Book Review: "The Jetsetters" by Amanda Eyre Ward
“The Jetsetters” by Amanda Eyre Ward
**We received an advance copy of this book via Penguin RandomHouse
Synopsis:
When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the Become a Jetsetter contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can’t seem to find a partner; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them.
When she wins the contest, the family packs their baggage—both literal and figurative—and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened, forcing the Perkins family to confront the forces that drove them apart and the defining choices of their lives.
Can four lost adults find the peace they’ve been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back together? In the vein of The Nest and The Vacationers, The Jetsetters is a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood.—Penguin RandomHouse
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: Though the premise for this book veers into the cutesy, that belies what a lovely, heartwarming, affecting read this turns out to be. As one of three siblings, I love to read about sibling dynamics. Each one of the Perkins children is falling apart in their own unique way. Charlotte, a lovable if imperfect mother, is doing her very best to pull everyone back together.
A dark family secret lurks throughout the book and provides context for some of the worst family dynamics. It is to the author’s credit that this book is so delightful while wading deep into historical trauma. Charlotte, like so many women of her generation, was raised to place the utmost importance on appearances, both physical and social, and each child struggles under these constraints in wildly different ways.
Cord, Lee, and Regan each have reached a different critical impasse in their lives. Cord hiding his (male) fiance in order not to disappoint his mother, while ignoring the fact that he is harming his partner, is probably my favorite sibling sub-plot.
While a cruise is my own personal idea of hell (especially with recent events), I managed to be completely charmed by the adventures of the Perkins family. Ultimately, this book effectively shows how family of origin truly has the power to either save or destroy us, and sometimes both at once.
Tl;DR: If you’re into complicated family dynamics, sibling rivalry, and trauma handled with humor (and you should be), you should give this lovely novel a try.
If you liked this, try:
The Three Weissmans of Westport by Cathleen Schine
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