Reviewer: Leah
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
No One Could Have Guessed the Weather by Anne-Marie Casey is a story that follows the lives of four middle-aged women, their families, desires, and the directions their lives are now taking.
Due to the economic depression, Richard Lovett and his wife Lucy are forced to move from London to New York. At first Lucy hates the city and the changes she is forced to make, but through the bonds with her newfound friends she begins to embrace the city and with her kids growing older, focus on what she wants to do in her life
Julie is a TV executive who has separated from her husband and children as she felt too pressured and needed time to herself. She befriends Lucy and helps her adjust to living in New York; along with befriending her neighbor Courtney, who desperately wants the opposite of Julia, to be a mother and wife. But when a death of a friend occurs, Julia realizes that life is short, and that it is better to spend time when the ones you love, than alone.
Christy is the beautiful trophy wife of an aging husband, and is constantly finding herself obsessed with death, of her and her husband. After a loss of their nanny, Christy finds herself being the caretaker of their twins and finds purpose in her life and she now has something to do with her life. She also befriends the doorman and finds herself at a crossroads, should she stay with the husband she does not love or give into the passion she feels for another?
Robyn feels trapped in her current life, a life that started as her temporarily working while her recently published husband created more books, but turned into years of demeaning work, two kids, and nothing from her “genius” spouse. Robyn hatches a plan to get back at her husband’s inaptitude and all the prettier and more successful mothers from the school, but it quickly turns into a decision on whether or not she really wants to kiss her whole life good-bye.
While this book presents itself as a Sex in the City-esque novel about four friends living in New York and supporting each other, this is a fallacy as the fourth character, Robyn, is neither a friend or really involved in the novel. She is introduced at the end of the book, but is never given enough time to fully develop as a character. We hear her frustrations at her husband and how her desire for excitement in life leads her to have several affairs, however, because of her lack of involvement it leads the reader unsure whether we are supposed to like or hate the character, ending with more of a view of indifference than anything else. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the wheel of drudgery that she is trying to escape, or supposed to hate the way she trades her husband and family in, when she discovers a man that will fulfill her every material need?
The beginning of the novel is hard to get into as the style is told in short observations of the surroundings and the characters are never named. It is as if the author felt that by doing so, one could better understand the discomfort and loss that Lucy feels as her life is experiencing huge changes. It is not until she has fully accepted New York that we are taken into third person and reach a better connection with the characters. It also is rather corny how the author uses the title as the second sentence.
That being said Casey has some really strong points and interesting views of the characters. Lucy is someone anyone can connect to as the emotions brought on by her character as she faces massive changes, the demons of her past, and tries to figure out who she is and wants to be. She is a kind, caring, and a loving women, but also three-dimensional in her feelings and attitudes.
The other fascinating character is Christy, who as we read is more than just a trophy wife. Unlike most stories, we are given a view into why Christy chose to marry an older man and how she copes with a status and place in society much different than what she started in. We delve into the psyche of her character and their relationship/power placement between the couple. The friendship she creates with the other female characters, along with the doorman are especially endearing. And Casey handles the affairs and the decisions made the characters in a surprisingly distinctive and unexpected way. Her relationships with her stepdaughter and twin daughters are also surprisingly unique and different from those shown in other books.
On a whole this is a great read, and I recommend it to any chick-lit fan interested in friendship, fun, and New York City.
