Julia Glass: The Whole World Over

Greenie is relatively happy in her New York life, with four-year-old son George, and psychotherapist husband Alan, except that the latter seems distant lately, and even the fact that her bakery business is going really well, doesn’t deflect the sadness that they don’t seem to talk any more.

When the larger-than-life governor of New Mexico invites her to audition to be his personal chef, and then to actually take the job, Greenie decides to go for it, hoping the change of pace will help her family. She and George have a lovely summer together, but she and Alan grow ever more emotionally distant with that many miles between them, and when a childhood flame turns up at the governor’s ranch, she tumbles into an affair.

Filled with interesting characters both in New Mexico and Manhattan, this book is the story of a year in one woman’s life, and that of all her friends, a year that culminates, not with the turning of the calendar pages, but the destruction of the twin towers – for it’s the events of 9/11/01 that finally cause Greenie and Alan to move back toward togetherness.

An easy, comfortable book with three-dimensional characters.