Sure it’s alternate history, but . . .
Rodham Curtis Sittenfeld (2020) What if Hillary Rodham had not married Bill Clinton in 1975? This alternate version of Hillary’s life starts out hewing pretty closely to well-known facts—college at Wellesley, law school at Yale, where she meets Bill. But then it takes a different trajectory, with Hillary as an unmarried law professor and politician and Bill on another path also. Throughout, the portrayal of Hillary is, for me, totally believable, and the dialogue is especially realistic. Take a fun ride through the ”what ifs” with Rodham.
Sure, it’s time travel, but . . .
This Time Tomorrow Emma Straub (2022) On the day that Alice turns forty, she’s reassessing her life goals—and getting very drunk. Unexpectedly, she’s transported back to her sixteenth birthday, in 1996. I don’t usually read time travel novels, but Alice is so endearing that I went with the premise. And Straub is writing a love letter to New York City as much as she’s exploring family bonds and the quandaries of aging.
Sure, it’s melodramatic, but . . .
When We Were Young Richard Roper (2021) Two men who are turning thirty get together fourteen years after an acrimonious argument separated them. Joel is a successful TV comedy writer in London, with a glamorous actress as his girlfriend. Theo considers himself a failure, both in his career and in his relationships; he lives in a shed in his parents’ back yard. The melodrama and emotion are heavy here, but the insight into the hearts of these two young Brits is worth the read.
Sure, it’s got lots of tragedy, but . . .
Count the Ways Joyce Maynard (2021)
The many sad and shocking events that punctuate Eleanor’s life are traced here from her childhood in the 1950s and 1960s up to nearly the present day. But I didn’t find this book depressing. Eleanor balances her career as an artist and children’s book author with her role as wife to her woodworker husband, Cam, and mother to their three children. Her musings on motherhood, in which she delights, touched me profoundly. The characters surrounding Eleanor are also deftly portrayed.