In Her Shoes

So here is when the "reading" part of Reading Cuisine kicks in. I just finished reading the book In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. The novel centers around the lives of 2 sisters. Rose is the older responsible sister. Rose is slightly over weight and dorky with very little fashion sense. What does lacks looks, she makes up for in brains. She is a an intelligent and very successful lawyer. Maggie on the other hand is not so successful. She is flighty, irresponsible, and has had dozens of different jobs. Maggie is also very beautiful and irrestitable to men. Both girls have less than perfect lives and struggle with the void in their life from their mother's death.

The novel is told from the perspective of a couple of characters. Not only do we, as the reader, read from Maggie's side and from Rose's side, but we also read from the side of the estranged grandmother, Ellen. After her daughter's suicide, Ellen was cut out of Rose and Maggie's lives becuase of the silent anger from her son-in-law. Therefore, much of Ellen's side of the story deals with her own regrets.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, though it did take me some time to get into it. It is definatley a book for sisters. Though not everyone has a younger, irresponsible sister or an older, dependable sister, but it is mainly a story of the bond and connection that sisters share. I did not enjoy the character of Maggie very much because I really got angry at how selfish she was. The last 3 chapters had me in tears! I am not sure that I would recommend this book to everyone. I would recommend it to a female reader, maybe the young professional type since that is where Rose and Maggie are in their lives and I think it was written for a younger generation.

The movie In Her Shoes, which was released this past year, was based on the novel. I have not seen the movie yet, but now that I have read the book I am anxious to the movie. I am curious to see how much they changed for the movie.