Blurb: Twenty-nine-year-old
Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old
line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her
clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors
face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away,
Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s
most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower
descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers
in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She
is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr.
Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for
custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take
him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case
before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s
her first divorce, too.
Debut novelist Susan
Rieger doesn’t leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly
crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling.
Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles,
and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races
along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic
that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a
hard look at her own relationships—not only with her parents, but with
colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction
Debut novelist, Susan Rieger, mixes law, family and
separation to tell a beautiful tale rich with insight, humor and unsettling
suspense. Divorces can be sweet and thrilling too?
Imagine this: You specialize in criminal law at a big
firm. You don’t necessarily get your raison d’etre practicing it. But you do it
because there is no other field in law you find worthy enough. Now a big time
client has brought in a case everyone specializing in civil litigation would
jump at, the separation of his daughter from her husband after seventeen years
of marriage. Now there’s a divorce, and there’s a divorce. So much money, so much wealth, so much
property to divide which could turn nasty. No one wants to drag a divorce to the
courtroom, especially the husband who can’t wait for his philandering days
(with a dermatologist) to begin. A senior partner approaches you with the case
because all other divorce lawyers are booked with others jetting away to visit
their parents. Just an interview with a client, he tells you, no big deal. You
take him up on his offer, sit through the interview with the daughter. Now all
you can think of are her gestures, her humor, her references to good ol’
literature, her sophistication, her so-not-behaving-like-a-woman-who’s-being-legally-separated-from-her-husband
behavior.
But still you wouldn’t take the case if you are begged to.
Then you are demanded to. You
think your boss is inconsiderate when he knows your past with divorcing
parents. You have to take the case, no other option for you.
Now you are dangling in the mess of a divorce. Undergoing civil
litigation training, dealing with aggravating lawyers and endless negotiations,
getting a whole sense of déjà vú when an eleven year-old daughter of the couple
comes into the picture, fighting off opposition at work from the other office
bitch who specializes in divorce cases but didn’t get this because she was off
to her parents, dating a super-sweet stage-actor introduced to you by your
brilliant stage-actress friend, wondering if your best-selling writer mum is
“misbehaving” with your boss, dealing with clients tearing at each others
throats in every sense of the word, wondering why your parents had to part
away, wondering why your dad would never show any interest in you or what you
do for that matter, feud after feud, negotiations after negotiations,
back-to-stage-one after back-to-stage-ones. Life gets hard and hectic, as much
as you try to make time for your personal life──there’s
one thing, you can only keep in touch through emails. Emails everywhere, as if the
pile of letters from the mail of your firm aren’t enough. Your life is as messy
as a divorce.
Until you manage to sort it out, it would stay that way for over a
year.
Sophie Diehl’s hectic
life, summed up for your undivided attention.
──────────────
MY REVIEW
This book made me
have blast! Like a grenade blast! I ah-dored
every piece of it. But this blog isn’t about me, it’s about you. So this why you would love, love this title.
It’s beautiful in
every sense of the word, the writing style. I loved that it was an epistolary.
I have never, ever read one of these titles before. Or perhaps I have, but they
weren’t as memorable as this. Divorce, social life, professional feuds all
embraced in this epistolary, to give it a real feel. An effect some books with
dialogue struggle to achieve.───★
The storyline was
perfect. Uh-huh, Uh-huh──the storyline! It
was surprising because I said earlier, written in an epistolary, blah, blah, it did have a storyline
that can be easily related to. Who hasn’t gone through a divorce, or at least
seen one? The effects it has on its participants and the children──
even the pets! It’s mind-blowing how all this was captured in this title. The
fact that it was an epistolary yet left nothing untold is what would make lovers
of Women’s Fiction (and other genres) grab this title. Portrayed so real with
depth that made it feel so true to life, I wonder if I’m shrieking about a
storyline or rather a lifeline.
───★★
The characters in
this book truly had character. I couldn’t believe anyone could execute a piece
written from start-to-finish in letters but still embody the unique traits of
each character. Through letters, you could tell you were reading about a strong,
successful yet self-conscious Sophie Diehl. Through her letters, you could
predict Maggie Pfeiffer, Sophie’s friend was the kind quick to admonish, advice
type. Through her letters, you could tell Maria Meiklejohn, the client was
well-poised, well-read, sharp, embodying every elegant, firm mother in their
forties. Jane, the eleven year-old daughter, stuck between the divorce was
intelligent, precocious, confused and hurt (much like every child in the midst
of parental wars). Elisabeth Dreyfus, aka Maman,
aka Sophie’s mum, was French, funny, sophisticated, exotic, and someone you’d
like to take to lunch and listen to. Daniel, the client’s husband, was a moron.
David, the boss and trainer, was firm but playful. Harry, Sophie’s
sort-of-boyfriend, was an asshole in gentleman’s clothing. Fiona, the office
bitch, was well, an office bitch. It’s a characterization party in there all
through letters and I could go on and on. I loved each and everyone of them───★★★
The suspense in this
book was riveting. I really wanted it to end, end, end or at least take a
little break. But it kept increasing as things got complicated and complicated.
I found myself rooting for Maria, hoping, praying she squeezes a chunk out of
her SOB husband. If this is how divorces are, I’m not sure I have the heart to
go through one. Stick with your partners (Ouch, no
pun intended).───★★★★
As I said earlier,
this book felt more of a literary piece than a book, more of a masterpiece than
a literary piece. References to classics
that stole the hearts away of many born in the seventies and beyond (would go
look ‘em up), all the subtle humor, the wisecracks, again, the writing style
and the voice of each character, was breathtaking. Authors hardly get it write on their debut, but not debut novelist, Susan Rieger.───★★★★★
I talk a lot. No
news. That’s why, I’m further going to:
Give this book: 
a
whooping Five stars
Tell you to: Go buy
this book in hardcover because kindle just doesn’t do it justice on....
Give you a chance to:
Win one of Two Hardbacks of The Divorce Papers from Crown Publishing, Random House
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommend this book
to: Anyone who has been through a divorce or not. Anyone who wants to find the
topic of divorce interesting, insightful as well as damaging and perhaps an
opportunity to let go of the past and begin anew. Anyone who loves a well-written
piece. Anyone less interested in material with fluff.
My work not done
here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.
