Stuart Nadler has successfully braved [a] potential minefield in order to bring us the wonderfully authentic Olyphant women ... the most memorable moments examine the intricacies of familial love — the bonds between mothers and daughters, men and women, boys and girls ... carefully rendered, unpretentious and always with the reader’s satisfaction on the front burner.
...[a] droll, warm and trenchantly observant comic novel ... The deadpan, rueful humor along with its glowing insights into the mechanisms of desire are what sustain your attention throughout The Inseparables ... And though the book’s plotting may feel a tad piled-on at the end, its generosity of spirit and its fascinating trio of women-in-crisis help make The Inseparables the smartest and most touching romantic comedy you won’t find at a multiplex movie theater this summer.
This is a novel deeply concerned with how these women have been shaped by their relationships with men. But Nadler is also clearly interested in offering these women the opportunity to define themselves and their relationships anew. And it is to Nadler’s credit that Henrietta, Oona and Lydia are largely believable characters. But there are missteps. Even in a family as intellectual as theirs, the women’s emotions can seem overly distant. And they are largely disembodied characters, an odd thing in a book that is so much about women’s sexuality and so very much about shame and set at ages that are such cruxes of female physical life ... The Inseparables is elegantly written and often funny and sharply insightful.
Nadler's novel examines a predatory sexual environment America's daughters confront as they explore the jagged terrain of early adulthood ... For all the serious topics this book tackles, Nadler takes a light tone. He doesn't preach; he reveals.
Written with insight and warmth, The Inseparables examines the inextricable link between mothers and daughters, while also exploring the conflict between female sexuality in one’s private and public lives ... The novel’s main drawback is that for as fleshed-out and thoughtfully written as Mr. Nadler’s protagonists are, the men of his novel are decidedly less so ... Despite the men of The Inseparables providing a shaky narrative basis for the saga of the Olyphant women, Mr. Nadler’s emotionally rich and sharply observed portrayal of three women and their journeys toward emotional and sexual self-actualization is compassionate and compelling.
