Same as It Ever Was

A Novel

De: Claire Lombardo

Narrado por: Emily Rankin

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK BY PEOPLE AND PARADE • The New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had (“wonderfully immersive…deliciously absorbing”—NPR) returns with another brilliantly observed family drama in which the enduring, hard-won affection of a long marriage faces imminent derailment from events both past and present.

“Infidelity, dysfunction, secrets – this family novel delivers."—The New York Times • "Lombardo has such a fine eye for the weft and warp of a family’s fabric." —The Washington Post • “Witty and insightful...a powerful exploration of marriage, motherhood, and self.”–Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

Same As It Ever Was showcases the consummate style, signature wit, and profound emotional intelligence that made The Most Fun We Ever Had one of the most beloved novels of the past decade. Featuring a memorably messy family and the multifaceted marriage at its heart, Lombardo’s debut was dubbed “the literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler” (The Guardian) and hailed as “ambitious and brilliantly written” (Washington Post). In this remarkable follow-up—another elegant and tumultuous story in the tradition of Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, and Celeste Ng—Lombardo introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters, this time by way of her singularly complicated protagonist.

Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, she finally feels, at age fifty seven, that she has a firm handle on things.

She’s unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor’s edge.

Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life—exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving even deeper into the nature of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and asserts herself among the finest novelists of her generation.

©2024 Claire Lombardo (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

NAMED A BEST FICTION OF 2024 PICK BY PEOPLE

“Pitch-perfect. . . Lombardo is compulsively readable and consistently funny, and it’s impossible to look away as Julia continues to self-sabotage. This domestic drama hits all the right notes.”
–Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

“Infidelity, dysfunction, secrets – this family novel delivers. . . Poignant, punctilious. . . [Lombardo] refashions domestic drama into something rich and strange, with echoes of Lorrie Moore’s sardonic humor and Jonathan Franzen’s dissection of class. . . In less skillful hands, Same as It Ever Was would lose control over its transitions and veer toward soap opera; yet like Franzen’s Marion Hildebrandt, or Faye, the narrator of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy, Lombardo gives us a woman whose inner life is knotted and revelatory. . . Same as It Ever Was is a brave, nuanced book, lulling us with its rhythms but taking risks when we glance away.”
–Hamilton Cain, The New York Times

“Lombardo’s witty, sympathetic take on motherhood exudes the sharp scent of fermented apple juice and a full diaper… Lombardo has such a fine eye for the weft and warp of a family’s fabric. She understands the chemistry of that special epoxy of irritation and affection that keeps a marriage glued together. One finishes Same As It Ever Was with the satisfaction of knowing this complicated woman well — and the poignant disappointment of having to say goodbye.”
–Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Incredibly detailed characters

Can’t remember ever reading such exquisitely portrayed characters. Just beautifully written and brilliant expose of life in the modern US. What a treat.

Beautiful

Beautiful complex characters. Very realistic story about families and life and regret. This is not an action packed book but it’s deep and gives you all the feels. I think mothers of teenagers will have a unique appreciation for it.

So good!

This author captures true, complex human emotions, the journey of life, and its relationships so beautifully.

Really Great

I really enjoyed this book. Felt sorry for Julia, then at the end, she and her mom came together and reconnected. Such a great feeling.

Best Book I’ve Read In A Long Time

This book was so beautifully written, it took a piece of my soul with it.

Brilliant!

Claire Lombardo’s brilliant use of language to craft a magnificent telling of one woman’s life in all of its complicated humanness.
Emily Rankin is a narrator of extraordinary talent and nuance.

it was hard to feel sympathy for Julia!

*major spoilers in this review! This is a hard book to review because there was a lot NOT to like about it. And also a lot to like about it, thus the 4 star rating. Lombardo is a very engaging writer, who captures the humanity of Julia, flaws and all, quite believably. The character development was incredibly well done, I really felt that I knew each character intimately by the end. There are a lot of emphatically good descriptions of how Julia felt about the people in her life, and most of all, the relationships with each of her children. Some of the feelings the author conveyed were so spot on, as to ambivalence about children, fierce protectiveness of children, fear about screwing up children, and she conveyed the feelings using beautiful, thoughtful language. Alma was my favorite, most colorful character.

But, here's what I didn't like (in no particular order):

1. There are a couple of points (one most vividly in the car when Mark comes to pick Julia up in Wisconsin after she almost but couldn't abandon Mark and their young boy, Ben) where Julia blames Mark for being "mean" when he won't let her talk about her affair with Nathanial. She feels he is punishing her by making her live with her transgression alone, without being able to unload it onto Mark. I was shaking my head and saying no, no, NO, you don't get to make this his fault! That line of reasoning really painted a vivid picture of Julia's self-involvement, which is a theme throughout. We may come to understand why she is so self-involved (with a mother like Anita), but she really should have evolved and matured more over time, and because of the loving relationships she ultimately has in her life, but she is self-involved to the end, which I thought was a shame.

2. The "she will remember it... when" bit toward the end went on too long. It was obvious this was leading to Mark's early death, which was incredibly sad, but still, the remembering style of this section went on too long.

3. The relationship she has with Helen is so kind of icky, dysfunctional, weird... but kind of understandable too. Still, I disliked how easily she fell into that relationship.

4. The fact that Nathaniel doesn't realize that Julia is married speaks volumes about the way she was walking through life shouting me, me, ME all the time.

5. This contemporary writing style of going back and forth between time periods is getting overused. I found it particularly irritating in this book as she digressed first to the period when Julia has her transgression, and later in the book to when Mark and Julia first become a couple. I don’t understand why writers insist on telling stories now in this back and forth. What they appear to think is providing context is, to me, a distraction. This would have been much better if she had started at the beginning and just told the story as it unfolded through time.

6. This author also uses metaphors to an absurd degree. Nearly every paragraph was peppered with comparisons of “it was like a…” fill in the blank with something as profound as she could conjure, which often just seemed that she was trying too hard to come up with something to make a point that could have been more interesting by just leaving the description as it was, a simple description.

7. Julia is a singularly unlikeable character. And since the book is being told from her perspective I gather we were supposed to be sympathetic to her social awkwardness. I just found it difficult to believe that her really nice husband would bother trying with her after a while. She wanted to be unhappy and she wanted everyone else to be unhappy too.

Surprised me

This book surprised me in so many ways and I had a hard time with it ending. I hated saying goodbye to Julia and her family. This book will stay with me for a long time. Beautifully written!

writer's clarity

Occasional, slight repetition re: Julia's thoughts on baby Ben. otherwise, bright depiction of a somewhat

Wow! So in touch with what it feels like to be human!

I so enjoyed this story. Such entertaining use of language and deep empathy. I’m shocked how an author I believe to be still young can have such insight in to how it feels to have been through it all. Well done!