Commuters

by Emily Gray Tedrowe

Overview

"Tedrowe explores the reconfigurations of a family and the strange alliances that can occur between young and old, love and work. And she writes brilliantly about money…. A deeply satisfying debut." —Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street

“A poignant meditation on desire, heartrending loss, and dreams deferred.” —Robin Antalek, author of The Summer We Fell Apart

Emily Tedrowe’s exceptional debut novel depicts the shockwaves set in motion by the sudden marriage of one middle-class family’s 78-year-old matriarch to a wealthy outsider. Commuters is that rare novel that offers something for almost everyone: “foodies” interested in exploring the rich tapestry of the New York City restaurant scene; the millions who have been profoundly affected by the current financial and mortgage crisis; or anyone simply looking for a beautifully drawn family drama in the vein of the works of Katrina Kittle (The Blessings of the Animals, Two Truths and a Lie) and Jennifer Haigh (The Condition, Baker Towers, Mrs. Kimble).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061859472
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/29/2010
Series:	P.S. Series
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Emily Gray Tedrowe is the author of two previous novels, BLUE STARS and COMMUTERS. She earned a PhD in literature from New York University and a BA from Princeton University. She has received an Illinois Arts Council award as well as fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. A frequent book reviewer for USA Today and other publications, Tedrowe also writes essays, interviews, and short stories. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

What People are Saying About This

Patrick Somerville

“So fantastic. This is the kind of book you would imagine Virginia Woolf might write were she with us is the 21st century: relevant and contemporary, relentlessly funny, deeply insightful, and fearless in its exploration of people’s private lives.”

Editorial Reviews

Well into their 70s, Winnie McClelland and wealthy Jerry Trevis have fallen in love, causing consternation among their extended family. Jerry’s daughter, Annette, in particular, feels financially threatened when her newlywed father moves from Chicago to a small town in New York State, where he’s purchased the largest, most ostentatious house in Hartfield for his bride; worried that her inheritance might go to Winnie’s family, Annette sues to freeze her father’s assets. Meanwhile, Winnie’s daughter, Rachel, has asked her new stepfather for a sizable loan to help deal with her ill husband’s overwhelming health-care bills. Annette’s son, Avery, a recovering drug addict and promising young chef, is also looking to Jerry for the resources to start up his own restaurant. Further conflict arises from Winnie’s plans to cut down a historic tree for a new front-yard swimming pool, a move that threatens to alienate the entire town. Tedrowe exhibits some beginner’s awkwardness in her debut, particularly in her self-conscious euphemisms for septuagenarian sex, but shows great promise in her compassionate, nuanced depiction of love—among the old and young alike—and her confident handling of alternating, multigenerational narrators. (July)

Publishers Weekly

In her wonderfully cohesive debut novel, short-story writer Tedrowe graduates to elegant novelist. . . . A lovely and literate family drama that wins bonus points for its sincerity and open-hearted delivery.” — Kirkus Reviews

“So fantastic. This is the kind of book you would imagine Virginia Woolf might write were she with us is the 21st century: relevant and contemporary, relentlessly funny, deeply insightful, and fearless in its exploration of people’s private lives.” — Patrick Somerville, author of The Cradle

From the Publisher

So fantastic. This is the kind of book you would imagine Virginia Woolf might write were she with us is the 21st century: relevant and contemporary, relentlessly funny, deeply insightful, and fearless in its exploration of people’s private lives.

Patrick Somerville

This first novel explores the effects of marriage on the families of the happy couple. When seniors Winnie and Jerry decide to wed, Jerry's daughter Annette starts a business war with him. Winnie's daughter Rachel realizes that she can borrow money from her wealthy stepfather to keep her family afloat after her husband's brain injury. Annette's son Avery starts to develop a relationship with his grandfather while Jerry and Annette are estranged and finds that he enjoys the older man's company and not just because Jerry is financing Avery's restaurant start-up. However, when Jerry's health begins a rapid decline, business, family, and money complicate the relationship between the families, who have been changed by their close association. The reader feels sympathy for Tedrowe's characters, even when they behave badly, and through the various threads, Tedrowe reminds us that love transcends social and monetary boundaries.Verdict This New England family drama will be a good book club selection.—Amy Ford, St. Mary's Cty. Lib., Lexington Park, MD

Library Journal

Love and money struggle for control of a modern family's affections. In her wonderfully cohesive debut novel, short-story writer Tedrowe graduates to elegant novelist with a winding, convincing familial drama about the ties that bind and the bonds that bend to the breaking point. The book opens on a small-town wedding in June, the stuff that rural newspapers love, as 78-year-old Winifred Easton McClelland prepares herself for marriage to powerful Chicago mogul Jerry Trevis. From her first steps into the story, Winnie is the most winning member of a multifaceted cast, a widow who has found love in the winter of her life. "She was marrying a man for the delicious and wicked and simple reason that she wanted to," Tedrowe writes. Jerry, too, is a splendid fiction, a stubborn old rogue with a soft spot for his girl and her challenging children, but one with a mean streak when it comes to his own rebellious offspring. Jerry's wealth and his old age soon inject chaos into this very extended family. Who stands to lose? First and foremost, Jerry's daughter Annette, who launches a power struggle with her father for control of the business empire. The mogul shows a soft spot for Winnie's daughter, Rachel, whose acceptance of a loan from her new stepfather only serves to hide the failures of her lazy and financially incompetent husband. But no one stands to gain more than Jerry's grandson Avery, who reminds the old man of his lost brother so much that the recovering addict and high-rolling chef stands to get it all. Tedrowe unfurls all of this familiar, troubled interplay via the perspective of a specific character in each chapter, and while Avery garners an unfair share of the spotlight, the author's deft handling of a large and distinctive cast should win raves from those who revel in this sort of ensemble crazy quilt. A lovely and literate family drama that wins bonus points for its sincerity and open-hearted delivery.

Kirkus Reviews