What begins as an engaging story about three college roommates—brainy Norma, lovely Amanda, preppy Cecile—and their differing futures takes a bewildering turn in Plain's latest Continue reading »
Usually a crowd-pleaser, Plain (Looking Back, etc.) sleepwalks through her latest novel, in which old-fashioned style clashes uncomfortably with contemporary Continue reading »
In bestseller Plain's 21st novel, the son of a Jewish shopkeeper and an Irish farm girl seeks, and finds, his fortune in Texas. The saga begins in 1900, when 13-year-old Adam Arnring learns Continue reading »
Plain's tepid latest focuses on two women—privileged but plain Gwen Wright and beautiful but poor Jewel Fairchild. Their lives occasionally intersect, and eventually Jewel marries a Continue reading »
Bestseller Plain's ( Harvest ) fast, absorbing family saga makes hay with the scandals and excesses that have prompted the latest backlash against Wall Street. As it opens, the three Osborne siblings Continue reading »
Giving a contemporary twist to this bittersweet tale, accomplished storyteller Plain ( Tapestry ) revisits familiar terrain: the intricate landscape of an extended family. The Fergusons seem to have Continue reading »
Writing with her customary fervor but with uneven results, Plain ( Whispers ) again investigates the familiar territory of complex family relationships. This time she examines a situation right out Continue reading »
Plain's latest family saga (after Daybreak) is an animated but less-than-profound story of child abuse, adultery and business dealings. Dismayed to discover that their five-year-old daughter, Tina, Continue reading »
Readers who have not previously met the Werners and Roths in The Golden Cup and Evergreen will sense something missing when they begin this continuing saga about these tightly knit, aristocratic Continue reading »
Dependable Plain ( Evergreen ) again deftly explores enduring themes: the various social strata of Jewish life; the complexities of family relationships; the consequences of following a deeply felt Continue reading »
When the matriarch of the Byrne clan individually summons each member of her family to her country home, the estranged invitees have no idea that they will attend a reunion of sorts. Plain's 15th Continue reading »
Set in turn-of-the-century New York, Plain's latest is a stirring novel that focuses on irrepressible Hennie De Riveraaunt of Evergreen's Paul Wernerand her family. Hennie's stagnant existence ends Continue reading »
With the rich threads of Evergreen , The Golden Cup and Tapestry , skillful storyteller Plain continues to weave her eventful saga of the Werners and their extended clan as they reaffirm their Jewish Continue reading »
Family values and feminism make an uneasy marriage in this undisguised morality play about adultery. Fifteen years ago, Margaret Crane gave up the dream of medical school to devote herself to her Continue reading »
The characters in this labyrinthine 14th novel from perennial bestseller Plain (Promises) live undercover lives, each hiding a secret from the others. At the center of this web of reticence, which Continue reading »
Rowbottom (Jell-O Girls) delivers a complex and deeply engaging portrayal of a woman looking back on her career as an Instagram model. The narrative fluidly alternates between Continue reading »
Obligations fall heavily upon the characters in Muñoz’s deeply affecting collection (after What You See in the Dark). Set in and around Fresno, Calif., in the 1980s, the stories Continue reading »
Walker (The Singing Trees) dazzles in this heart-wrenching tale about a grieving father’s restorative trip to Spain with his daughter. Three years after Sofia, wife of musician Continue reading »
Ng’s remarkable dystopian latest (after Little Fires Everywhere) depicts draconian family separation tactics and a normalizing of violence against Asians and Asian Americans in Continue reading »