unfairly glamorous lives (or at least so it appears to Geraldine). Sick of watching from the sidelines, Geraldine decides to force the universe to give her the big break she knows she deserves, and moves to New York City.
As she zigzags her way through the downtown art scene and rooftop party circuit, she discovers how hard it is to find her footing in a world of influencers and media darlings. Meanwhile, Sunny's life as an It Girl watercolorist is not nearly as charmed as it seemed to Geraldine from Toronto. And Rachel is trying to keep it together as a new mom, writer, and wife--how is it that she was more confident and successful at twenty-five than in her mid-thirties? Perhaps worst of all, why are Sunny and Rachel--who've always been suspicious of each other--suddenly hanging out without Geraldine?
Hilarious and fiercely observed, How Could She is an essential novel of female friendship, an insider's look into the cutthroat world of New York media--from print to podcasting--and a witty exploration of the ways we can and cannot escape our pasts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mechling turns a sharp eye on the relationships between women in her first adult novel (after YA novel Dream Life). Geraldine Despont, Sunny MacLeod, and Rachel Ziff all 37 are old friends. They all met while working as junior staff at a Toronto weekly newspaper in their 20s, and their paths have wildly diverged since. Sunny is the most obviously successful of the trio, making a career as a watercolor artist and ensconced in a picture-perfect marriage to an architect husband. Rachel, a native New Yorker, is struggling as a young adult novelist but has a beautiful daughter and an adoring husband. Geraldine, once engaged to the owner of the paper where they all met, is feeling stalled personally and professionally. Her decision to move to New York and get into podcasting has surprising consequences for her, Sunny, and Rachel's relationships, opening old wounds and dredging up past betrayals. Mechling is particularly insightful when it comes to the envy and affection that marks friendship, and clearly delights in writing Geraldine as the New York ing nue. Though the characters' shallowness and relatively minor problems may turn off some readers, this is nevertheless a breezy, entertaining romp.
Customer Reviews
A must read!
Love that there’s finally a novel that resonates with 30-something New York women! Great read!