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Summary
Summary
A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of The Great Man. Josie is a Manhattan psychotherapist living a comfortable life with her husband and daughter - until, while suddenly flirting with a man at a party, she is struck with the sudden realization that she must leave her passionless marriage. A thrillingly sordid encounter with a stranger she meets at a bar immediately follows. At the same time, her college friend Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star, is being pilloried in the press for sleeping with a much younger man who happens to have a pregnant girlfriend. This proves to be red meat to the gossip hounds of the Internet. The two friends escape to Mexico City for a Christmas holiday of retreat and rediscovery of their essential selves. Sex has gotten these two bright, complicated women into interesting trouble, and the story of their struggles to get out of that trouble is totally gripping at every turn. A tragicomedy of marriage and friendship, Trouble is a funny, piercing, and moving examination of the battle between the need for connection and the quest for freedom that every modern woman must fight.
Reviews (1)
Kirkus Review
Christensen, who wrote about passionate septuagenarians in the Pen/Faulkner Awardwinning The Great Man (2007), turns her attention to wilted 40-somethings. Manhattan therapist Josie realizes her long marriage to her professor husband Anthony is over. It's all very civilized. Anthony is sad but agreeable while their precocious 11-year-old daughter Wendy, adopted as an infant from China, decides to stay in the apartment with Anthony. Despite Josie's claims that Wendy hates her, Wendy seems remarkably supportive. Meanwhile, Josie's half Mexican college friend Raquel, now a major singing star, is targeted by scandal blogs after her affair with a television hunk half her age. Hiding from the media in Mexico City, Raquel asks Josie to keep her company, and Josie, on a two-week Christmas break from her practice, agrees. Raquel, who has been through drug rehab more than once, shows Josie a good time heavy on tequila, cigarettes and spicy food, with some church and museum visits thrown in. On the plaza they meet David, a one-armed native artist raised in Chicago. Through David, Josie and Raquel join the Mexico City bohemian artist scene. Tragedy will ultimately separate the women. Christensen couples a romanticizing, tour guide approach to Mexico City with cardboard Mexican characters for an uncomfortable effect. Despite lively sex and some clever early scenes, the novel has a tepid half-baked quality. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.