Modern Lovers
Written by Emma Straub
Narrated by Jen Tullock
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
"It's 'Friends' meets 'Almost Famous' meets the beach read you'll be recommending all summer." -TheSkimm
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Vacationers, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from college- and what it means to finally grow up, well after adulthood has set in.
Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.
Straub packs wisdom and insight and humor together in a satisfying book about neighbors and nosiness, ambition and pleasure, the excitement of youth, the shock of middle age, and the fact that our passions-be they food, or friendship, or music-never go away, they just evolve and grow along with us.
Emma Straub
Emma Straub lives in New York City. She is the author of a short-story collection, Other People We Married. Her first novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, is published by Picador.
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Reviews for Modern Lovers
290 ratings18 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book. The story was easy for me to identify with and i liked the multidimensional characters, which didn't have the classical pro- and antagonists. Nice work by Ms. Straub.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received the arc copy for an honest review, thank you!I honestly love the cover and yes, I do my first judgement about the book by its cover, it’s like walking the department store and searching for something interesting!Modern Lovers is an adult contemporary novel and I mean you have to be, without any offence to anybody – matured enough to understand the beauty of the book and it’s story. It was funny, surprising, crazy poisonous, capturing the essence of daily life and it’s aspects – where the author has successfully maneuvered successfully between 6 total main characters. Yes, I will say 6, including the teenagers between both families.The book reveals at many stages what’s behind the characters, how they figure out what may other “your half ” is and at the same where each of the characters are them self, who they want to be and how events actually turn and have always been there. Honestly while reading the book, I had mixed feelings about the plot, about the characters and I am glad I stick till the end – it’s full with interesting quotes to write down, relating marriage and personal life. How each character makes sense!I found the surface of the plot moving like a river, when your life takes turns and may be affected by others and you have not a slightest idea and you won’t ever, if something doesn’t go wrong…we forget, we tend to forget what has happened, maybe we remember for a while but that’s about it, we will forget the details that once seemed important as the newer ones will cover the older one. It’s interesting what you memory can remember and forget. and what will suddenly pop-up.This is a book about 4 adults who live close nearby, their teenage kids who are about to make their debut first “baby steps” for not being kids anymore. This is about friends who in their youth were playing in the band, they were pretty wild and all had very mixed personalities how they felt about each other, but hey, they were producing a music together and it worked for a while until it didn’t. One of the member’s died young but the other moved on without questioning it much, additionally another spouse is joining the circle and they turn into adults with adult life and responsibilities…and the problematic issues takes place…it’s a book which has written a glimpse of relationships, one way how we solve or not solve the daily small nuances or do they matter at all.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I usually thank the publishers/First to Read/the author but this time I have to thank my best friend for lending me this book (for far longer than she probably expected to be without it.)This book was just the light-hearted YA-ish novel I needed, after reading so much historical fiction. Plus the cover is so bright and fun, I couldn't not be drawn to it.I enjoyed the fact there wasn't any 'perfect' family dynamic for Zoe and Jane or Elizabeth and Andrew, and there weren't any perfect friendships either. Flawed characters that felt real enough that I didn't roll my eyes at any drama or think 'this is so unrealistic'. Sure, some of it was indeed dramatic, maybe overly so, with the moody teenager who hates everyone and everything, the nerdy virgin who has a crush on the moody teenager, the sex in the park, the restaurant fire, the lost husband who turns to a scam he thinks is going to payout in the end, but I could tolerate it, which is quite significant for me.Modern Lovers is an easy, fun read that I think a lot of people can enjoy for what it is. It's not going to be the greatest book you've ever read, but it's quick and it's fun and clears your palate for heavier books you know you're in for in the near future!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emma's done it again! :-)
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.5/5 I wavered with this story. At times I loved it and at other times I felt it was trying too hard and sort of disjointed. I wish I had gotten around to reading it this summer, it's definitely a seasonal read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting story of almost-empty-nesters examining their relationships with their children and their partners and looking back on their past. Some good passages. Not great literature, but an ok read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll have to disagree with most of the reviews on here. Maybe it has to do with what kind of book you want to read at the time, because I liked it! I had just finished back to back books about sorrow, loss, tragedy, all the good stuff in those books that really make you really feel something. So when I started this book I wasn't looking for something to make me feel any profound emotion. I was just looking for a simple story, and that's what this book is. It's a story, what the first 5 episodes of an ABC family drama might look like.
We follow the lives of two families, 3 college friends living next door to each other in Brooklyn and how their mid-life crisis all go down. I thought the characters were semi interesting and realistic, there have to be a few old punk rockers wandering around NYC right now feeling the same nostalgia and distaste towards the hipsters invading their neighborhoods and tropes.
I enjoyed myself throughout the read and kept thinking about it everytime I put the book down. Being an early 20s young adult living in NYC, this book might have resonated with me in different ways. I liked hearing about streets and train stations I recognized and even found myself wondering if I'll be looking back in 20 years trying to decide if I were cool or not. Regardless of that answer, I think it's a good read. 7/10 would recommend. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An interesting meditation on relationships. I enjoyed the comparison of the two middle aged couples with their teenage children. I liked how character driven the novel was--there really wasn't much by way of plot but it was still compelling. I thought Jane was the least developed character, but that is a minor fault. I really liked the author's writing and how she was able to get into the heads of the characters without writing in first person, and how she easily went back and forth between characters. The writing reminded me a bit of Rainbow Rowell. My biggest complaint was that I just didn't identify very well with any of the characters. Andrew especially--mid-life crisis because you haven't figured out your vocation because you've always been able to live off your parents' trust fund?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cool book. Enjoyed the twist and turns although some things were predictable.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's good and predictable and it's also beautiful story Xoxo
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was a tone down or fluffy version of Daisy Jones and the Six. I listened to the book and was interested, but not as good as one of her other books I just read Time After Tomorrow, I believe.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An interesting read - part coming of age/part mid-life crisis - There’s a quote in the novel that summarizes the plot perfectly “A novel that both celebrates
the youthful embrace of reckless love and the way that older people struggle with those same feelings some decades down the line.” - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Emma Straub’s books are always well-reviewed, but I have never been able to get into any of her stories, and this book is no exception. I think I should just give up. Cosmic angst among upper-middleclass yuppies in Brooklyn just didn’t have great appeal for me. I kept asking myself, “Who ARE these people?” Time to move on.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/52.5 I really wanted to like this. It was alllmooooost there for me. It explored themes I can relate to on so many levels, such as passing the torch of adulthood down to your offspring as you step into middle age (all the while wondering if you have ever really discovered yourself). However, it does so in a such a shallow and lackluster way that It just missed the mark for me. The biggest twists were either eminent or predictable, the characters incredibly self-involved, and the whole thing read as a first world problems manual. Meh.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma Straub's books are such teasers. The covers are bright and cheery, but the characters are troubled and the stories dark. That said, I've loved both of the books I've read by her. Modern Lovers was my first audiobook, too, and it's safe to say I'm hooked!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I think many Nick Hornby and Julia Glass fans will enjoy this book that tackles relationships and rock stars. There are three couples here with something for everyone: a real-estate agent and her trust fund husband (former rockers); two lesbian restaurateurs; and their teenaged children. An interesting look at how the past affects the present of a relationship, and what celebrity does to people.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shifting perspectives happen as people mature. Take 4 college students who form a popular band in the 1980’s, with a lead singer who goes on to fake performing a song by Elizabeth. The early death of the lead singer doesn’t really impact the other three because they’ve gone on with their lives in Brooklyn NY, Elizabeth and Andrew have married and have a son. Zoe has married Jane and have their daughter Ruby. It’s a look at growing up and being able to move beyond problems to create a satisfying Now and Future.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Modern Lovers, Emma Straub, author; Jen Tullock, narratorThis book is aptly titled. It covers heterosexual love, homosexual love and teenage love in the modern world of today where the rules governing basic values, morality and ethics have definitely morphed into a different species. It is a world that is more accommodating and accepting of different lifestyles and behaviors.Three college friends who were once in a band called Kitty’s Mustache, are now 40 somethings living near each other in the modest Brooklyn neighborhood called Ditmas Park. Elizabeth and Andrew Marx are married. They are an interfaith couple. They have one child named Harry. Elizabeth is a realtor, but once she was the singer/songwriter of the group and Andrew was the bass player. Zoe Bennett and Jane Kahn are married and they have one child named Ruby Kahn-Bennett, a year older than Harry. Together they operate a restaurant called Hyacinth. They are an interracial, lesbian couple. Zoe was a member of the band who could play the piano and guitar.Ruby and Harry are teenagers and close friends. Their relationship deepens as they struggle to discover who they are and who they want to become as adults. Some of the adults seem to be stuck in their own childhoods or in the need to return to that time of life as they grapple with their own aging and growing pains..While in college, Elizabeth wrote a song made famous by a fourth member of their band, Lydia Greenbaum, who was the drummer and singer. The song, “Mistress of Myself” catapulted Lydia to fame, but like so many young famous entertainers, her life ended too soon. There is a movie being made about Lydia’s life, but Andrew and Elizabeth have not yet agreed to allow the song, a vital part of the movie, to be used in the film. Andrew doesn't want to have either his wife's past or his past behavior exposed on the screen for all the world to see, including his son and, perhaps, even Elizabeth. As secrets are revealed, they discover they may not know each other as well as they thought they did.Zoe and Jane are not sure they want to remain together. Their daughter Ruby is a free spirit with purple hair and very little ambition for further education. They are very progressive parents who do very little regarding discipline, allowing Ruby a great deal of freedom, trusting her judgment which seems to leave a lot to be desired, but they are busy running the restaurant. They nurture her, but are very busy working and are rarely home. She is left pretty much To her own devices. She often stretches the rules to suit herself.Ruby and Harry are friends, but Harry is a bit of a nerd. He usually follows the rules, but as his relationship with Ruby develops and he struggles to be less ordinary and predictable, he begins to break some pretty serious ones. All of the characters seem to be grappling with aging and growing pains with the adults yearning for the gaiety and freedom of the past and the teens yearning for the freedom of their future. Each, in his/her own way, begins to behave deceptively as a voice is given to the disappointment and misgivings they feel about the way their lives are turning out.Although they all face major bumps in the road, the consequences for the misbehavior and poor choices do not seem to fit the circumstances or feel particularly realistic. In addition, the author created characters that seemed immature and overly preoccupied with sex, above all else. I thought the narrator overdid it a bit, at times, so that I felt as if she became more important than the character she portrayed.On a positive note, the book was set in my old stomping grounds, in Brooklyn, so it brought back many memories of my own growing up and personal life crises, however, when I grew up, there were far more rules and regulations concerning appropriate behavior. We couldn’t think about running away to find ourselves. We had to face life a bit more responsibly and get a job to support ourselves. No one would think of turning to their parents for support. Rather we tried to help them, if we could.The book made me wonder if the pendulum has not swung too far to the left, since all of the characters, young and old, seemed to be unhappy and unable to face life as adults or soon to be adults, unable to deal with life's problems without some kind of radical, sometimes thoughtless, sometimes illegal, sometimes inappropriately naive and most often selfish solutions. Perhaps too much freedom, with too little thought for the consequences, is really not a good long-term solution for all problems. Selfishness, self-satisfaction and self-interest seemed to be the reigning theme in the novel as young and old struggled with coming of age.