The Other Life Offers a Look (Or Possibly More) at the Path Not Taken

Quinn Braverman is a woman in mourning. On the surface, everything seems fine. She is happily married to a devoted husband; she has a young son who adores her; and she has a new baby on the way. But Quinn is an emotional disaster underneath her thin veneer of contentment. After she and husband Lewis receive difficult news about their unborn daughter, years of grief and regret catch up with Quinn, and she quickly reaches her breaking point.

In her novel The Other Life, Ellen Meister examines the two pivotal events that haunt Quinn: her mother's suicide, first and foremost; and her break-up with Eugene, a troubled radio personality whom Quinn was in a relationship with just prior to her marriage. The mother-daughter relationship between Quinn and Nan, her mother, is in many ways typical. However, Meister throws mental illness into the mix, as well. Nan has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a disease that eventually causes her demise. Meister expertly illustrates the often-difficult, but always-loving interactions between the two women. She does so in a wide array of scenes, from flashbacks, to private moments of Nan painting, to moments which are pure fantasy.

The fantasy aspect rarely works for me as a reader, but in Meister's hands, even the most unbelievable impossibility seems an easy reality. Quinn has long been aware of a parallel life that exists, one in which she stayed single and (somewhat) happy with Eugene. In that world, her son Isaac and her unborn daughter do not exist; her marriage to Lewis was never a thought. Now, for the first time, Quinn begins to consider crossing over from her "real" life to the parallel one accessible through various portals she can simply feel.

Can she leave Lewis, Isaac, and the baby, while simultaneously leaving behind all the heartache of this life? Is the life she's living on the other side that much better than what she has?

Meister has written a novel that speaks of the human spirit, with all its desires, selfishness, longing, and greed -- and yet, Meister also writes of enormous love and sacrifice. In her hands, Quinn is not a monster who dreams of leaving her family, but rather a broken woman seeking solace from all that ails her. As a reader, I struggled with Quinn's decisions as much as she did. Rather than seeming purely selfish, Quinn is a vibrant character who will fill readers with genuine empathy.

Ellen Meister is the author of two other novels, Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA and The Smart One. HBO has optioned The Other Life as an upcoming television series. Meister's publisher, Berkley Trade (a division of Penguin), is offering a giveaway copy to readers of A Worn Path. Scroll down or click here to enter to win your own copy of the novel. For more about Meister, visit her website or her blog Side Dish.

Monday Giveaway: Ellen Meister's The Other Life (Optioned by HBO as Upcoming Series)

I, like many other Americans, love me some Sunday night HBO. This is the night that begat Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, and many more favorites. When a book has been optioned by HBO, you know that a) it must be pretty good and b) it must get all kinds of crazy at some point. In this case, yes, it is; and yes, it does.

Ellen Meister's The Other Life is a little bit like The Time Traveler's Wife, but without most of the lovey-dovey moments. In fact, Meister's form of time-and-space travel is not so much time travel as it is parallel universe travel. That's right -- I said "parallel universe."

Before you instantaneously tune out and click over to another website, hear me out. You'll hear the whole story tomorrow, when I post my review, but suffice it to say: this gal (not a sci-fi/ fantasy fan) loved this book. Like, read-it-on-the-elliptical-at-the-gym loved it. And that is not easy. It may look easy, but sweating it out while balancing a book on a half-inch shelf is not simple. It takes enormous balancing and holding skills. It takes want-to (as in, you really have to want to read that book in order to do it).

Berkley Trade, a division of Penguin, is offering readers of the blog a chance to win a copy of Meister's The Other Life. In the novel, protagonist Quinn Braverman faces multiple life-altering choices. A quick look at the book from the author's website:

Quinn Braverman is keeping two secrets from her loving husband, Lewis. One is that the real reason she chose him over Eugene, her neurotic, semi-famous ex-boyfriend, was to prove to her mother that she could have a happy, stable relationship with the guy next door.

The other is that Quinn knows another life exists in which she made the other choice and stayed with Eugene. The two lives run in parallel lines, like highways on opposite sides of a mountain. There, on the other side, the Quinn who stayed with Eugene is speeding through her high-drama, childless life in Manhattan. Here, the Quinn who married Lewis lives in the suburbs, drives a Volvo, and has an adorable young son with another baby on the way.

But the important part of the secret—the part that terrifies and thrills her—is that she knows it's possible to cross from one life to the other.

That does have the ring of an HBO series, doesn't it?
 
In order to enter the contest to win a copy of The Other Life, fill out the form below. In addition to the usual name, email, and address questions, I'm also asking you to weigh in on the book's theme. Obviously, parallel universes aren't reality. But what if they were? What would you choose? The life you're living, or one you regret giving up? Tell me about your life choice, and I may share it on the blog when I announce the winner.