Rating: 
Summary: Maynard bends usual rules in sensitive exploration of loss
Review: In the afterword of Joyce Maynard's sensitive and instructive "The Usual Rules," the author shares with readers her motivation in writing the novel. She hopes to "tell the story of how it is that a young person can survive great and terrible heartbreak" and restore a sense of hope about her future. Not only does Maynard succeed in this goal, but she has also crafted a work that deals with adolescent identity, family reformation and person response to social disaster. Using sympathetic characters who struggle with sudden death, the author brings needed insight as to how Americans might overcome the trauma of September 11.Thirteen-year-old Wendy complains about her mother's inability to understand her; she bristles contemptuously over her mother's sense of outrage about the father who abandoned both. Despite the fact that Wendy has an adoring, creative and energetic step-father and a step-brother who worships her, she wades through her days awash in angst. September 11, 2002 changes all that. Everything that was stable, permanent, accepted crumbles; that which was certain becomes ambiguous. "Nothing was as it seemed -- that was what she understood now." Submerged in grief, her step-father Josh consents to Wendy leaving her Brooklyn home to spend time with her biological father, Garrett, who has created a life in Davis, California. During this time of exile, Wendy confronts not only her grief, but her need to form an identity which will last the rest of her life. This task, daunting as it is with an intact family, is made all the more difficult in a strange, unfamiliar environment. Wendy reinvents herself, on occasion through subversion (when she furtively drops out of school), through lies (when she meets a warm-hearted bookstore owner) and through compassion (when she befriends a single teen-aged mother). Every person she meets carries the scars of ruin and abandonment. Her father, Garrett, lives daily with his private disappointment that he has been a failure to his suffocatingly elitist mother. Garrett's woman companion, Carolyn, relives her decision to give up her only child for adoption. The teen-aged mother, Violet, seethes with resentment over her white-trash life and consequently endangers her newborn son with her rage. The bookstore owner, Adam, deals with an adult autistic son and a wife who is about to end their marriage as a consequence of her own guilt. What makes "The Usual Rules" unusual is its refusal to present bromides and cliches as responses to unprecedented grief and anguish. The characters' suffering is genuine, as is their iron-willed drive to regain a sense of life. How should grieving progress? What resources can we seek to give us a sense of hope amidst the deepest despair. When do we find the ability to understand, as we have never done before "how precious everything" is. Written by a talented author whose knowledge of the bruised heart informs every page, "The Usual Rules" has compelling narrative drive, beautifully rendered characters and realistic dialogue. Above all, the novel is suffused with a sense of the possibility of renewal and hope, even when all around its wonderful protagonist radiates death and loss.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping -- but we've been there before
Review: Like many readers, I couldn't put the book down. Joyce Maynard creates a warm cast of characters: Wendy, the plucky heroine who mourns the loss of her mother in the 911 tragedy; Josh, the father who dispenses homemade brownies along with sensitive love; Wendy's dead mother, who gave her a wonderful start in life; and Wendy's real father, Garrett, who teaches her to tie flies, shows her the SF art museum and takes her on a breath-taking hike. Garrett's girlfriend, Carolyn, becomes Wendy's confidante and role model. Much of the action takes place in Davis, a small town near Sacramento -- and a perfect place for anyone to heal from tragedy. Maynard doesn't play up the beauty and serenity of this college town, with its bike paths and health food stores and of course the presence of a great university with some world-class departments. Wendy recovers by skipping school and meeting a series of people, each of whom adds something to her life: Alan in the bookstore, Violet the single mom, and Todd the child of the streets. And that's where I began to feel I was back in the world of the classic Roller Skates, or perhaps the Little Colonel's Holidays, where a child finds herself temporarily set apart from her usual life and finds adventure and healing. At the turn of the century, when those books were written, a young girl could walk everywhere and avoid harm. Today, I can't believe that a bookstore owner would take a 13-year-old girl alone in his car, on a trip from Davis to Modesto. I won't even hire a teenage dog sitter without consulting her parents. And wandering around the middle of the night in a not-so-great neighborhood in SF, Wendy finds a new friend. That, I think, is a large part of the book's appeal. Wendy is in a cocoon of support that few people enjoy, with or without losing a parent. I suspect that readers don't want to read about Wendy -- they want to *be* Wendy! Most well-meaning parents I know would be more concerned with Wendy's grades than her healing and they'd rush her off to a well-meaning shrink. And while Wendy's friends and acquaintances face tragedies, not related to 911, Wendy actually has an awful lot going for her -- more than just about any teenaged fictional heroine since the Little Colonel. So yes, this book is un-put-downable, but it's like a hot fudge sundae. You tell yourself it's really got substance but in your heart you know you're just enjoying the taste,
and you wish it could go on forever without costing calories. At the risk of sounding like Scrooge, as I so often do these days, I wouldn't give this book to a teenager or offer Wendy as a role model. Most kids need to find a way to make their own luck, like Todd does and Violet doesn't.
Rating: 
Summary: The Usual Rules
Review: Maynard's story, told through the eyes of 13 year-old Wendy, gives readers a colorable glimpse of post 9/11 grief. I found myself wondering about and praying for the real families who were left behind after that horrific tragedy! An original, thought-provoking page turner to say the least.
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Summary: Mom and 13-yr.-old daughter agree: this is one of the best!
Review: Mrs. Lyla Fox and Karen Lausa wrote excellent reviews for The Usual Rules, summarizing it wonderfully. I can only add that, while hesitant to read this book in that many in our community, including a friend, were killed on 9-11, I am so glad that I did. The Usual Rules had almost a cathartic effect on me. Moreover, my daughter was able to relate to Wendy, who was portrayed as a typical (in our experience!) 13-yr. old; so often we've read about mothers and teenage daughters who are unlike anyone we've ever met!
Rating:
Summary: Unusually good
Review: The Usual Rules is a great novel. I would, however, suggest letting your thirteen year old enjoy this one. After the initial tragedy and subsequent move, readers over the age of 16 may begin to find it a bit dry. It is obvious that the author took great care in detailing the events of the 9/11 tragedy as it changed the life of a young girl. The life journey that ensues due the event evokes many different feelings within this young victim. I would suggest giving it a read, but be sure to lend this book to a younger reader who could better relate to the mind of a thirteen year old girl.
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Summary: Poignant and Hopeful
Review: Thirteen year old Wendy is a typical young Brooklyn teen who's anxious to grow up. She lives with her vivacious mom, who is an executive secretary by day, but a dancer at heart, her jazz musician stepfather, and Louie, her endearing four year old brother. Wendy's mother goes to work on September 11, and never comes home. After weeks of unbearable grief and sadness, Wendy's biological father shows up from Davis, California and suggests she return home with him. Wendy accepts, in part to escape the daily reminders of her mothers' death, and to learn about her father, now her only living biological parent. With none of the "usual rules" imposed by her dad, Wendy skips school and experiments with aliases as she meets colorful new characters. There is Carolyn, her dad's cactus-loving girlfriend, Alan, the benevolent bookstore owner and father of an autistic son, Violet, an unwed teenage mom, and Todd, a skater runaway with a big heart. Wendy creates a new life on her own terms, and discovers who really cares for her. She keeps in touch with her step dad and Louie, and returns to visit - or maybe to stay - the next spring.
This is a story of excruciating grief and loss, which Maynard treats in a palpably realistic manner, despite the opportunistic use of 9/11 as the premise. Wendy comes to realize that a person doesn't die in one day, but gradually, like "a balloon that kept rising until you couldn't see it anymore." It is also a story about redefining family in new ways. Written in third person, using lengthy flashbacks, Maynard does not use quotations, making the dialog difficult to follow at times. The book is long at 390 pages, and will likely lose some YA readers in the first 60 pages, which are tedious. However, Maynard has written a poignant story about a child's loss, and has written about the grief process with unusual sensitivity and clarity. We watch Wendy and her family turn the corner between "feeling like you can't go on anymore, and realizing that you will." There is a pallet of interesting and credible characters and the contrast between life in NY and California adds dimension to the story.
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Summary: 9/11 Tragedy from a Teen's Viewpoint
Review: This book was just as good as Maynard's memoir and other novel, At Home in the World. Like To Die For, she uses real-life current events as a springboard for the story. In this story, a 13-year-old and her family recover from the death of her mother in the World Trade Center disaster. This book is good for both teen and adult audiences. The unconventional Christmas dinner was one of my favorite chapters in the book. The only things I didn't care for were how the author told the story in an odd present tense and how she refused to use quotation marks for any dialogue in the story. Don't let this stop you from reading the book.
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Summary: Doesn't Quite Ring True
Review: This novel is beautifully written with hundreds of tiny details that make parts of it breathtaking. But there are other things that don't quite ring true as I read it. Since her character is in New York on September 11th and immediately after, it seems as though some of the terror of things like flying on a plane after that, or reluctance to enter tall buidlings might have been more developed. She also scarcely talks about the anthrax scares that dominated the news in October in New York. I realize that these issues may not be paramount to the storyline, but I don't feel Maynard really captured the fear that gripped the city and the nation immediately following the attacks. She seems to be writing from a distance of a year, not in the immediacy of the moment.
The other part that drove me crazy is Maynard's constant reference to Madonna on the radio and in the media. I don't recall Madonna being very popular in 2001. It kept making me feel as though the story was set in the mid-80's. It was disconcerting.
However, I did find the writing and the story beautiful and touching. Some of the details made me stop reading so that I could really grasp the image Maynard had just drawn. For instance, I was especially moved by Wendy's realization that under that pile of rubble, amid desks and computers and purses and business cards and filing cabinets and shoes, and brown bag lunches and telephones, that there was also a picture of her and her brother now buried in this disaster. Wow.....
Rating:
Summary: You don't want this book to end.
Review: This was a great book! I feel like the characters became my friends and I miss them since I finished the book. Your heart will ache for the pain that Wendy, Josh and Louie feel.
I know this was a novel but it feels like a true story. Joyce Maynard has taken a tragic event in history and made it deeply personal. In addition to feeling the personal sadness for anyone who lost a love one on 9/11/01 this book is also a coming of age book for young people. I highly reccommend this book as a way to open dialog for blended families.
Old fans of Joyce Maynard will enjoy this book and those less familiar with her will want to read eveything she ever wrote.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully moving and uplifting
Review: This was my first experience with Joyce Maynard's writing I think it is a superb book; I found it very difficult to put down. Weaving it around the events of September 11th, 2001, and also weaving in references to other books throughout the novel made it a must read. I found the last one hundred pages particularly to be inspiring and hopeful. This book and Sena Naslund's "Four Spirits" are the best two books I have read in quite some time. Thank you Joyce Maynard.
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