Open House is about a seriously average almost-at middle age woman, who has to change her life when her husband gets "a fire in his belly" and leaves her and their son. Our heroine, Samantha, has to find income, new friends and roommates, and learn to deal with herself as a single person.



What makes the book different from a regular story is that it is incredibly honest. Told in first person (something that usually grates on me) there is nothing held back. Two baths a day, binging on chocolate, sewing the fly of her husband's boxer shorts closed - it's all there.



The people Samantha meets along her journey are flawed (snoring, lewd, depressed, overweight (not that that's a flaw, but it's not model-perfect either)), which only increases the realism.



It's a short book, a direct book - and even though I am happily married I felt incredibly sympathetic towards the characters. Anyone who has ever had a rug pulled out from under them can feel the truth in this book.



Oh yeah, and the happy little romance at the end is nice too.

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Created Jan 20, 2003 at 1:30pm • Submit your own review...