Alternate Side

By: Anna Quindlen

Narrated by: Ellen Archer

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

The tensions in a tight-knit neighborhood - and a seemingly happy marriage - are exposed by an unexpected act of violence in this provocative new novel from the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Miller’s Valley and Still Life with Bread Crumbs.

Some days Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life - except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. Then one morning she returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the fault lines begin to open: on the block, at her job, especially in her marriage. With humor, understanding, an acute eye, and a warm heart, Anna Quindlen explores what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a woman at a moment of reckoning. 

©2018 Anna Quindlen (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Skip This One

I am an avid audible listener and generally like stories by Anna Quindlen, but this book is TERRIBLE. It has no plot. I kept waiting for the plot to develop or for the story to take some twist or turn, but it never happened... I wish I could have those 7 hours and 40 minutes of my life back...

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

An excellent listen

I really enjoyed this book and it helped me put my own divorce after 25 years into perspective. I recommend it!

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Anna Quindlen Is Perfect...as always

I’ve read every book written by this lovely, talented writer. She never fails to amaze with with her perfect prose ~ which always speak to me. Thank you again, Ms. Quindlen.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Stereotypes Galore

Turned off by stereotypes of people of color throughout book. This was made worse by performance of them. Demeaning accents/tone/slang.

Best chapters at very end when reflecting on evolution of marriage and relationships.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Amazed this is Anna Quindlan

I love Anna Quindlan so I was stunned by this book. These characters are completely self-absorbed and unlikable. I made it to chapter 9 but just didn't care about any of them and their parking space, rude children, and snotty friends. I only liked the dog.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

So disappointing

Every NYC cliche is here: the homeless wiseman who isn’t really homeless, parking issues, ethnic food delivered at 2 A.M., spoiled Gen Z twins, with the girl of course a hysterical b**** and the boy a chill genius...More importantly, it takes five chapters for there to be a whisper of a plot. For the record, I like Anna Quindlen a lot.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

New Yorkers 0nly

This self-absorbed tale of privileged white people may be enjoyed by that same demographic. The characters were unsympathetic, two-dimensional spoiled rich kids; the two non-white characters matched stereotypes that abound. Finally, the narrator's voice grated and she lacked the ability to give credible voice to anyone. I wished that I followed you instinct and returned it after listening to the first hour. I expected better from Quindlen!

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

New Yorkers that inspired the Trump vote

Lordy, what can I say about this book? Anna Quindlen can write her socks off. And she does in this book, which, given its subject matter, is what saved my device from being tossed out my car window in disgust. This book is about the lives of a cul-de-sac of affluent residents of New York City's upper west side, and what causes them stress. If you want to know why so many blue-collar middle Americans turned on liberalism and voted for Trump, you can use this book's characters as your reference.

What's so hard on these people, you ask? Well, having to salt their own sidewalks in winter, for one, after the neighborhood handyman (a low-income brown person) runs into some outrageous misfortune. Who will fix the leaky faucet? Not the full-time housekeeper/nanny from the Caribbean in any of the homes, although it's good everyone has one of these employees, because someone has to make all the little white kids cookies after school. And OMG, say the residents, wringing their hands over the taxes on each house that has quintupled in value over the last 10 years as the poor people get shoved farther and farther out of the city. While the women of these houses are agonizing over daycares to which their kids hope to be admitted (don't worry, they've long-ago surrendered cooking to the housekeeper or the caterer, so they have time for this) the men spend a lot of time bristling their silver backs at each other over cooking or wine as a competitive sport. I mean, someone's risotto was CRUNCHY for Pete's sake! After one woman is devastated because of a henious crime her jackass of a husband commits, the protagonist says "do you want to go get a pedicure?" to help comfort her friend.

Still, I read it all. I fought it through the first third as it became glaringly obvious that, though perfectly "rendered" (to quote the NYT book review), all of the characters were entitled people who consumed resources and the labors of others while creating no actual earthly value. But in the end, Quindlen's "rendering," the boiling down of these entitled people and their brown minions, won me over to the writing, at least. The book is entertaining. It is deft. And it is fun to watch Quindlen show what she can do. There's even a SRO hotel nearby and a "homeless" dude on the way to the protagonist's office that provide a perfect Greek chorus effect throughout the novel. But when I compare this to One True Thing or Black and Blue, both of which destroyed me with the perfect matching of Quindlen's talents with subjects worthy of that talent, this book is just a hollow shell.

Anne Archer narrates, which should be a good thing, but it is not. Her overly precious delivery and high-pitched voice only add to the feeling that these characters should get a real job and some real problems, already.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Did not enjoy

This book rambled on for pages - like a society page for the middle class. Disappointed.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Boring and predictable

The moneyed meet the help. Upstairs Downstairs on a dead end street in Manhattan minus the humor, pathos and relationships. Boring to its essence.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

A cure for insomnia

Anna Quindlen is a fine writer but this novel was such a snorefest. It was so tedious that in the end, determined not to abandon it, I listened to it in bed. Every single time I drifted off to the land of nod so quickly!

There’s no plot, no intrigue, just a bunch of dull, middle-aged New Yorkers living in a gentrified pocket of Manhattan. But you never get so much as a bagel crust, it could’ve been set in any city where property has become a commodity.

I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters either. The one bright spot was Ellen Archer’s narration which is exquisite.

Never quite got going

I was disappointed in this book as I usually enjoy this author. I felt the whole story line never really got going and I struggled to find the point of the plot. The characters other than Nora were poorly developed and unconvincing and the plot uninteresting. At times the language was good but overall I was disappointed