Jason Chambers: This week’s book is Outtakes From a Marriage, the first novel from Ann Leary, which centers on Manhattanite Julia DeLuca and her husband Joe, a rising television star. Julia discovers that Joe is having an affair and secretly stalks him via voicemail and gossip blogs while clumsily attempting to remake herself and her life in time for the Golden Globes.
I realize that I initially indicated to both of you that I did not like Outtakes, but that is not entirely accurate. Leary has an amusingly barbed edge when she picks a target, casting sharp ridicule on, in turn, competitions for pre-school enrollment, botox recipients, UWS mothers with nothing to do, celebrity, and a great deal of the entertainment industry. She has certainly had a platform to observe the latter, as wife to actor Dennis Leary. And when she is poking fun at all the right people, I think she is very funny. As you know, few love barbs, satire and ridicule like I do. Less compelling, I thought, were the characterizations of Joe, Julia and their children, which I thought were breezy sketches without a great deal of depth, as well as the marriage itself, which is largely undeveloped. I realize that the short scenes were meant to be “outtakes” — that’s the point — and not an fully realized description, but they were too much skeleton and not enough meat for my tastes.
Jason Rice: When I first came across this book I had no idea who Ann Leary was. It was only after a few chapters that a sales rep came through and told me, and to be honest, up to that point I was very impressed that this writer was so on the mark about a Hollywood marriage, at least what I knew from past books and what I can understand from having worked in the film business myself for a number of years. I wish I hadn’t found out who she was married to as it was very hard not to see Dennis Leary in the Joe Deluca character after I found out who the author was married to. (And I have my own problems with his television work, Rescue Me, and the plot lines, so that lead me to have a predisposed feeling about the book, not Ann Leary’s fault by any means). That aside, I think that we are not the ideal demographic or even the target audience for this novel. Immediately, Leary takes this iconic stereotype to task by showing the reader just how shallow and moneygrubbing this type of celebrity is, especially when there never seems to be a mention of how much things cost, nanny, private schools, having a car in Manhattan, never mind living in Manhattan. At the same time she is skewering this “type”, she is playing to the heartstrings of her ideal demographic, the female reader who is magnetized to chick lit, which is what this book is supposed to be. But it’s more than that. Right from the start I thought she did a magnificent job detailing a night out on the town, describing silverware and the sounds it makes on fine China (wonderful atmosphere), or that everywhere they go she realizes that everyone knows her husband and it’s as much a burden as it is a bonus to live in his shadow. I think the most daring part of this story is how Leary reveals a middle aged woman’s realization that she is not as beautiful as she once was, there is competition for her husband’s eye, and she has become a cliché. Especially when she mentions over and over how she won’t ever get that children’s book finished or write that article. What comes next is a slow meltdown of character who is realizing that her place in life is nothing more than a pillar to hold up a larger façade. What if Leary had written this novel from two perspectives, wrote alternating chapters from Julia’s POV and then Joe’s, but that’s a whole other book, and you’re right JC, these are just “outtakes”.
Dennis Haritou: I think it’s important to read against type at least once in a while. And it is certainly the case that few men would want to read a novel with the word “marriage” in the title. Men, I am positive, love and respect marriage as much as women do and perhaps need it even more. But men usually don’t want to hear anyone talk about it while women do. It’s not quite accurate to call this novel “chick lit” although JR doesn’t quite do that. “Chick lit” refers to stories about women before marriage and in the dating game. “Post chick lit”, if that’s a term, are novels about women who are married and juggling career and family. So Outtakes is post-chick lit. There is also “middle-aged chick lit”, an even worse term, that I use for stories about mature women whose children, if any, have left the nest and in which husband and wife are having problems holding their marriage together or the woman is having problems finding fulfillment in her life in her 50′s and 60′s. You will, I hope, excuse the way buyers pigeon-hole books sometimes but if you are buying hundreds of new titles a month, you have to do something to keep them all straight.
Back to reading against type: it’s a shame that more men are not likely to pick up this book because if they did, maybe they would gain a greater appreciation of how marriage can be viewed by the other gender. This story is told in first person, it’s Julia’s story and the marriage is seen from her perspective. We see, Joe, her husband from the outside. I share what I believe is the Jaces’ frustration that we never hear Joe’s side of the story. By the time I got halfway through the novel I was already taking Joe’s side even though I believe that it was the author’s intention that I not do so. I have to apologize in advance for paraphrasing Aristotle in a discussion of this casual read but in answer to the question: “Who wins at the Olympic games?” Aristotle replies: “Those who compete.” Meaning in this case, that yes, Joe makes a lot of mistakes in his marriage, but he is also taking more risks in life and in his career so it is not surprising that he is making more mistakes. I think that’s how a guy would view the relative merits of Joe and Julia anyway. But Julia is in first person in this story and it’s very hard and painful to criticize yourself. Joe, who is seen from the outside, can just be attacked as a disloyal husband. Ann Leary has a formidable balancing act to do in displaying the characters of this couple evenhandedly. Especially in the case of Julia, whose problems and defects must be shown on account of the first person structure of the novel, while Joe can just be talked about. I love this novel because Leary does such a great job in this balancing act: displaying Julia from almost too close while displaying Joe from a distance. Ann Leary writes the heck out of this story and I agree with the merits indicated by both the Jasons above. I don’t need to repeat them. But I want to add, wow, what a great opening scene! Leary gets right to the action by having Julia intercept a message from Joe’s lover by accident from Joe’s voice mail. Only she and Joe are having dinner with friends at the time so she can’t let on that anything shocking has happened. Just great. What a screenplay this novel would make and I would certainly pay money to go to see it as a movie. And how about starting an outrageous rumor about your own husband on Gawker for revenge? Ann Leary knows her glamorous, perverse world and she is a writer that people who read Outtakes from a Marriage will want to hear more from. Too bad those readers will mostly be women. Guys should take this book on as educational reading. “Just outtakes” guys? No, this book is a wrap.
JC: Dennis, I will agree with you on a few of your comments, and beg to differ on others. I like your point about reading against type. Of course, we started this blog with the tacit agreement that we would be willing to get out of our respective comfort zones. Naturally, when one does that, there is ample opportunity for disappointment, but likewise a chance at discovery, not unlike your description, Dennis, of Joe the risk-taker, who has greater probability of either massive failure or triumphant success vis a vis the insular security Julia’s day-to-day monotony. As well, I don’t think this falls quite in the chick lit category, as referenced above. Yes, the target is largely women of a certain age, but most of the books of that category hardly deserve even the abbreviation “lit” — maybe “chick fic” would be better. This book deserves something better than that. Outtakes has its merits, and I think others will like it better than I did. From a bookseller’s perspective, I can think of lots of customers in whose hands I would want to place it. For me, however, the sketches were too brief and the characters too undeveloped; Interestingly, all the while I read Outtakes from a Marriage, I considered it a better screenplay than a novel. I just thought that all the scenes that you, Dennis and JR, found so compelling did not add up to a complete book, and that, where acting and cinematography would fill in the gaps for a film, holes were left for the reader.
JR: Okay, so I was too hasty to tag this “chick lit”, it’s not, you’re right Dennis, it’s really post modern chick lit, heavy on the post modern, it certainly has a heavier tone and is thematically tougher than, say, Jane Green, or something even lighter than that, so my comparison was certainly ill-timed and a poor excuse for a description. What makes me most interested in this novel reminds me of what happens in a play called ‘The Doll’s House’ where the female lead automatically causes trouble just to get the attention of her husband who has shoved her into the stereotypical mold of complacent house wife. I saw that play on Broadway and thought how troublesome this woman is becoming to her husband, when in fact she just wants his attention, something she was promised when they were married. Now Julia is married, her husband has what he wants, a career, and she has what she wanted (or thought she wanted, now that she has it, not so much), a home, lots of money in the bank, children, and security, all nice things to have in a gilded cage, but after eating chocolate cake seven days a week she longs for something more and she gets it by picking at her husband. Leary does a wonderful job at shaping Julia’s complete loss of self, which is something that happens to parents right away and most couples manage it well, others do not, she’s given her life to Joe, taken care of his kids, (with the help of a nanny) and realized she’s just a warm body and nothing more. I know that sounds harsh, but if I’m reading what Leary is writing correctly I think that’s exactly what she’s trying to say. She does this in “outtakes” a narrative that is intentionally light and fluffy, but her real meaning is more revealing to the foundations of a family and marriage. But remember one thing, Julia is certainly responsible for keeping the home fires burning and making a home while her husband made a career, but she’d be on the street in a fifth floor walk up apartment on the lower east side if she didn’t have Joe and his career. Sure she’d get child support, but how would she become a person with out him? Where does Julia stop and Joe start?
DH: I have to say that I love where this discussion has been going. It’s great having three mind-sets tackling a book rather than just one. JC, I must admit that your distinction in evaluating this story…of it having the weight of a screenplay that has to be fleshed-out, rather than having the weight of a completely solid novel, has a lot of merit. Maybe that’s why I said that it would make a great screenplay. And I did suspect, reading the book, that the author’s primary writing experience was writing screenplays.
JR, thanks so much for bringing up Doll’s House. That’s a great comparison. But, of course, in Doll’s House, Nora ends up leaving her husband. I rather think that’s not going to be Julia’s route. I think that she’s going to stick it out and learn to live with the status quo. So it’s sort of an anti-Doll’s House. Early in the novel there is a scene that I bookmarked: Julia meets her best friend, Beth, at a Starbucks and Leary describes what Beth is wearing. At this early point in my reading, I had not yet decided whether I should “trust” the author to tell me a good story or not. So right away my porcupine quills were out: Why are we hearing about what this woman is wearing? Do we really need to know ? Does it help the story? I was quickly and impressively disarmed however. Beth’s clothing sense, secure and on-target, was compared to Julia’s, insecure and inconsistent. In that comparison of street clothes we had a great contrast between a confident career woman (Beth) who was centered, even in her own mistakes, and Julia, whose identity was all over the block. So how much sympathy should you have for Julia? I can’t answer that question. But if you were a woman, I bet you’d have more. So much for reading against type.
JC: A Doll’s House is a brilliant comp for Outtakes. Well spotted, JR. Of course, as DH noted, Julia is not Nora, and has not the fortitude and daringness that she had, in my opinion. She is scattered and starving for attention and, I think, disinclined to uncage herself.
I’m glad to have read and discussed this book, with all its shortcomings. As noted, I think that Ann Leary writes scenes with razor-sharp precision, and while I thought the book left some depth to be desired, she has a clear audience and a penetrating voice. I’ll look forward to future offerings, either in incisive short story collections, which is an area in which I think she could excell, or a larger, more developed novel. As always, Jason and Dennis, thanks for your participation.
Three Guys One Book is an independent blog developed by three friends who work in the book business. Dennis Haritou has bought books for Barnes and Noble for seven years, for warehouse clubs for five, and has led a book club. He is currently Director of Merchandise at Bookazine. Jason Chambers has been in the book business for over fifteen years, including tenures as General Manager/Buyer at Book Peddlers in Athens, GA, and seven years as a Buyer and Merchandise Manager at Bookazine. He recently left Bookazine to work in Boston, as an Independent Bookstore Consultant. Jason Rice has worked in the book business for ten years at Random House in sales and marketing and Barnes & Noble as a community relations manager. Currently he is an Assistant Sales Manager and Buyer at Bookazine. His fiction has appeared in several literary magazines online and in print. He is also the pseudonymous book reviewer Frank Bascombe who has written a monthly book review column for the film and television website Ain’t It Cool News since 2001.
Recent Comments