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)

Will Avoid This Narrator in the Future!

What did you like best about The Woman Upstairs? What did you like least?

I think that we have all had moments in our lives when we come to a painful realization that a person or persons that we are enamored with, and have built our whole existence and fantasies around, does not feel the same way about us. Hopefully most of us, however, are not dealt the type of shattering betrayal experienced by Nora, the perpetual "woman upstairs". The story portrays this pain eloquently, although it left me with left me with an unsatisfied thirst for revenge! However, I did not like this narrator, Cassandra Campbell at all. Her excessively slow, pretentious melodramatic style of reading, and above all her overly enunciated diction, were highly annoying distractions which often tempted me to discontinue listening altogether. Some of her dialog was better, although again I found her Italian accents extremely annoying as well.

What did you like best about this story?

The emotional complexities of Nora's feelings toward each member of the Sayid family are very compelling.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Cassandra Campbell?

I think I would have liked anyone better. One of the narrators of The Help, maybe - they were all excellent

Do you think The Woman Upstairs needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

A Getting Revenge Book, maybe - seriously though, no follow-up needed - probably what happens next in Nora's life is best left to the imagination

Riveting

Messud is a fabulous writer and the narrator is also talented. As a single woman who has recently turned 30 it was really interesting to read this story. I don’t want to be friends with Nora, but her story is interesting, terrifying, and thought-provoking.

Definitely Recommend

Would you listen to The Woman Upstairs again? Why?

Yes, I already have listened to specific chapters again. The story was beautifully crafted and honest. It showed a depth of understanding of the experiences of the unmarried, childless woman in mid life. This is a subject matter rarely touched on in any form.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I did not have a favorite character as the perceptions of the narrator seemed to be the only character. The other characters were not seen from other points of view. I neither liked or disliked the narrator, didn't even wonder whether I liked or disliked the narrator. I instantly became fascinated with the honesty and bare vulnerability of the story and wanted to know the narrator's journey. I just do not often find this level of honesty. I made no judgments on her life, just interested in knowing her.

What the hell was that? Hmmmm.

I couldn’t make it through the book. Rather than finishing it, I fast-forwarded to the last few chapters, thinking it would help. It did not. I then Googled the book and summary. Thankfully, it was a 2-for-1 special.

Two-Page Sample is great, and then it's downhill!

What would have made The Woman Upstairs better?

This novel, like the main male character in the work, needs to be less a talker. Lots of meaningless, seemingly endless chatter, or so it seems. A few lovely sentences but not enough to sustain all the noise.

Has The Woman Upstairs turned you off from other books in this genre?

I loved Messud's THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN and would still recommend that.

What about Cassandra Campbell’s performance did you like?

She captures most of the characters really well and performs a range of accents and age groups. She does least well with the main character, who is from New England--a slight Southern accent peeks through.

Any additional comments?

Skip this book and read the first one if you haven't.

Meh

Nora is crazy, yes, but not interesting crazy. She's crazy in the way your coworker might be crazy, or even you yourself: in boring, predictable, slightly sad ways. This does not make for a very compelling story.

So Tedious

The good reviews sucked me in to listening to this rather tedious book. I found the main character to be generally unlikeable and, honestly, couldn't have cared less about what happened to her. The "surprising" ending I had been expecting was pretty anti-climactic and I was just happy to have it all end. Although well written, I can't say this was a particularly captivating story.

Why bother?

I may not feel fondness for them, but I can usually grow interested in unlikeable characters as I come to understand the history or motives that drive them, or even the necessities of the plot. Liking the character is the least of my requirements for a compelling read. In this special case, I spent the entire considerable length of this recording feeling my dislike grow into loathing for the main character and feeling worse and worse about listening. What was the point of this unremitting avalanche of hatred, with every plot development and nuance carefully detailed? She comes across not as mentally ill, but just as a really crummy person.

Why bother listening (or reading) about a person who is unremittingly self absorbed and selfish, who has no redeeming qualities and who is swindled by people equally selfish, albeit more glamorous and well dressed? In my case I guess I was holding out for some meaning beyond that there are people in life one should avoid. The only lesson I learned was to avoid Clare Messud.

I disliked the narration as well, but given how awful the character was, perhaps that was good reading.

Don't waste your time.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Making it into a short story.

What could Claire Messud have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Less droning on about what the reader thinks.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator did her best with the material.

Any additional comments?

Move on to another choice if you are thinking of listening to this.

Crazy Story

Would you try another book from Claire Messud and/or Cassandra Campbell?

No, I will not try another book by this author.

What could Claire Messud have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

It seems to me that the author used foul language for the purpose of making the story more sensational. I did not like the way it ended - was there even a REAL ending???

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was fine. If you have terrible material, it's hard to have a great performance, but the narrator did her part.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

This could have been a better story. The character deserve one another.