The Road Taken: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Mother Wants Daughter to Shut Up
Review: Since I just read The Room-Mating Season, I was very glad that this novel was much better written with more developed characters. Although the characters still seemed a little two-dimensional, they were interesting and a little more like real people.

The story follows Rose, born at the turn of the century, and her descendants for the next 100 years. At times insightful into human nature, and at times very informative, it kept me reading chapter after chapter. I surely did not know that women used Lysol as birth control, or that a mere scratch could cause death. Ms. Jaffe keeps us informed at the beginning of every decade as to what was going on at that time. She discusses both World Wars, polio, the flu epidemic, and other current events. Although these items were sometimes educational, she misinforms about Rock Hudson announcing that he was gay and had AIDS. Rock Hudson did no such thing. It was rumored while he was alive but he never admitted it. If she got that wrong, what else did she get wrong?

Ms. Jaffe does tend to go on about ailments common to the time, and then have one of the characters contract it. For instance, when Markie's (Penny's daughter, Rose's granddaughter) boyfriend leaves her and recommends they both date other people, she has gynecological symptoms. She immediately gets checked out by her doctor who tells her that she has chlamydia, and that she is lucky because most women don't have symptoms. Markie immediately receives treatment, which should clear up the infection, right? However, a year or so later, trying to become pregnant, her tubes are blocked due to this chlamydia infection. I can understand having blocked tubes due to an infection left UNTREATED, but not one that was treated right away. Markie's tubes are blocked so badly from this (treated) infection that she requires in vitro fertilization, of course. The reader then receives the play-by-play of what is involved in that process.

Ginger, Rose's youngest daughter is reminded by an event in her own life of the novel Marjorie Morningstar. Either she or Ms. Jaffe didn't read the same novel as I did, because her take on the matter was surely not what Herman Wouk intended. Ginger seemed to think that when Marjorie went to Paris to bring Noel Airman back, she left because she found out that Noel was not what he was pretending to be (Marjorie knew well by this time what he was, and he had told her many times), and that she left Paris because she found out Noel didn't love her. On the contrary, Noel did love her and proposed marriage to her when she came to see him in Paris. She left because she finally got it through her noggin that he would not be a good husband, and his lifestyle was not what she wanted after all. She didn't stick around to sightsee in Paris (which Ginger said she certainly would have), because after undergoing such a life-changing realization, Marjorie just wasn't in the mood.

Another complaint I have about the book (go no further if you have not read it yet)is her treatment of the Joan/Peggy situation. Peggy and Joan are sisters, and Peggy is the smug, perrfect one, married very young, living in the suburbs with her perfect husband and children. Her son is at day camp. Joan, the "different" sister, comes to visit. They are on the "lawn" (not sure if this is the backyard or front yard)sunning themselves. Peggy, out of the blue, brings up Eskimo Pies. This causes her 3 year old daughter Marianne to begin screeching for ice cream unrelentlessly. Joan wishes that Peggy, as her mother, would shut her daughter up. Peggy, however, does not. Joan then offers to drive to the store for ice cream. Joan gets in the car, backs up, and feels a thump. Marianne has run away from her mother, behind the car, and gotten run over. For this, Peggy hates Joan. Joan is a murderer. Joan gets the entire blame, although everyone realizes that Marianne was too small for her to have seen behind the station wagaon. Never does Ms. Jaffe have any of the characters address the fact that Peggy was not watching her own child, and was certainly more to blame than Joan. Joan feels so badly about Peggy hating her, that she contrives a plan to get Peggy out of her drunken depression, at a huge sacrifice to herself. Her plan works, but Peggy hates her even more for it. At the end, Peggy admits to herself that she and Joan both wanted Marianne to shut up, and she felt guilty that she DID shut up (forever). However, Peggy doesn't explain why she didn't bother to discipline her own child, and admit her responsibility for what happened.

Rating:
Summary: Page-Turner
Review: The Road Taken is a page-turner. I picked the book up on Friday and resurfaced on Sunday evening after reading non-stop all weekend. This book tells the story of a family over the course of the 20th century. Through the telling of this engulfing story (and it would seem a sizable amount of research) this novel sheds light on the fascinating developments of our past century. A great read, fun and smart - I felt a little sad when I finished the book, this rich and absorbing story had become a part of my life. I would highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Walk in the shoes of Rose Smith
Review: The Road Taken takes you on journey through fast changing times of Rose Smith and her family. From the mysterious death of her mother, through the free-sprited lifestyles of her daughter and grandchildren. The novels goes deeply into issues such as early methods of birth control which in today's society would be consider barbaric. To the the taboos of sexualty and virginity way before the sexual revolutions of the sixties and seventies. The Road Taken is a great history lesson for poeple how would like to take it another level.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best!
Review: The Road Taken was such a great story and interesting account of the 1900's it is now being passed around amongst my friends. Everyone that has read this novel has fallen in love, not only with Rose with whom the storyline is based, but also with every one of her family members. Each personality bears some familiarance with someone I know, or would easily like to know. Although there are many pages, it is a quick read. It is page-turner and a tearjerker at moments, but mostly it is a story of heart. Through the generations the author recounts so much about the different time periods the reader gains a better more humane history about America's past. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in their country's past through interesting character's that have the power to bring you there.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best!
Review: The Road Taken was such a great story and interesting account of the 1900's it is now being passed around amongst my friends. Everyone that has read this novel has fallen in love, not only with Rose with whom the storyline is based, but also with every one of her family members. Each personality bears some familiarance with someone I know, or would easily like to know. Although there are many pages, it is a quick read. It is page-turner and a tearjerker at moments, but mostly it is a story of heart. Through the generations the author recounts so much about the different time periods the reader gains a better more humane history about America's past. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in their country's past through interesting character's that have the power to bring you there.