Women and Children First: A Novel
"How often do you finish a novel, only to find yourself flipping back to the first page and thinking, I really ought to start that all over again? . . . Set in a struggling New England town, the novel unfolds through interlocking stories--something like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge or Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad . . . a rich and textured book, with shades not only of those female authors, but also Mary Gaitskill or Lorrie Moore, through its investigation into female agency, power, and vulnerability." --Vogue.com
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Debutiful, Oprah Daily, and Vogue - A Most Anticipated Book of Spring 2024 by the New York Times
A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.
Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town's industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.
Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski's Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life's interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.
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Community Reviews
Iâll start with the strong points of this book: the prose itself was quite good and gave visualizations and motivations to the different characters. I also enjoyed the execution of the small townie âeveryone knows everyoneâ trope in this particular context because it feels realistic. The events surrounding the death and the way different people take it also felt realistic.
What I didnât like was that every chapter was a different perspective. I think even cutting the total number of âspeakersâ in half would greatly improve the consistency and allow us as readers to become more invested in their stories. I was significantly more interested in certain characters than others and it made some chapters feel much more difficult to finish if I wasnât into that individuals perspective. I also think it didnât need to be quite as long to get the same feeling/points across.
Overall, I think the first half of the book was stronger than the second half. Maybe 4/5 for the first half and 3/5 for the second half, but Iâll round up to a 4/5 because the writing is good and itâs a unique premise.
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