Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

by: Ayelet Waldman

Published by: Doubleday

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann, Chanhassen (MN) Librarian

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is the story of Emilia Greenleaf, second wife of New York lawyer Jack Woolf, and stepmother of precocious preschooler William. As the book opens we see Emilia traveling to pick up William from preschool.

William is difficult to say the least, mostly due to his mother, Carolyn Soule, the well-known obstetrician. Carolyn hates younger Emilia for breaking up her marriage. She is also insanely obsessive about William's health and safety.

Emilia avoids the Central Park playgrounds, the paths with mommies jogging with their babies. Her baby has died a few months ago, and she cannot get over little Isabel's death. She is mired in grief, wallowing in grief, eating and drinking grief.

Having to spend time with William is hard for her; she feels rejected constantly. Every time she feels she is forging a bond with him, actually having fun with him, a small event seems to backfire and ruin the day.

The strain between Emilia and William and Carolyn and Jack is making all of them miserable. Her friends, her sister and her divorced parents try to help, but to no avail. Several cathartic and cataclysmic scenes with her husband, William, and her parents change her life forever.

Ayelet (pronounced I-YELL-it) Waldman is the wife of novelist Michael Chabon, and the author of Daughter's Keeper, and the popular Mommy Track mysteries. She is also an attorney, has worked in New York, and as a public defender in Los Angeles; she is currently a law professor at Berkeley.

Armchair Interviews says: This is one of the most honest novels about step parenting and relationships out there. It is joyfully tearful, and very funny in the glimpses of everyday life with children in New York City.