Rating: 
Summary: The story takes off AFTER the central character dies...
Review: Meg Wolitzer accomplishes something astonishing here. She creates a compelling character in Sara Swerdlow even after her sudden death at the end of the first chapter. Surrender, Dorothy is, I think, about how each of us is the sum of our impact on others in our lives - and their collective perceptions of us. I eased through the story, as sad as it frequently is, quickly, and Wolitzer's style is similar to that of some of my favorite authors: Elinor Lipman, Anne Tyler and Stephen McCauley.
Rating: 
Summary: Poignant and believable
Review: Meg Wolitzer delves deep into the hearts of a group of friends who are enjoying a summer respite in a somewhat rundown "summer home" on the coast. When Sara, the most beautiful of them, is suddenly killed one evening in a fluke car accident, the lives of those left slowly begin to unravel like an old sweater. Each is left with guilt and memories too large to be contained in the tiny, forlorn house they have rented. When Sara's mother, Natalie, arrives unexpectedly one afternoon, she sets into motion the undoing of the entire household. On the way, though, each person learns a little more about themselves, their relationship with Sara, and mostly, about the world which they have created. Wolitzer has a keen insight into the human heart in grief, and displays her stunning talent here with poise and delicateness.
Rating:
Summary: Great Talent .... Bleak World
Review: Ms. Wolitzer has so much talent. This book is very moving. SaraSwerdlow, who seemed to be the protagonist, is killed in the last lineof the first chapter. Her mother and her friends, who are actually at a Long Island summer house, grieve for the remainder of the book. Ms. Wolitzer has wit and the incidents she selects to write about are interesting and well done. The book is very sad. Ms. Wolitzer's view of life is so grim. Marriage stinks. Friends and children are dangerous. Joy fades quickly. The combination of wit and talent with this grim view is striking and odd. But the book is moving and I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, witty, moving--a delicious read!
Review: Reading this novel I felt as if the author was one of my best friends. Meg Wolitzer is just so spot-on in her portrayals of the characters in Surrender, Dorothy that they were as familiar to me as my own roommates. I've liked all of Wolitzer's novels--she writes exquisitely and always cracks me up--but this novel about a young woman's early death and how it affects the people around her, especially her best friend (her mom) is one of her best. It is witty (puns aplenty) but so totally real. Everyone has to deal with a freak tragedy here in their own way, and Wolitzer carries us through her characters' transitions from shock to acceptance and transcendence beautifully. I hope the author is hard at work on her next novel. She's great company and I can't wait to see who she dreams up for me to hang out with next!
Rating:
Summary: Loss
Review: Sara Swerdlow and three best friends from long-ago college days , Maddy & Peter--a married couple, and Adam, a gay successful playwright, rent a house on the coast for the summer. Renting the house every year is a long-held tradition. This year, however, change is in the air--Maddy & Peter have a baby and Adam has invited his new companion, Shawn, an ambitious yet untalented writer of unproduced musicals to join them. Just as the holiday begins, Sara is killed in an accident. While the surviving friends attempt to cope with the loss of Sara--and what this means to each of them, Sara's mother, Natalie arrives armed with fruit roll-ups and licorice. Natalie decides to stay--mainly due to inertia, but also because she longs to get close to Sara any way she possibly can. Impressions of Sara and shared memories seem to help everyone cope with the loss. However, Natalie's calming presence actually acts as a catalyst for the ensuing drama. The author explores the subjects of loss and survival with grace and skill. While the book dealt with some rather depressing subjects, it was NOT a depressing read at all.
Rating:
Summary: A Joy to Read
Review: Surrender Dorothy is filled with enjoyable moments. This is story of ordinary people facing the reality of life and death. As a reader you are able to relate to the insanity that accompanies death and the reality of how death effects you. Though the book focus is around Sara's death the book is really a tale of Sara's life, a life many can relate to. When you are not crying you will be laughing. Surrender Dorothy was an enjoyable quick read that I recommend to all that can relate to the transition of life from the carefree 20's to the responsible 30's where you and those around you not only realize you are an adult but expect you to act as an adult.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Novel About the Loss of a Child
Review: The novel is a wrenching page-turner about a woman's loss of an adult daughter and her subsequent attempts to cope and live. The author artfully describes experiences of the mother and the dead woman's friends as they provide each other with memories and support needed to adapt to the sudden death of a young woman whom they loved. It is the best book I have read all year!
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Novel About the Loss of a Child
Review: The novel is a wrenching page-turner about a woman's loss of an adult daughter and her subsequent attempts to cope and live. The author artfully describes experiences of the mother and the dead woman's friends as they provide each other with memories and support needed to adapt to the sudden death of a young woman whom they loved. It is the best book I have read all year!
Rating: 
Summary: This wallows in lameness!
Review: The title of the review says it all. The characters are shallow and the situation is contrived. Reading the entire book was painful, and I would not have continued reading it if it wasn't a book club selection. Save your money and your time. Don't bother reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: Surrender, Dorothy
Review: Thirty-year-old Sara Swerdlow and her friends Adam, Maddy, and Peter spend every August in a run-down rental by the beach, re-experiencing in these regular escapes from real life their one-time college intimacy--that peculiar closeness born of cohabitation and limited responsibility that most of us lose at graduation. This year the cast of characters is expanded: Maddy and Peter, long married, have added a baby to the mix, and Sara's closest friend Adam, now a successful playwright, has brought along his uncommonly handsome new boyfriend Shawn. Their first evening at the house this year, Sara and Adam make an ice cream run. On the way back, a tub of soft-serve vanilla successfully secured from the local Fro-Z-Cone, Sara is killed in a car accident. Surrender, Dorothy is the story of the effect of Sara's death on this circle of friends and on her mother Natalie, Sara's life-long confidante, who joins the party at the beach for a weeks-long immersion in collective grief. While her characters bicker and mourn in this sometimes oppressive atmosphere, Wolitzer explores the network of their relationships, with one another and with Sara. While the subject matter of the book is of course sad, the final product is not unbearably so. Readers like myself who shy away from depressing novels need not fear this one. Wolitzer, meanwhile, as I discovered also when reading her novel The Wife, is capable of some very fine prose, rich in detail. Very often her descriptions are spot on, depicting in few words the essence of some banal item, for example, such as the "cool, dented metal surface" of the Fro-Z-Cone counter. Every now and then, however, Wolitzer's descriptions go too far, and the reader is distracted by some improbable comparison: "Then, during pushing, that two-hour period of time during which Maddy began to hallucinate a roll of theater tickets unspooling from her vagina [okay, that's a bit improbable too, but not what I'm talking about], Peter had seen her cervix open wide, so wide it might destroy him, might swallow him whole, like in some grade-B movie called Attack of the 10-Centimeter Vagina." The period should have come after "open wide." But petty complaints aside, Wolitzer is a fine writer whose oeuvre I intend myself to swallow whole, grade-B-movie-like, slowly and with great pleasure.
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