Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
#9 in my book challenge for the year, Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner was the first novel I read, post-Guppy. The pink, chick-lit-y cover doesn’t match the novel at all; shame on the publisher for foisting it on the author. The mystery is interestingly plotted, and clips along at a good pace, but doesn’t linger in the mind. The meditations on marriage and motherhood, though, are complex and engaging. Weiner writes about ambivalence with humor and empathy. Her main character is easy to relate to, even as she questions her marriage and flirts with an old flame. The end of the book tidily ties up the mystery, but not the complex relationships. Some reviewers at Amazon have a problem with this, but I thought it elevated the book above its chick lit counterparts, and made me wish that Weiner focuses more on the messy relationship stuff for her next book.