2013 book 137

Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Heyyyyyyy, it's another TIME TRAVEL STORY! Sort of. This one is more similar to the new Kate Atkinson than River of No Return. Greer (author of Story of a Marriage and Confessions of Max Tivoli [which I remember liking a lot, though I read it before this blog existed, and which I still think that Brad Pitt Benjamin Button movie stole stuff from, anyway, not relevant]) has created a world where it's 1985, and after the death of her beloved twin brother from AIDS, the titular Greta falls into a deep depression, and her /awesome/ doctor thinks electroshock therapy is the answer. Instead, it sends her back to another version of her life, in 1918, and when THAT version of her gets electroshock therapy, she's sent to yet another version in 1941. Who's also undergoing electroshock therapy. She cycles through all three, trying to deal with the different incarnations of the people in her life--particularly the man she's married to in two of them (who left her for another woman in 1985), and her brother and his heartbreaking situation as a very closeted gay man. It sounds convoluted, but it's really a well-crafted story, and one I really liked. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in June.