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Overview
A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of The Great Man
Josie is a Manhattan psychotherapist living a comfortable life with her husband and daughter—until, while suddenly flirting with a man at a party, she is struck with the sudden realization that she must leave her passionless marriage. A thrillingly sordid encounter with a stranger she meets at a bar immediately follows. At the same time, her college friend Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star, is being pilloried in the press for sleeping with a much younger man who happens to have a pregnant girlfriend. This proves to be red meat to the gossip hounds of the Internet. The two friends escape to Mexico City for a Christmas holiday of retreat and rediscovery of their essential selves. Sex has gotten these two bright, complicated women into interesting trouble, and the story of their struggles to get out of that trouble is totally gripping at every turn.
A tragicomedy of marriage and friendship, Trouble is a funny, piercing, and moving examination of the battle between the need for connection and the quest for freedom that every modern woman must fight.
Synopsis
Josie is a Manhattan psychotherapist living a comfortable life with her husband and daughter. Raquel is a Los Angeles rock star with a platinum album and the attendant money and fame. When Josie realizes her marriage is over, and Raquel finds herself at the center of a scandal, these old friends take off for Mexico City where sweltering heat, new acquaintances, and tequila-fueled nights rapidly spiral out of control. In this vibrant novel, award-winning author Kate Christensen has crafted a bewitching tale of lust, loyalty, and the limits of friendship.
The Barnes & Noble Review
Josie's at a Christmas party, flirting up a storm with a sexy stranger, when she catches sight of herself in a mirror across the room. Just like that, she realizes her marriage is over. The stranger tells a joke, Josie reacts, and her decision reverberates. "My laughter had a freaky sound to it, like the yelp of a wild dog. I had to move out, I thought with horror. Or Anthony does." Before you howl about spoilers and damned reviewers who give away the plot, please note that this bit of action happens on the third page of Kate Christensen's novel. Trouble is the terse title of this novel, and like a crazy summer thunderstorm racing through town, that's exactly what it delivers. The next thing you know, Josie's in Mexico City as the guest of her rock star gal pal, Raquel, who's sweating out the final days until her latest album is released. Thanks to a messy affair with a hot young actor who happens to have a pregnant fiancée, Raquel is tabloid bait. (See? Trouble.) Raquel and Josie are both in their 40s, and though there's plenty of pursuit of sex and romance with younger men, Christensen blessedly avoids that awful new woman-bashing term, "cougar." Instead, she takes us on an insider's tour through part of Mexico City's vibrant arts community, through Josie's somewhat selfish and narcissistic midlife crisis, and into a shocking and unapologetic ending. You may not always -- or even ever -- like Josie, but you've got to admire Christensen for delivering such a fast-paced rabbit punch of a book. --Veronique de Turenne
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Christensen follows The Great Man with this slightly lesser work, a coming-of-middle-age novel that explores the sexual lives of three women in their 40s. Best friends since their college days, trust-funder Indrani, therapist Josie and L.A. rocker Raquel are like three very different but close sisters. After flirting with a man at a New York party, Josie realizes that she is sexually starving and decides to leave her husband, though Indrani thinks it's a terrible move. Meanwhile, on the left coast, the nearly washed-up ex-junkie Raquel becomes embroiled in a scandal when she's smeared as the other woman to a young actor with a pregnant girlfriend. Raquel hightails it to Mexico City and begs a less than-reluctant Josie to join her. From here the novel takes a predictable route as the women drink their way across the city, Raquel spirals further out of control, and Josie's inner vixen is awakened. The novel loses some of its mojo in the location change-Mexico City seems just out of focus-but the characters are marvelously realized, and when Christensen's on a roll, her wit is irresistible. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Christensen follows up the award-winning The Great Man with this tale of girlfriends on a wild adventure. Manhattan psychotherapist Josie realizes that she must step out of her staid, platonic marriage. The same week Josie tells her husband that she's leaving, her famous rock musician girlfriend, Raquel, gets caught in a scandal. The two flee to Mexico, where Josie, after so many years of being a good wife and a mother to a difficult teenage daughter, really lets loose, drinking and smoking to no end. She also meets Felipe, a beguiling artist, and experiences a sexual reawakening. But it's not a perfect holiday; Raquel, a recovering drug addict, starts a steep descent into her old habits. Though Josie tries her hardest to help her oldest friend, tragedy is in the air. Christensen's sparse, clean writing style captures the scintillating Mexican night life, and one can almost taste the greasy street tacos and mescal. The compelling plot will keep readers turning pages, even as clouds of tension and despair drift ever closer. [See Prepub Alert, LJ2/1/09.]
—Beth Gibbs