Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner (2009).I really liked Weiner's Good in Bed (2002), so when I heard she was writing a sequel, I made a mental note to check into it. On my way back from Las Vegas earlier this month, I broke my no-new-book-buying rule at the airport and grabbed a copy. I'm glad I did.
Certain Girls takes place thirteen years after Good in Bed, when Cannie's married to Peter and baby Joy has grown up and is about to have her bat mitzvah. The book is narrated in the first person by Cannie and Joy, in alternating chapters. Although I really enjoyed the book, I liked Cannie's chapters better than Joy's. Maybe this means I'm getting old and can relate much better to an overprotective mother than a bratty teenager, but it's mostly because the narrative exposition in the Joy chapters was in a voice that didn't sound like a twelve year old's thoughts. The story really made me see Cannie is a different way than in the first book. She's a really overprotective, even smothering mother.
Cannie's a best selling author of the book she wrote about her experience in GIB, but she hasn't written under her own name since. Instead, she ghostwrites a sexy action series. Mostly, though, she spends her time smothering her daughter, who of course rebels in small, secret ways. Joy reads Cannie's book and is horrified by what she thinks she learns about her mom and the circumstances of her birth. Weiner is so good at this--her characters are frustrating, endearing, and so real. I liked this a lot.
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