The Undoing: Previously Published as You Should Have Known
The Most Talked About TV Series of 2020, Now on HBO
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3.9 • 742 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
In this "smart and devious" New York Times bestselling thriller, a marriage counselor's relationship begins to unravel when the mother of her son's classmate is murdered (The New York Times). The inspiration for the HBO series The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
Grace Reinhart Sachs is living her best life. Devoted to her husband, a pediatric oncologist at a major cancer hospital, their young son Henry, and the patients she sees in her therapy practice, her days are full of familiar things. Grace is also the author of a book You Should Have Known, in which she cautions women to really hear what men are trying to tell them.
But weeks before the book is published a chasm opens in her own life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only an ongoing chain of terrible revelations, leading her to dismantle her life in order to create a new one, lest she allow these disasters to destroy her.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Originally published in 2014 as You Should Have Known and renamed for the HBO miniseries The Undoing, this psychological thriller about the pitfalls of love at first sight includes a healthy dose of juicy social commentary. Grace is a successful Manhattan psychotherapist and relationship expert whose sheltered life is shattered by a violent murder and the growing suspicion that her adoring physician husband may not be as perfect as she imagined. Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel unfolds in a slow burn, revealing shocking secrets that leave Grace and her privileged circle reeling—and us wondering what new surprises lie ahead. The Undoing is a perfect escape: terrifyingly plausible, whip-smart, and instantly addictive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This excellent literary mystery by the author of 2009's Admission unfolds with authentic detail in a rarified contemporary Manhattan. Therapist Grace Reinhart Sachs is about to embark on a publicity blitz to promote her buzzed-about book on why relationships fail, You Should Have Known. In the meantime, she cares for her 12-year-old son, Henry, who attends the same private school she went to as a child. Grace also treasures her loving relationship with her longtime husband Jonathan, a pediatric cancer doctor at a prestigious hospital. The novel's first third offers readers an authoritative glimpse into the busy-but-leisurely lives of private-school moms. Grace does her best to get along with the school's vapid and catty fundraising committee. She eventually learns that one of the mothers outside her social strata, Malaga Alves, was found murdered in her apartment by her young son. Grace, already tense and sad from these events, becomes more and more anxious as Jonathan, at a medical conference in the Midwest, proves unreachable over several days. The author deftly places the reader in Grace's shoes by exploring her isolation, unease, and contempt for the rumor mill. The plot borders on hyperbole when it comes to upending what we know about one character, but that doesn't take much away from this intriguing and beautiful book.
Customer Reviews
Pacing
The pacing is too slow.
Boring
I'm not even sure why I bothered with this book after page 100 or so. Kept thinking it would get better. It didn't, it just kept repeating itself with more boring commentary on relationships. I was hopeful about half way thru when the first mention of a murder came up... Maybe? Something interesting? Nope just more of the same self indulgent reflections on nothing. Don't bother. Would love to get the time back that I spent on this book. I purchased it based on a good People magazine review. Was the reviewer on meds when they read the book? Or maybe off their meds. Sorry for the harsh review but this book was just plain boring. Couldn't care less about the characters at all.
Would have given it five stars...
...if the author had mastered the art of brevity. She just kept going on and on, endless descriptions about the most boring and remotely adjacent subjects. Could have cut this book in half.