2014 book 161

Rainbow Rowell's Landline
At last, it is here, the long-awaited (by me) return to adult fiction for Rainbow Rowell! And obviously it was charming and delightful. It features a sitcom writer named Georgie whose marriage is not doing great, and whose husband takes to kids to Omaha for Christmas while she stays in LA to work. The, while staying at her mother's, she uses the old landline phone to call her husband--only she's calling him in the past. Basically, this is the portrait of their relationship/family, and I spent a LOT of it wondering how autobiographical it is. There are some great side characters--I especially liked Georgie's sister and mom and everything with their pugs--though Georgie's writing partner is a real weak point. And the writing itself feels a bit awkward at times. BUT is is still all super cute and I am glad it exists. Side note, there are discussion questions--really goofy discussion questions, like "Are you old enough to remember talking on a landline?"--on the very next page after the book ends, which is kind of jarring. Give us a couple pages to digest an ending, book designers! B+.