Rating: 
Summary: Who Says Media Reviewers are not Well Paid?
Review: They would have to be to praise garbage like this. Following on the heels of the hilarious COMPROMISING POSITIONS and CLOSE RELATIONS, I expected another fast-paced tale of Jewish angst. What I got instead was one of the most boring tales in the past 100 years with characters as forgettable as either the dialogue or plot. I kept thinking the whole thing was a joke - that at some point the heroine would look up from her desk and mutter how awful this stuff was, wad it up and see a dead body. But no such luck. Unfortunately Isaacs now appears to consider herself a "serious" writer which apparently to her means the same thing as "boring" writer. The story of love lost and found and lost (ad nauseum) is one that we have all seen and heard (and maybe experienced) many times. As the old saying goes, "Nothing venturned, nothing gained" and there was certainly nothing gained in this outing.
Rating: 
Summary: This book changed my life
Review: This is my favorite book of all time. I reread it at least once a year and the feeling I have is the same one I had when I read it the first time. Hold the people you love close and remember what's really important in life. I admired Susan Issacs for not taking the easy way out. The fact that Nick is a Robert Redford caliber movie star would have made an interesting story in itself. But it's just his job and the real story is the marriage and families of Nick and Jane. And, as usual, the secondary characters are so interesting it made me want to know more about them. Although with this book, their stories are told in almost as much detail as Nick and Jane's stories. There is someone to love and hate on every page. Jane's wonderful mother and her horrible dad; Dorothy, the really evil stepmother, her brother Rhodes, Nick's parents and grandparents and a whole slew of people in between. In particular, I loved her brother Rhodes. He is not portrayed as a sterotypical homosexual, but as a kind, loving man that cares deeply for his sister and her family and he just happens to be gay. And the fact that his life runs on more or less the same course with Jane's only makes the story more interesting. And he really made me laugh. In general, I like anyone that makes me laugh. I can't recommend this book highly enough. The only warning I would issue is to be prepared to devote a major block of time on this read, because once you start, you won't want to put it down. As mentioned earlier, I read this book at least once a year. And as I reach the part where Nick and Jane's marriage begins to unravel, I always feel the same way. It makes me hold my husband close and remember to appreciate each day. After all, no one's life is paradise, but it can be almost paradise.
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