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The Usual Rules: A Novel (Paperback)

by Joyce Maynard (Author) "Quarter past six. In ten minutes, Wendy would have to get in the shower ..." (more)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition edition (Jan 20 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312283695
ISBN-13: 978-0312283698
Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14.2 x 3 cm
Shipping Weight: 454 g

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #377,189 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Wendy, the 13-year-old heroine of Joyce Maynard's The Usual Rules, lives in a happy, haphazard Brooklyn household with her dancer/secretary mom, her jazz musician stepfather, and her eccentric little brother. Life for Wendy is fraught with the usual teen angst until September 11, when her mom heads off to work at the World Trade Center and never comes home. Wendy struggles through the days with stepfather Josh and brother Louis until on Halloween night her estranged biological father shows up and offers to take her home with him to California. On the West Coast, Wendy devises her own healing process of skipping school, hanging around with an unwed teen mom, and spending hours loafing at a bookstore. Maynard is very good on Wendy's grief. She tries on one of her mother's dresses and realizes with a shock it still holds her mom's perfume. She's undone for a moment, then reaches "for the bottle of aftershave on Josh's bureau and patted some on her neck and arms. If you were going to smell like one of your parents, it was better to smell like the one who wasn't dead." She's equally convincing when she writes about Wendy's developing relationship with her loner dad and her growing understanding that Josh and Louis are now her real family. This graceful book about loss and adolescence is marred only by its use of September 11 as its milieu. Maynard sketches in some scenes at Ground Zero and some firefighter characters, but in the main the book is really about a girl and her dead mother. Using the Trade Center tragedy as a jumping-off point doesn't deepen the story; in fact, it seems a bit opportunistic. Maynard should have trusted the elegant, compassionate material at the heart of her book. --Claire Dederer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

While the first 50-odd pages of Maynard's (To Die For; At Home in the World)new novel are emotionally harrowing, perseverance is rewarded. Set both in Brooklyn and the small town of Davis, Calif., following the events of September 11, the book tells the coming-of-age story of a girl whose mother goes to work one morning and doesn't come back. Wendy, who must bear the burden of having the last conversation with her mother end in anger, must also help care for her four-year old half-brother, Louie, while her stepfather, Josh, struggles to deal with his own grief. Attempting to escape her depressing surroundings and numb state of mind, Wendy leaves her family and best friend to live in California with her estranged father, Garrett. There she meets a colorful cast of characters, including Garrett's cactus-loving girlfriend, Carolyn. She also encounters bookstore owner Alan, who affectionately cares for his autistic son; a young single mother struggling to parent her newborn; and a homeless skateboarding teenager in search of his long-lost brother. The lack of quotation marks to set off dialogue makes the text difficult to read at times, and Louie seems a little too adult, even for a precocious child, but the intense subject matter and well-crafted flashbacks make for a worthy read. Though some may be tempted to charge Maynard with exploiting a national tragedy, most readers will find the novel an honest and touching story of personal loss, explored with sensitivity and tact. Maynard brings national tragedy to a personal level, and while the loss and heartache of her characters are certainly fictional, the emotions her story provokes are very real.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Quarter past six. In ten minutes, Wendy would have to get in the shower. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and Hopeful, Jul 10 2004

By	Susan Smith (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Usual Rules: A Novel (Hardcover)

Thirteen year old Wendy is a typical young Brooklyn teen who's anxious to grow up. She lives with her vivacious mom, who is an executive secretary by day, but a dancer at heart, her jazz musician stepfather, and Louie, her endearing four year old brother. Wendy's mother goes to work on September 11, and never comes home. After weeks of unbearable grief and sadness, Wendy's biological father shows up from Davis, California and suggests she return home with him. Wendy accepts, in part to escape the daily reminders of her mothers' death, and to learn about her father, now her only living biological parent. With none of the "usual rules" imposed by her dad, Wendy skips school and experiments with aliases as she meets colorful new characters. There is Carolyn, her dad's cactus-loving girlfriend, Alan, the benevolent bookstore owner and father of an autistic son, Violet, an unwed teenage mom, and Todd, a skater runaway with a big heart. Wendy creates a new life on her own terms, and discovers who really cares for her. She keeps in touch with her step dad and Louie, and returns to visit - or maybe to stay - the next spring.
This is a story of excruciating grief and loss, which Maynard treats in a palpably realistic manner, despite the opportunistic use of 9/11 as the premise. Wendy comes to realize that a person doesn't die in one day, but gradually, like "a balloon that kept rising until you couldn't see it anymore." It is also a story about redefining family in new ways. Written in third person, using lengthy flashbacks, Maynard does not use quotations, making the dialog difficult to follow at times. The book is long at 390 pages, and will likely lose some YA readers in the first 60 pages, which are tedious. However, Maynard has written a poignant story about a child's loss, and has written about the grief process with unusual sensitivity and clarity. We watch Wendy and her family turn the corner between "feeling like you can't go on anymore, and realizing that you will." There is a pallet of interesting and credible characters and the contrast between life in NY and California adds dimension to the story.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Usual Rules, Jun 30 2004

By	"dmgiglio2" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Usual Rules: A Novel (Hardcover)

Maynard's story, told through the eyes of 13 year-old Wendy, gives readers a colorable glimpse of post 9/11 grief. I found myself wondering about and praying for the real families who were left behind after that horrific tragedy!

An original, thought-provoking page turner to say the least.

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4.0 out of 5 stars 9/11 Tragedy from a Teen's Viewpoint, Jun 3 2004

By	IMM "spudtwin2" (Malta, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Usual Rules: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book was just as good as Maynard's memoir and other novel, At Home in the World. Like To Die For, she uses real-life current events as a springboard for the story. In this story, a 13-year-old and her family recover from the death of her mother in the World Trade Center disaster. This book is good for both teen and adult audiences. The unconventional Christmas dinner was one of my favorite chapters in the book. The only things I didn't care for were how the author told the story in an odd present tense and how she refused to use quotation marks for any dialogue in the story. Don't let this stop you from reading the book.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Maynard bends usual rules in sensitive exploration of loss
In the afterword of Joyce Maynard's sensitive and instructive "The Usual Rules," the author shares with readers her motivation in writing the novel. Read more

Published on May 23 2004 by Bruce J. Wasser

5.0 out of 5 stars The Usual Rules rules!
Wendy is exhibiting all the usual traits of a 13-year-old living in Manhattan. Things with her mom have not been so great lately. Read more

Published on May 7 2004 by Karen Pickard-Four

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching, moving novel...
I read this book on a whim about four months ago, and I cannot get it out of my head. Maynard writes so eloquently and fluidly. Read more

Published on April 2 2004 by woahbilly

4.0 out of 5 stars A Believable Story About Post 9/11
Wendy,the 13 year old heroine of this book,is a "typical" N.Y teenager with a loving mother and step-dad and younger half-brother. Read more

Published on April 1 2004 by Robyn Lee Markow