- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Random House; 1st Edition edition (Aug 29 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375502246
- ISBN-13: 978-0375502248
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #591,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Bridget Fitzmaurice, the narrator of Quindlen's engrossing fifth novel, works for a women's shelter in the Bronx; her older sister, Meghan, cohost of the popular morning show Rise and Shine, is the most famous woman on television. Bridget acts as a second mother to the busy Meghan's college student son, Leo; Meghan barely tolerates Bridget's significant other, a gritty veteran police detective named Irving Lefkowitz. After 9/11 (which happens off-camera) and the subsequent walking out of Meghan's beleaguered husband, Evan, Meghan calls a major politician a "fucking asshole" before her microphone gets turned off for a commercial, and Megan and Bridget's lives change forever. As Bridget struggles to mend familial fences and deal with reconfigurations in their lives wrought by Meghan's single phrase, Quindlen has her lob plenty of pungent observations about both life in class-stratified New York City and about family dynamics. The situation is ripe with comic potential, which Bridget deadpans her way through, and Quindlen goes along with Bridget's cool reserve and judgmentalism. The plot is very imbalanced: a couple of events early, then virtually nothing until a series of major revelations in the last 50 or so pages. The prose is top-notch; readers may be more interested in Quindlen's insights than in the lives of her two main characters. (Aug. 28)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Muttering a string of bitter profanities sotto voce at the conclusion of a particularly contentious interview, Meghan Fitzmaurice, the queen of morning television, realizes too late that her microphone is still on. Her on-air gaffe instantly becomes delectable fodder for Manhattan's predatory cocktail-party circuit, which is where her idolatrous younger sister, Bridget, first learns of Meghan's meteoric fall from grace. Normally the epitome of cool aplomb, Meghan can trace her uncharacteristic outburst to her husband's almost simultaneous announcement that he's leaving her after 21 years of marriage. Sequestering herself on a remote island far from the professional deathwatch conducted by the media and paparazzi, Meghan trusts Bridget to pick up the pieces of her abandoned life, including providing emotional and familial stability for her college-age son, Leo. Although such life-altering events constitute the novel's moral touchstones, it is in the minutiae of Meghan's and Bridget's lives that Quindlen poignantly reveals the sisters' individual strengths and faults. Moving from the fetid tenements of the Bronx to the ethereal penthouses of Manhattan, Quindlen pens a lavishly perceptive homage to the city she loves, while her transcendentally agile and empathic observations of the human condition underlie the Fitzmaurice sisters' discovery of the transience of fame and the permanence of family. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rise and Shine Shines Brilliantly!,
By Cheryl Tardif "bestselling suspense author" (Edmonton, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Rise and Shine: A Novel (Hardcover)
Anna Quindlen's latest novel Rise and Shine is a stunning masterpiece of emotional prose and brilliant insights into her protagonists and their lives. The story of two sisters, who are opposites in almost everything, including social status. This is what drew me to the book. Meghan Fitzmaurice, 'the most famous woman on television', made me think of Oprah, or at least of her impact on society. Although, I can't see the public's reaction being quite as harsh if Oprah let out a few irreverent comments about a guest or politician, not knowing her microphone was still on.When Meghan's derisive outburst lands her in hot water, her world comes crashing down and she must pay the price for her thoughtless actions. And while I found it and other events kind of comical at first, what happens later is anything but. Her husband dumps her after twenty-one years of marriage and a shamed Meghan goes into hiding, leaving everything and everyone behind. Meanwhile, her younger sister Bridget, a social worker at a women's shelter, searches for her, with help from her detective 'better half', Irving. As the relationship between the sisters is expanded upon, the characters become more frustrating, more poignant, more real. Other characters play their roles, intermingling with the sisters and leading to a story that weaves emotion with realism, and made me think of the movie Crash, where every life is entwined. Rise and Shine is a story of life, loss and redemption. There are certainly strong messages in Quindlen's novel--messages of love, family, commitment, perseverance and hope. Fresh, inspiring characters plus crisp dialogue equals first-rate entertainment! I highly recommend this book by the amazingly talented Anna Quindlen. It is the kind of read that goes just fine with a cup of hot chocolate, while curled up in front of a fireplace. With a box of Kleenex nearby. ~ Cheryl Kaye Tardif, [...]
2.0 out of 5 stars
Did Not Shine,
By
This review is from: Rise and Shine: A Novel (Paperback)
I read half way through this book and was so bored I left it for a monthand just came back to it and skipped through it to the end. I love Anna Quindlen's writing but this was a real loser. The characters were boring and some of the names, Tequila, Prevacator, ridiculous!! The ending was hurried and by that time I really couldn't have cared less about any of them. Hope she does better next time.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Superficial Satire Overwhelms a Story with an Unsatisfying Ending,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Rise and Shine: A Novel (Hardcover)
What is it like to be "the most famous woman in America?" What is it like to be her sister? What is it like to be her son? All of those questions make for an intriguing premise for a novel. Unfortunately Rise and Shine settles for developing the premise with all of the depth of a weekly picture magazine. Unless you have never read or thought about celebrities, little that happens will surprise or inform you. The ending is particularly grating in evading the potential for telling a compelling story.Where Ms. Quindlen (a stylish word slinger) goes wrong is in deciding that she wants to polish her premise with satire of the whole media business, our fascination with celebrities and the more claustrophobic elements of living on the top tier in Manhattan. The satire doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, fails to make us laugh or wince, and keeps the story from seeming like a serious attempt to develop the characters of the two sisters and the people in their lives. The story basically develops around the complementary relationships of Meghan Fitzmaurice, female host of a morning television show called Rise and Shine, who will remind many of Katie Couric, and her unmarried social worker sister, Bridget, who serves as mother stand-in for Meghan's son, Leo. Meghan is successful. Bridget is not. Meghan lives in the world of unreality and spin. Bridget lives in the gritty world of the housing projects. Their daily lives seldom overlap except for an occasional fund-raising appearance by Meghan to help Bridget's budget and when they happen to appear where Leo is. Into that static relationship a bombshell is thrown when Meghan finds herself no longer the apple of everyone's eye. Meghan retreats and Bridget tries to help pick up the pieces. As all of that occurs, other forces begin to move that derail both lives from their familiar tracks. In the long run, does it matter? You'll have to decide. I didn't find that the events mattered enough to make me happy I read the book. If the word craft weren't so strong, I would probably have graded this as a two star book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
