The Woman Upstairs

By: Claire Messud

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children, a brilliant new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and betrayed by passion and desire for a world beyond her own.

Nora Eldridge, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who long ago abandoned her ambition to be a successful artist, has become the "woman upstairs", a reliable friend and tidy neighbor always on the fringe of others' achievements. Then into her classroom walks Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale. He and his parents - dashing Skandar, a Lebanese scholar and professor at the École Normale Supérleure; and Sirena, an effortlessly glamorous Italian artist - have come to Boston for Skandar to take up a fellowship at Harvard. When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who call him a "terrorist" Nora is drawn into the complex world of the Shahid family: She finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora's happiness explodes her boundaries, until Sirena's careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal. Told with urgency, intimacy, and piercing emotion, this story of obsession and artistic fulfillment explores the thrill - and the devastating cost - of giving in to one's passions.

©2013 Claire Messud (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Fantastic - one of those seemingly small stories that so burst with rage and desire that they barely squeeze between hard covers. The prose is impeccable.... Messud writes about happiness, and about infatuation - about love - more convincingly than any author I’ve encountered in years. She fills [her] protagonist with an inner life so rich and furious that you will never again nod hello in the hall to ‘the woman upstairs’ without thinking twice.... Is Nora’s entrancement erotic, or bigger and stranger than sex? I’m not telling. Read the book." (Lionel Shriver, National Public Radio, "All Things Considered")

"Bracing...not so much the story of the road not taken as that of the longed-for road that never appeared.... Nora’s anger electrifies the narrative, and Messud masterfully controls the tension and pace. In this fierce, feminist novel, the reader serves as Nora’s confessor, and it’s a pleasure to listen to someone so eloquent, whose insights about how women are valued in society and art are sharp." (Jenny Shank, Dallas News)

"An elegant winner of a novel...quietly, tensely unfolding.... Remarkably, Messud lets us experience Nora’s betrayal as if it were our own, and what finally happens really is a punch in the stomach. Highly recommended." (Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal)

Good, but overhyped book

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the book, found it tedious at times. Overall, though, I would recommend it.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I thought she took the higher literary road in they way she ended it. However, there was a part of me that wanted a more commercially appealing ending.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Cassandra Campbell?

Depends, she is not effective with mens voices and most accents. However she was not bad as the French woman. Overall, her style is too teacherly and emotionless. At times, she sounds like Krista Tippett from NPR.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

If this was made into a movie, I have a feeling the producer would want a more sensational ending--in that case I would go.

A quiet, brave, cringey, fantastic listen

I'm astonished by the negative reviews--- have people not been affected by the plight of this character? No, she's not a likeable or entirely sympathetic character, but the story is incredibly empathic. I was deeply moved by it.

It does not have a fast-paced, ever twisting plot. It doesn't have lots of action. What this book offers is a gripping emotional tale of "friendship", delusion, hope and humiliation. It's one of those books you want to discuss after reading, to go back and read the beginning again. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

I wanted to shake the woman upstairs

Oh my gosh... book was good, but I wanted to shake her. She just just never took control of her own happiness. If it happened to her, she was grateful, but she missed out on so much because she wouldn't go for what she wanted. And honestly, I'm not sure what she wanted. The point of the story was that she didn't KNOW what she wanted. I get that - I suffer from it - but it was frustrating to listen to it.

You know how you can look at other people's lives and think, "I know what you need... you should do x...", but you don't know what you need for your own life? That's this book in a nutshell.

Decent book

Pretty good story. I liked it - nice twist at the end especially, but I didn't love it and found the character a bit pathetic at times. But maybe that was the point. I was also distracted by the noticeable echo in this recording. It sounded as if the reader hadn't soundproofed her studio properly.

should be named the crazy woman upstairs

single 40 year old woman, no kids but a school teacher obsessed with a foreign family. I mean in love with them, wanting to know their every move and to be included. When they left she went into a depression, panic mode. The wife knew she was off and paid her back by recording her getting her rock's off in one of her art exhibits. Good read, although it could have been a bit better. #book20of2019 #bookworm #whatsnext

Disturbing, Frustrating, Messed Up and AWESOME!

this book was amazing, freaky, scary, frustrating and totally totally F'ed up.

this is a story of obsession and insanity, yes. but it's also a story of friendship and love, unhealthy love. of dependence and self loathing. of how decisions can stunt and haunt someone. it's a story of race and intolerance. it's a story of art and literature and beauty and freedom.

nora, a teacher in cambridge, is psycho. i mean...seriously. she becomes obsessed with a family -- not as a family -- but as three separate units. she's in love with all three of them, mother, father, son -- in unhealthy and insane ways.i truly do think that nora is clinically psychotic. but god, what a fascinating narrator she makes for this story. so...i will say without any doubts, i did not like nora. i think for all she pats herself on the back for being such a great person, friend, woman, teacher...she's really kind of an asshole. but i guess it all goes back to the fact that shes INSANE. and so, as unlikeable as i find her, i couldn't stop reading her story. of course in a book like this, i know upfront that i cannot trust her as a narrator and so i found myself doubting everything she said. at times, she even said as much...that she was telling these events as SHE perceived them...maybe not how they actually occurred. but how well Claire Messud wrote her perceptions....it's amazing. i reveled in hearing each moment she spent with the three members of the Shahid family (reza, sirena and skandar). i was excited for every new development that progressed in each string of the story...and how they all wove and intertwined with each other.

i've listened to a few books read by Cassandra Campbell in the past. i'm the first to admit that she is not usually my favorite narrator. there is something about her that irks me. and in this book -- that only lent itself to making her voicing nora's insanity strong and true. it sounds strange, but the fact that i don't love her narration worked for me in this story -- because i didn't like nora either.

i was on the edge of my seat this entire book, waiting for the other shoe to drop...and was horrified and amazed when it did.

Average woman with an obsession

What did you love best about The Woman Upstairs?

It's one of those books that has atmosphere, where you can hear the sounds, feel the warmth or cold, smell the cigarettes, see the rich colors

What did you like best about this story?

Its honesty

Any additional comments?

Some people have said this book is just the rantings of an angry woman. I didn't see it that way. I saw it as the thoughts of an average woman whose life intersects with people more talented than she is, and how she struggles with envy, jealousy, self-pity, and obsession. I would have given it 5-stars but for the ending. It seems to me she didn't learn a thing through any of it.

not sure it's going anywhere...

I may be impatient and superficial, but I just don't get this book. It's not that it's bad - it's just not going anywhere. Halfway through it, I've decided to put it aside and not bother unless there's nothing else to read. I understand it's a story about frustration and anger, but it falls short of almost every mark. It's too narrow in its focus - we don't know (almost) anything about her life outside her obsession, though life and affections exist on the fringes of obsession in every case. And I'm tired of the cliches on academics and the rarefied world they inhabit - and I'm also very suspicious of her reading of foreignness, which I find superficial and downright silly at times.

Masterpiece!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Woman Upstairs to be better than the print version?

Cassandra Campbell, one of my favorite narrators, was perfection in bringing the characters to life.

What did you like best about this story?

The unvarnished truth of the protagonist's deepest feelings, exposed in a way that not only rang true, but as Messud so eloquently writes "there's that room inside your mind where you are most freely and unconcernedly yourself and then there are the many layers of masquerade by which you protect that skinless core." We got to see both the guarded and unguarded Nora and thus, live inside her skin - the gift of a brilliant storyteller.

What does Cassandra Campbell bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Perfectly expressed nuances for each character.

If you could take any character from The Woman Upstairs out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Nora, because, in the end, she was the most authentic.

Any additional comments?

I was almost turned away from choosing this book because of negative reviews, which is why I took the time to write this one. Don't miss this book it is well worth your credit!

Well-written story with subjectively bad narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I haven't listened to other books by this reader but I don't think I will be able to as her intonation here on every third sentence made me want to scream. She sounded every few lines exactly like Jenna Mulroney (an irritatingly vapid character from NBC's 30 Rock) which distracted me from the story.