The New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day and After Her returns with a poignant story about the true meaning—and the true price—of friendship.Drinking cost Helen her marriage and custody of her seven-year-old son, Ollie. Once an aspiring art photographer, she now makes ends meet taking portraits of school children and working for a caterer. Recovering from her addiction, she spends … from her addiction, she spends lonely evenings checking out profiles on an online dating site. Weekend visits with her son are awkward. He’s drifting away from her, fast.
When she meets Ava and Swift Havilland, the vulnerable Helen is instantly enchanted. Wealthy, connected philanthropists, they have their own charity devoted to rescuing dogs. Their home is filled with fabulous friends, edgy art, and dazzling parties.
Then Helen meets Elliott, a kind, quiet accountant who offers loyalty and love with none of her newfound friends’ fireworks. To Swift and Ava, he’s boring. But even worse than that, he’s unimpressed by them.
As Helen increasingly falls under the Havillands’ influence—running errands, doing random chores, questioning her relationship with Elliott—Ava and Swift hold out the most seductive gift: their influence and help to regain custody of her son. But the debt Helen owes them is about to come due.
Ollie witnesses an accident involving Swift, his grown son, and the daughter of the Havillands’ housekeeper. With her young son’s future in the balance, Helen must choose between the truth and the friends who have given her everything.
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Remember in middle school, when the popular kid would talk to your friend and suddenly you ceased to exist? Well, in adulthood there are those that never quite grew out of that basking-in-attention phase. Sometimes, you just need to feel special I guess. The main character: Helen has found her people. They are wildly successful, resourceful, influential, fun, generous, and out of everyone else, they have chosen her as their new pet. And like a child eager to please, she is oh so easily influenced by her new besties. But as her wishes start to be dismissed and questionable behavior begins to surface, she is already too dependent on her new friends’ promises…and might I mention that she has already burned too many bridges with those that really mattered.
Under the Influence is my favorite Joyce Maynard book to date. It offers such a good lesson because Helen’s story is not far-fetched. It’s about flawed people who place their hopes and dreams in other flawed people who enjoy their place on pedestals like Gods. But you know what they say: If it seems too good to be true…
My favorite quote:
“Friends. There’s a loaded word for you. I know some people when speaking of a particular relationship may say, “We’re just friends”, as if this were some lesser form or connection to that of lovers or so-called soulmates. But to me, there may be no bond that matters more in the end than friendship, true and enduring friendship.”
I really enjoyed this storyline in this book. It held my interest and the characters really drew me in. Highly recommended and very realistic. The story felt very relatable on many levels.
Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard
2016
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mixed feelings about this book. It started slow but eventually redeemed itself. Unfortunately, it took me over half of the book to resign to finishing it.
The relationship between the main character, a lonely desperate alcoholic and a seemingly philanthropic couple is awkward and inappropriate. When Helen joins Match.com the couple look forward to hearing about her dating “plights.”
The irony of the title Under the Influence having a much broader meaning in regards to the characters in the story. It is frustrating when characters are manipulated and “influenced” by others. It questions what friendship means to people and what that would look would like. Is it a friendship when it is clearly one sided?
***I just read an ARC of her memoir due out Sept 2017 and it certainly puts this story into perspective for me. The Best of Us: A Memoir by Joyce Maynard is a book written from her heart with such blatant honesty. The struggles she endured financially and emotionally over the past few years explains the pain and confusion experienced by the character in her book.***
March 13, 2016 –
page 51…..17.71% “I’m still not sure how I feel about this novel. So far I am underwhelmed and questioning how I will finish this book. Not a good sign. Unfortunately, I don’t tend to not finish books, even if I put it down…somehow I need to know the ending. Forever optimistic.”
March 14, 2016 –
page 133…..46.18% “The relationship between the main character who is a recovering alcoholic and a married couple is beyond weird, awkward and uncomfortable. The main character joins Match.com at the urging of the couple and anxiously awaits the stories that follow after each date.”
message 1: by Kelly – rated it 3 stars
Mar 19, 2016 02:47AM
This book is making more sense to me now. The irony of the title Under the Influence having a much broader meaning in regards to the characters in the story. It is frustrating when characters are manipulated and “influenced” by others. It questions what friendship means to people and what that would look would like. Is it a friendship when it is clearly one sided?
Good Joyce Maynard book. Fast read, but full of substance.
Very good book. Couldn’t put it down
This is one of those books you find yourself telling all your friends…. You Gotta Read This Book! crn
This book was very unsettling as I was reading it. But I wanted to find out what happened, so I kept reading
I simply could not put this book down! The characters were so well drawn and interesting.
Not Maynard’sbest but very interesting. Read in two days.