Deeply knowing, properly indignant and — maybe the best revenge — very funny ... It’s a daringly creative and often gleeful coda to this long, sad, sordid true story.
What is fiction but the oldest form of virtual reality? Schulman does something especially brave with her storytelling here ... At home with the power of language, Schulman depicts some nauseatingly key moments in contemporary history and around an unquiet globe.
Part noir thriller, part antic comedy, and part nuanced feminist credo, the novel takes big and occasionally bewildering leaps through space and time, moving from historic wartime Sarajevo to peacetime Jerusalem and, in the present, from Venice Beach to a surreal retirement community in Florida. Readers willing to go along for this wild ride will find their assumptions challenged and their emotions ricocheting from horror to delight.
You might think that a book inspired by the role of Rose McGowan in the fall of Harvey Weinstein would have a fairly predictable story arc, but this barn burner of a novel handily incinerates that assumption. With an ambitious story structure recalling the work of Anthony Marra, Schulman has engineered a series of breathtaking aha moments, set to go off like timed explosives located in Paris, Sarajevo, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and a retirement community in Florida ... In a word: Wow.
Incisive and thrilling ... Though the diptych structure can sap momentum, Meredith and Nina’s intriguing relationship will keep readers on the hook as it evolves and leads to a surprising outcome. This packs plenty of punch.
