{PDF} You Should Have Known

YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Jean Hanff Korelitz | 448 pages | 01 Jan 2015 | FABER & FABER | 9780571307531 | English | London, United Kingdom You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz So I suspect part of my problem with this novel was that it has been marketed as something it simply isn't. There is nothing thrilling here whatsoever. Not that there is anything remotely wrong with this - but if you pick something up because you are in the mood for a thriller, and instead get minutiae and screeds of introspection, which then is accessorised as a thriller cliff hangers plonked down as conversational gambit at the end of the very long chapters then is it any wonder that so many reviewers are talking about their frustrations as readers, rather than what they liked about the book? Which is quite a shame really, because Jean Hanff Korelitz can certainly write, certainly has insights to offer, and I personally got a lot out of reading the final quarter of the book. Some have said they felt the ending didn't do it for them, but I am wondering if this is also about the expectations the marketing has set up. But once I had accepted this was not a thriller after all, and that what was on offer was a story of aftermath and an albeit very, very slow emotional transition I stopped skimming and was hooked. Because up until then, I don't think there was ever any sense that anything that was happening to Grace was in any way about 'fucking with her' as it were, but more that she and Henry were unfortunate collateral damage. Indeed, the explanation offered in the letter that events had got out of hand while trying to protect them seemed far more tragically plausible. Mar 30, Bkwmlee rated it liked it Shelves: fiction. In addition to living among the upper echelons of New York high society, Grace also has a forthcoming book that is the culmination of her career experience and quite possibly could make her one of the most sought after therapists in the city. But the physical turmoil that she goes through pales in comparisons to the turmoil in her mind and in her heart, and soon, the question becomes whether she will be able to maintain her sanity and rebuild her life. The first two-thirds of the book felt really slow and dragged out, mostly because the story would go off on various tangents every few pages, to the point that one simple scene could take an entire chapter to play out. Interestingly enough, in the last third or so of the book, the style seemed to shift in that the story went from slow and drawn out to very fast-paced, with one thing happening after another — it was almost as if the last third of the book was written by someone else entirely and not the same person who wrote the first two-thirds. Character development-wise, I actually felt the author did a good job with the main character Grace in that, by letting us the readers into her mind and making us experience first-hand the mental and psychological breakdown that she endures as the result of her carefully-manufactured world collapsing around her, it presented an interesting, thought-provoking commentary about relationships as well as human behavior. Tying the book back to the TV series adaptation mentioned at the beginning of this review — in reading what is out there so far about the series, one thing I found interesting is that there seem to be characters in the series that were not actually in the book. Also, in addition to Nicole Kidman taking on the role of Grace Sachs, they also cast Hugh Grant in the role of her husband Jonathan — this is significant because in the book, Jonathan is a character that is only talked about but never actually appears…yet in the series, it seems that Jonathan as a character will have more of a presence than he did in the book. Overall, I feel this book is highly readable, but for the right audience. It does give some interesting insight on relationships, but I think the length of the book and the convoluted way it was written will probably deter some folks from picking this one up. I was actually tempted to abandon this one myself during the parts that I felt were especially slow, but of course I continued with it and it does pick up pace near the end. View 1 comment. Mar 21, Jennifer rated it it was ok. I should have known after the second page that this book was over- written and under-edited. The description of Grace's office knocked this insomniac out. Seriously - better than Ambien. Yet I'd seen so many good reviews I thought I'd stick with it. And here's the thing - it's a good story. But mired in ridiculous details. You don't have to mention Birkin bags ad nauseum - and Grace's nestled in it's protective bag - to let us know she's privileged and around others even more wildly so than she. We got it. Mistakes bug me in a published book that has allegedly gone thru editing and proofing and this one had a gigantic glaring one. Or maybe I misread - not going to re-read to confirm. But wasn't the big dinner at her father's on Friday nights? She goes without Jonathan and then the cops come. Shocked by the news, she starts the next day canceling her appointments for Friday. And taking the kid to school. But it's Saturday, right? It would have taken much more creativity to lose the endless descriptions of wealth and maybe make Grace middle class. Now that requires some thought. But the real kicker was throwing in the love interest at the end. Just too much. View all 7 comments. Grace Sachs is living the perfect life. She is lucky enough to live in Manhattan in the apartment she grew up in with her husband Jonathan, a pediatric Oncologist at Memorial and her well behaved and musically gifted son Henry. She is on her son's private school fund raising committee and mixes with some of New York's wealthier people. She has her own business as a psychotherapist specialising in counselling couples and is on the verge of publishing a book on the insights she has gleaned from co Grace Sachs is living the perfect life. She has her own business as a psychotherapist specialising in counselling couples and is on the verge of publishing a book on the insights she has gleaned from couples relationship. Titled "You Should Have Known" it puts forward the theory that people whose marriages don't work out have often ignored the early signs that something about their partner is wrong for them before committing to a relationship. So life is rosy for Grace with pre-publication photo shoots and interviews This is a well written novel and the characters of Grace and Henry are well done. Grace is someone I liked and could feel sorry for as her husband was a real master of pulling the wool over her eyes and keeping her in the dark. However, Jonathan himself is largely missing from the novel as a character well as literally and so is any suspense element to the novel. The first half of the book setting up the collapse of Grace's world was very good, but I was then expecting more of the details of what had happened to cause Jonathan to do what he did and disappear but this didn't happen and the middle of the book feeling somewhat flat with Grace removing herself and Henry from New York and only late in the piece finding out some truths about Jonathan. It was an enjoyable read about relationships and how we can fool ourselves but not really a thriller. View all 3 comments. Feb 04, Nicole Overmoyer rated it really liked it. On the one hand, I absolutely didn't want to stop reading because I needed to know how things would turn out for marriage counselor Grace Reinhart Sachs. On the other hand, I absolutely loathed Grace Reinhart Sachs for about three-quarters of the book. This left me very confused as to why I cared what happened to her. Or maybe not so much confused, but guilty that I s There are a lot of things about You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz that leave the reader, or maybe just me, conflicted. Or maybe not so much confused, but guilty that I spent a long time hoping her perfect world would implode in on itself. I don't know if Hanff Korelitz intended for a reader to be against the main character in this book, but I was. Allow me to try and explain why I think I didn't like her. She's a rich woman, but not quite rich enough to never consider going on such a show. She's very much about keeping up with the Joneses, as it were. She clings for dear life to the things from her childhood, like the apartment she grew up in and now lives in with her husband and her son and the alumnae spot her son has at a ritzy private school. It's sweet, to a point. Of course, as any good RHNY cast member would do, she strives for more. Grace is a marriage counselor who wrote a book that nine people out of ten find aggressively judgmental.

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