- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Headline Review; First Printing edition (6 Mar 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755329406
- ISBN-13: 978-0755329403
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 999,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
My Latest Grievance
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'As wise as Solomon and as funny as early Joan Rivers'
(Maureen Lipman )‘Lipman’s book is a satirical but heart-warming family portrait. As in her previous novels, she uses her characteristic charm and humour to address serious issues, such as adultery, dementia and anti-Semitism’
(Daily Express )‘Lipman – known for her wit, sharp societal observations, and lovely command of language – has created a novel of warmth, wisdom, love, and redemption that is funny and fun to read'
(Booklist )Sunday Telegraph
'Lipman's wit and style are all her own. She is one of the best comic writers around'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Elinor Lipman's novels are a delight to read, and I eagerly await the publication of each of her books. She is a master of comic prose, witty dialogue, and improbable plots that make the reader squirm with discomfort, as her characters teeter on the brink and often fall into the precipice of socially unacceptable behavior. I find myself thinking, "Oh no, she's not going to go there", and then I gleefully wonder how is she going to do it. One thing is certain: her plots are never predictable. "My Latest Grievance" is narrated by precocious 17 year old Fredericka Hatch who is the very observant only child of David and Aviva Hatch. They are socially liberal, politically correct parents who teach at a small eastern women's college where they live as houseparents in a dormitory. David is also the faculty union president and handles co-workers' grievances against management. Their dormitory apartment is the only home that Fredericka has ever known, and she has been treated since infancy as a college mascot. Fredericka knows everyone and everything that is going on. She is smug in her belief that her parents share everything with her. Then, one day she receives a pearl necklace from Laura Lee French and learns that Laura Lee was her father's first wife. Although Laura Lee's initial motivation is unclear, she insinuates herself into their lives by applying for and getting a job as housemother in a neighboring dormitory. Laura Lee is embarrassingly flamboyant, self-involved, histrionic, and above all a sexy manhunter who sets her sights on the college president. To put it mildly, Laura Lee is the antithesis of David and Aviva French, and her indiscretions snowball into a veritable avalanche of repercussions. Snappy dialogue and Fredericka's sardonic observations make this a quick and entertaining read. However, it's not quite as satisfying as Lipman's earlier works: "Then She Found Me", "Isabel's Bed" or "The Inn at Lake Devine". The ending of "My Latest Grievance" is not romantic but equitable.
Format:Paperback
This is the first book by Elinor Lipman I have read and I was not disappointed. The main protagonist is a precocious brat at times, the result of a liberal upbringing surrounded mainly by adults and is therefore ahead of other kids her age. She starts meddling in the lives of the adults which leads to hilarious and somewhat unforeseen, tragic consequences, as a result of which, she realises she might not be as clever as she thinks and subsequently grows up and redeems herself and the situation she has helped to create. A very well written and intelligent novel.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
32 reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A major disappointment
18 July 2006
Format:Hardcover
I was reluctant to write this review, because I'm a huge fan of Lipman's novels and, as I have written elsewhere, think "The Inn at Lake Devine" was one of the best novels of the last decade of the 20th century. Furthermore, I was excited about the premise of this novel, the "Eloise of a women's college" idea.
The plot is thin. Frederica is the child of the Marshalsea (an obvious allusion Lipman misses) for a women's college in Brookline, Mass. Her parents are faculty members who have served as house parents since before she was born; they have no car, and fight the school administration as union activists. Into their lives comes Laura Lee French, who turns out to be David Hatch's ex-wife and cousin, of whose existence Frederica was entirely unaware. Then Laura Lee becomes a house mother on campus, and seduces the new president of the college, causing his wife to attempt suicide and become an invalid. During the great snow of 1978, the plot resolves.
There are good things here. The character of Frederica herself is interesting and charming. The conflict between her labor agitator parents and the anachronistic women's college (formerly a secretarial school) in the late 70's, rings true. So too are the glimpses we see of Frederica's social life, such as it was, at Brookline High School, and the obvious limitations caused by living on a college campus and having parents who don't own a car. The best part of the book was the allegedly democratic way in which Frederica is raised, which is a transparent means by which her parents, and her mother in particular, manipulate her.
The main problem I had with the book was with the engine for the plot, her father's ex-wife and cousin Laura Lee French. To me, Laura Lee enters the novel with the label "literary device" so firmly attached to her forehead I couldn't see past it. Laura Lee, it turns out, is the cause of the family's living on campus, because she has been living off David's alimony since he left her for Aviva, Frederica's mom. David's mother has always preferred her to Aviva. Her own mother and David's mother are close. Yet somehow her very existence was hidden from Frederica for all those years, years during which, it would seem to me, liberal labor activists' views on divorce would have gone through such a transformation as to make the entire story trivial to their daughter. Instead, it is treated like a state secret, making Laura Lee's advent at the college even more of a temptation to Frederica.
The other thing that bothered me about this book is that people always seem to be talking in speeches, not dialogue, and they tend to share what I think were unlikely views of marriage, divorce and sex for the time and the place (in the interests of full disclosure, I was living about five miles away at the time the book took place). Where is the person to say "divorce? who cares?" or "so they're sleeping together, big deal?" This was 1978, the eye of the hurricane between the advent of the pill and the discovery of HIV, the one real time where free love seemed to have no consequences. This book takes place in a women's college in one of the most liberal towns in America at exactly this moment in history, and (despite the hints about what the students themselves are doing), I simply don't recognize the time or the place in this novel.
The plot is thin. Frederica is the child of the Marshalsea (an obvious allusion Lipman misses) for a women's college in Brookline, Mass. Her parents are faculty members who have served as house parents since before she was born; they have no car, and fight the school administration as union activists. Into their lives comes Laura Lee French, who turns out to be David Hatch's ex-wife and cousin, of whose existence Frederica was entirely unaware. Then Laura Lee becomes a house mother on campus, and seduces the new president of the college, causing his wife to attempt suicide and become an invalid. During the great snow of 1978, the plot resolves.
There are good things here. The character of Frederica herself is interesting and charming. The conflict between her labor agitator parents and the anachronistic women's college (formerly a secretarial school) in the late 70's, rings true. So too are the glimpses we see of Frederica's social life, such as it was, at Brookline High School, and the obvious limitations caused by living on a college campus and having parents who don't own a car. The best part of the book was the allegedly democratic way in which Frederica is raised, which is a transparent means by which her parents, and her mother in particular, manipulate her.
The main problem I had with the book was with the engine for the plot, her father's ex-wife and cousin Laura Lee French. To me, Laura Lee enters the novel with the label "literary device" so firmly attached to her forehead I couldn't see past it. Laura Lee, it turns out, is the cause of the family's living on campus, because she has been living off David's alimony since he left her for Aviva, Frederica's mom. David's mother has always preferred her to Aviva. Her own mother and David's mother are close. Yet somehow her very existence was hidden from Frederica for all those years, years during which, it would seem to me, liberal labor activists' views on divorce would have gone through such a transformation as to make the entire story trivial to their daughter. Instead, it is treated like a state secret, making Laura Lee's advent at the college even more of a temptation to Frederica.
The other thing that bothered me about this book is that people always seem to be talking in speeches, not dialogue, and they tend to share what I think were unlikely views of marriage, divorce and sex for the time and the place (in the interests of full disclosure, I was living about five miles away at the time the book took place). Where is the person to say "divorce? who cares?" or "so they're sleeping together, big deal?" This was 1978, the eye of the hurricane between the advent of the pill and the discovery of HIV, the one real time where free love seemed to have no consequences. This book takes place in a women's college in one of the most liberal towns in America at exactly this moment in history, and (despite the hints about what the students themselves are doing), I simply don't recognize the time or the place in this novel.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
A diamond in the rough-not Elinor Lipman at her best-but close to it
26 April 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a devoted fan of the divine Ms. Elinor Lipman I was a little disappointed with this novel-at first. In the early chapters, which are all background and setting information I thought there was no plot. And in fact, through much of the book, I still thought there was no plot. But then I remembered what I liked about Elinor Lipman.
She tells stories. Real stories like someone would tell to a friend about this crazy/amazing/totally ordinary thing that happened in their life. My first read of hers was Isabel's Bed-which basically has no plot. It's a story-and stories don't need a real plot. They just tell what happens.
So she takes these stories and twists them with an often hilarious narrative point of view. This author does not deserve to be classified as a beach read-she writes real novels. Why is it that ever enjoyable book is stigmatized in some way? I love what Ms. Lipman writes-and no matter what others think I think she deserves awards for it.
The title of the book is not what it seems. Grievance in this setting means a complaint to a union about contractual obligations. In 1978 Frederica Hatch is the 16 year old daughter of two union rabble rising professors-and she's lived her whole life as the campus darling in a dorm apartment. Then, along comes Laura Lee, her father's first, dancing non union, wife-and everything gets stirred up.
This book is a little like a diamond in the rough-it needs some polishing. There are too many chapters that don't advance the story and too many assumptions on behalf of the narrator, some parts are even boring. But other than that this is what Lipman does best-a first person narrative of something that happened to them-told as it would be to a friend.
Four point five stars.
She tells stories. Real stories like someone would tell to a friend about this crazy/amazing/totally ordinary thing that happened in their life. My first read of hers was Isabel's Bed-which basically has no plot. It's a story-and stories don't need a real plot. They just tell what happens.
So she takes these stories and twists them with an often hilarious narrative point of view. This author does not deserve to be classified as a beach read-she writes real novels. Why is it that ever enjoyable book is stigmatized in some way? I love what Ms. Lipman writes-and no matter what others think I think she deserves awards for it.
The title of the book is not what it seems. Grievance in this setting means a complaint to a union about contractual obligations. In 1978 Frederica Hatch is the 16 year old daughter of two union rabble rising professors-and she's lived her whole life as the campus darling in a dorm apartment. Then, along comes Laura Lee, her father's first, dancing non union, wife-and everything gets stirred up.
This book is a little like a diamond in the rough-it needs some polishing. There are too many chapters that don't advance the story and too many assumptions on behalf of the narrator, some parts are even boring. But other than that this is what Lipman does best-a first person narrative of something that happened to them-told as it would be to a friend.
Four point five stars.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Engrossing and generous
16 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
I thought this novel was excellent, keeping me up way too late on several nights that I really shouldn't have stayed up! The story unfolded in a believable way and the characters reminded me of people I know and universities where I lived and studied. Lipman's quick mind shows itself in the things she DOESN'T spell out. In this respect, the dialogue is particularly entertaining. Really wonderful - I hope you like it, too!
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