I have had this book on my shelves for a long time, but finally decided to pick it up for two reasons: 1) the television show has just come out and I wanted to read it before watching and 2) I wanted something light and entertaining.
This is a story about a middle-aged woman called Eve. Eve is divorced and has spent the last 18 years of her life focusing on raising her son, Brendan. But now Brendan is heading off to college, leaving Eve with something she hasn’t had for a long time – a chance to focus on her own needs and wants.
She starts off making positive use of this. She signs up for a writing class at a local college and starts reclaiming space in her home and life. But some negative behaviours and interests creep in, and soon she’s behaving in problematic and potentially damaging ways – to her family, her job and herself.
There were a few things I liked about this book. I liked that it looks at a character who represents a sector of society who are usually overlooked and given little to no thought and attention. I liked that there is some exploration of society’s assumptions – about gender, about sexuality, about identity and about aging.
But unfortunately there was a lot more that I didn’t like. There were a lot of unpleasant and/or distasteful elements. Eve develops an unhealthy obsession with online porn, and apparently that’s enough to make her hit on a colleague (a subordinate at that) and one of her son’s high school classmates. Two relationship dynamics that are problematic in the extreme. The narrative is split between Eve and her son. As bad as Eve is, Brendan is worse. He is a despicable human being, and I hated spending time in his life. He treats women especially horribly but isn’t great to anyone in his life, has zero self-awareness and doesn’t seem to want any.
I am okay with a certain amount of discomfort in a reading experience if it serves a purpose – tells an important story, raises issues that need to be addressed, gives us a valuable insight into a particular type or person or set of experiences. But the type of discomfort I experienced while reading this book was not that. It didn’t give me anything of value in exchange. I spent a lot of this book cringing and thinking, “please don’t do what I think you’re going to do. Come on. Just walk away. Be a better person.” Unfortunately, none of the characters listened to me.
I’m going to go into a few spoilers here, so if you plan to read this and don’t want to know anything, stop reading util you see red again.
I found I was particularly frustrated by the lack of realistic consequences either of these characters suffered for their actions. Eve has to be a little bit uncomfortable around her employee for a little while until she leaves. Brendan sexually assaults a girl he likes and then is baffled when he is publicly shamed for it. As if he can’t understand why what he did was wrong. The writing seems to be trying to make the reader feel bad for him, as if him feeling socially isolated and failing classes he put zero effort into passing and not having enough friends who want to get drunk with him is worse than being assaulted. Give me a break. There’s no other side to this story, he’s just a dick. After this Brendan chooses to leave school, and that’s supposed to be enough to make up for his assault of a really sweet, good-hearted girl who only tried to be nice to him. He doesn’t leave because he feels bad about it, he leaves because he’s not having fun anymore.
Not only that, but in the end Eve seems to get over her issues, finds a nice guy, and settles down. As if that’s the only happy ending middle-aged women are looking for (not to mention that lingering never-resolved question about whether the guy she ends up with is the same pervert who sent her a suggestive and upsetting text message earlier in the book). And her son is painted as becoming this great guy once he finds a better life track, and we’re supposed to feel proud and happy for him.
End of spoilers.
I just couldn’t take any of this seriously, and found a lot of it offensive. More than once I felt like I was unwittingly eavesdropping on some dude’s fantasy life, and it’s not one I wanted to be a guest for. The best I can say is that I wanted to find out what was going to happen, and that kept me going until the end. But I didn’t find it to have any satisfying resolution for its issues.
I think this book had the misfortune to hit on several things I find distasteful, and therefore was an overall flop. I don’t think it was completely without good points – if nothing else, it attempted to show that even icky characters can be covering an inner layer of pathos. But that wasn’t enough to make up for its flaws, and in the end it wasn’t the book for me. I don’t see myself recommending it, going back to it or thinking about it much in the future. I doubt I’ll be picking up anything else by this author unless I hear some pretty convincing positive reviews from you guys in the book community. This is one time I’d recommend watching an episode of the TV show before reading the book. If you like the show, you’ll probably have a better time with this book than I did. If not, it might be one to skip.
Eve Fletcher is floundering. A forty-six-year-old divorcee whose beloved, clueless only child has just left for college, Eve is slowly learning to contend with life on her own when, late one night her phone lights up with a text message. Sent from an anonymous number, the mysterious sender tells Eve, “U r my MILF!” It’s nothing–just an annoying prank–but she can’t get it out of her head. As Eve makes new friends, takes a community college course in Gender Studies, and reaches out to a younger co-worker, the message continues to haunt her, leading her into an online fixation that threatens to upend her quiet suburban existence.
Meanwhile, Eve’s son Brendan, is discovering that the oafish frat-boy charm that impressed high school girls may not be so enticing to college women. Increasingly isolated, with mediocre grades and a confusing crush on a softball-playing social justice champion, Brendan struggles to adjust to a campus ill disposed to his brand of white-dude bravado. As the New England autumn turns cold, both mother and son find themselves enmeshed in ethically fraught situations that come to a head one fateful November night.
A coming-of-age novel about the sexual awakening of a middle-aged woman, Mrs. Fletcher is a provocative, witty look at contemporary sexual politics and timeless moral dilemmas–a moving and funny examination of sexuality, identity, and the big clarifying mistakes people can make when they’re no longer sure who they are and where they belong. – Goodreads
Book Title: Mrs. Fletcher
Author: Tom Perrotta
Series: No
Edition: Paperback
Published By: Scribner
Released: May 1, 2018 (First published August 1, 2017)
Genre: Fiction, Family, Mid-life Crisis
Pages: 320
Date Read: October 8-November 5, 2019
Rating: 2/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.35/5 (19,169 ratings)