In this instant New York Times bestseller and “multigenerational narrative that’s nothing short of brilliant” (People), two sisters’ lives from the 1950s to the present are explored as they struggle to find their places–and be true to themselves–in a rapidly evolving world from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner. Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise. … were born into a world full of promise.
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.
But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?
In “her most sprawling and intensely personal novel to date” (Entertainment Weekly), Jennifer Weiner tells a “simply unputdownable” (Good Housekeeping) story of two sisters who, with their different dreams and different paths, offer answers to the question: How should a woman be in the world?
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Take a journey through the decades and bare witness to women’s rights, civil rights, sexuality, gender roles, and the lives of two sisters as they evolve in a dysfunctional world. Each sister has her own very layered story which allows multiple issues to shine. This is my favorite Jennifer Weiner novel to date. Check it out.
Jennifer Weiner has been one of my favorite authors, and writing idols, for a very long time. I was so excited to read her latest, MRS. EVERYTHING, because she always creates fleshed-out, very multi-faceted, complicated characters who become real to me. This book is absolutely brilliant. Spanning the lives of two sisters, their family’s expectations against their own desires, and covering very complex issues for women, MRS. EVERYTHING is an important, raw, visceral, unforgettable read. Just an astounding novel.
Exceptional.
Mrs. Everything is everything you could ask for in Jennifer Weiner’s new, wonderfully written, generational family saga. The book spans the lives of two sisters, Jo and Beth, who are 6 and 4 years old respectively when the book begins in 1951, ending in 2015.
This book gets so much right –
• richly drawn, fully human characters with easily relatable quirks, strengths, fears, dreams, regrets;
• family and sibling relationships;
• the coverage of each decade that passes and the societal impacts the carried;
• how someone can change paths again and again as they strive to get closer to the one that fits best who they really are;
• how those who love us best often hurt us the most;
• how we sometimes give up on our dreams because we’re just too tired of fighting for them anymore;
• how we can live the same event(s) with someone and see them totally differently;
• how in the end, all that matters is that we feel loved, accepted and seen for who we really are.
Mrs. Everything is a story you can get lost in, that feels real, and that you will close the covers with a sigh of satisfaction and also one of regret that it has ended. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Weiner doesn’t hold back in this beautifully executed, realistic portrayal of two sisters who couldn’t be more different—though there’s a little of each of them in all of us, I suspect. The book gives a front row seat on their colorful and hopeful journeys from 1950 to present day. The historical references and details of the time periods and clothes are wonderful. It’s a family story that doesn’t shy away from calling out the patriarchal BS and social injustices happening even today including sexual orientation and race discrimination. It’s uniquely told and filled with memorable characters that resonate with heartfelt truths and determination. I especially loved the part that explains the clever title. Weiner credits her husband for coming up it. Got to love when that happens.
The journey from childhood through adolescence to adulthood is full of struggles, pain, hate, love and happiness. This is a story of Jo and her sisters and the choices, often mistakes, they make to find what finally makes them happy even if it takes a lifetime. Jo’s daughters have the same journey and as she leaves them is at peace, but knows that women still must fight for the choice to be something else. This book was more then I expected and I am so glad it was.
I can’t get into the characters too much because it would be a “spoiler”. This book focuses on two sisters, Jo and Bethie, and how their lives are so different yet entwined because they are sisters. Their dad works in the auto industry and the family is able to move to a middle-class mostly Jewish neighborhood. Their mom only wants the best for them and tries to shape their lives. But these girls grow and mature in their own way — some surprising, some not. It was a good read — I’ll have to try another book by the author, Jennifer Weiner.
Not her best. But I’ll keep following Jennifer Weiner and look forward to her next book.
Jo and Bethie couldn’t be more different, and yet, I never found myself rooting for one more than the other. I love the take on what it means to be a woman and how we grow into who we are.
I really enjoyed Mrs. Everything! I loved that this book spans decades and that you get to grow up alongside the characters, as well as learning a little bit about the history of that time period. It really helps to show who they are, what has shaped their past, and who they will become. Wonderfully written story that I would definitely recommend!
Extremelly hard read. But every woman should read it. Sisterhood, motherhood…that was the life of our grand mothers !!!
Book Review: Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (2019) (Fiction)
3 Stars ***
This is one of the most difficult books I’ve ever read and/or reviewed. Maybe it’s a generational thing, or a life-style choice thing, but this is one depressing book. No one is happy for more than five minutes. We follow this multi-generational saga from the 1950s to 2022. The story is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of sisters Jo and Bethie, who should act like two nice Jewish girls in the Detroit of their era. Instead, we’ve got two miserable, entitled brats, who rebel against everything and everyone, trying to find personal fulfillment. Uhmm, good luck with that one. Chaos theory at work here.
The girls battle with their mother, each other, and their roles in society. Being a traditional wife and mother is a sentence into oblivion and life imprisonment. They each experiment with a number of crazy, self-destructive behaviors they can find: same sex relationships, hallucinogenic drugs, sexual promiscuity, lack of commitment to education and steady employment, backpacking around the world, bartering sexual favors for food and money, leaning on other people to supply their basic necessities, living in all female communes, hanging with the worst possible in-your-face-loser-men, becoming complicit victims of sexual exploitation, making relationship choices that invite friction for a lifetime, yada, yada, yada.
Needless to say, nothing works in their favor until near the very end when things look rosy., however short-lived. By the way, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to amass a fortune when allowed to follow one’s dream. Hmmm.
The book is boring. You can’t imagine how many recipes and dinner menus we are subjected to. Oh, and let’s not forget the explicit sex scenes between Jo and her lovers. Very surprising since this is not a book of erotica or a how-to book on sexual arousal for women. Or is it? Who cares? At about 18% into my Kindle edition, I already looked to see how much of the book was left to read. That’s how tedious this experience was for me.
The author’s message? Marriage and children can never bring fulfillment. Significance of title? Mrs. Everything = Misses Everything. This means the traditional roles of wife and mother insure that women will miss out on personal fulfillment, will be unable to travel freely, will be relegated to serving food and drink to their husbands and children, and must speak and act as expected rather than how they truly feel. There’s no room for discussion here: This choice can only bring misery. If the role of homemaker appeals to you, then you are brainwashed by societal and familial expectations. You’re not happy. You only think you are.
So depressing. In a million years, I would not want to be any of these women or call one of them a friend. They’re miserable, calculating, and strategic. No spontaneity here. They’re only kind if you agree to do it their way. If you embrace the idea of life as a merry-go-round, adding and discarding people until you find the one that will solve all your problems and make you happy to be you, then you’ll like this book.
Depressing
This was a very good book, it was entertaining in the way books keep you glued to the pages, it was also eye opening to the struggles of many different people, and it was heartbreaking, all these people just doing the best that they can and not being happy. It was a great book, I recommend it for everyone who has ever had to struggle because the feel they don’t fit in!
Jo and Beth are sisters who are being raised in a traditional home in Detroit during the 50’s. This is a saga really about their lives through the tumultuous 60’s and 70’s and their discovery of who they were and who they were meant to be. Jo was a tomboy who could never please her mom no matter what she did. Beth was the ladylike princess who pleased her mother tremendously. Neither grew up to meet the expectations of their mother, but perhaps in today’s standards, they surpassed it. I liked the historical fiction part of the novel although it did seem to drag at times and get bogged down in a time period. Plus, there were some scenes that were just too long, too. The prose was well-written, but again, too wordy for me. I kept skipping to the end of the paragraph or the page because it was too painful for me to read every word. I did not enjoy the “discovering sexuality” scenes at all, so that may be why I had difficulty with the book. It is a tale of so-called modern women discovering themselves and finding out if they are happy with their choices, so I suppose the whole gay theme was to be expected, but as a conservative Christian, these parts definitely turned me off. I gave the rating that I did because the characters were well-developed, the theme was an absolute one and there was a lot of research in order to include the historical elements. The plot seemed like kind of an after-thought, though and that was a disappointment to me. Fans of contemporary and women’s fiction will probably enjoy this book, but I would rate it for mature audiences.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, via a Goodreads giveaway. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
I’ve loved every single one of Jennifer Weiner’s books and Mrs Everything is no exception. The story of two Jewish sisters born in 1950s Detroit, it follows them through their lives and around the US as they make difficult choices and navigate the many constraints put on women by society (and sometimes by themselves). Wonderful and emotional.
Didn’t like the story; didn’t like the characters. Too depressing.
I am usually a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner. However, this novel was redundant, exhausting, and included an unrealistic amount of trauma and depressing events in one family. I truly think this could have been cut down at least 150-200 pages and then it could have possibly been a little better. The only reason I give 2 stars instead of 1 is that I know what an amazing writer Jennifer Weiner can be, and usually is.
I loved this book. It showed how the love, anger and chaos in a family can eventually find a way to resolve itself into something beautiful.
I can not begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book! I grew up in the Detroit area, in the ’60’s, and this was like a visit home. A page turned that I could not put down!
I adored all the characters…they were real and personable and I was totally invested in their lives.
The writing was Awesome and I can’t count how many times I was brought to tears! Such a good story! Rates a 5+!