Latest from Emily Giffin a worthy summer novel
Emily Giffin’s delight in life’s frivolities has never stopped her fromtaking on difficult issues. Her earliest novelswere classified as “chick lit” (whatever that means), but behind the wedding chat of “Something Borrowed” (2005) and the pregnancy panic of “Baby Proof” (2006), readers sawtheir own lives and concerns: What will happen tomy friendships nowthat I’m committing to a spouse? Howcan I balancemy life after I have a child?
Those novelswere lots of fun but alsowellcrafted; after all, Giffin, a Naperville native, is a smart former lawyer. Now, she’s reaching deeper into the zeitgeist with “AllWe EverWanted.” It’s the story ofNina Browning, whose husband, Kirk, is a tech-industry player and whose son, Finch, has just been accepted to Princeton
But “AllWe Ever Wanted” isn’t justNina’s story. It’s also the story of 17-year-old LylaVolpe, a scholarship student at Finch’s tony prep school. WhenLyla gets uncharacteristically drunk at a party, what happens next brings Nina, Finch, Lyla and her father into unavoidable conflict.
Lyla has to cope with the trauma of unwanted attention, which Giffin handles carefully and realistically. She also shows the devastating effects of sexual abuse onNina, who learns that her husband and son are not the people she’d hoped them to be.
Giffin keeps thismoving by alternating perspectives and also by writing truly excellent dialogue, all the more arresting because she gets Lyla’s teenage voice just right. Both Lyla and Nina must contend with a world centered on patriarchal beliefs, aworld that serves neither of them well. Whenit’s time for thesewomen to choose their ownways forward, the path is painful. As Giffin wrote years ago in “Something Borrowed”: “I have learned that you make your ownhappiness, that part of going for what you want means losing something else. And when the stakes are high, the losses can be that much greater.”
There are losses in “All WeEverWanted,” but there are also gains, and not the ones you might expect. Giffin’s novel has style and substance— a worthy addition to your summer reading stack. Bethanne Patrick is the editor, most recently, of “The Books ThatChangedMy Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians and OtherRemarkable People.”