The Book That Matters the Most by Ann Hood came across my radar because it fulfills the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt to read a book about a book club. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nina Alvamar.
I'm going to go into a plot summary and then go into my emotional journey while reading this book and then try to figure out what star rating to give it because I am a confused person right now.
Ava's husband left her for a woman who yarn bombs public monuments. Her children are both in foreign countries - her daughter in Italy and her son in Uganda. She's feeling lost and adrift, so she joins a book group at the local library whose theme for this year's reading is "books that matter the most to you." Ava chooses a book that helped her deal with the unexpected deaths of her sister and mother in short succession when she was a child, but the book is hard to find and somewhat mysterious.
Suddenly, we are whipped out of this story to follow Maggie, Ava's daughter, who, as it turns out, is not in Florence, but in Paris living as a married man's kept woman. She slides into drug abuse and becomes one of those insufferable addicts. I almost stopped listening at this point because I cannot stand books with a POV of junkies because they are incredibly uninteresting. Sure, I should have some empathy for them, but when you're a conventionally attractive, healthy young person from a good home, I REALLY STRUGGLE WITH THE EMPATHY. People are going through hard things without becoming addicted to heroin, you know? (I try to tell myself about the brain chemistry thing, but...). I also really get annoyed when everyone she meets offers her drugs. How is that possible? Maybe I'm odd or put off "don't offer me drugs" vibes, but random folks I run into on the beach aren't offering me hard drugs.
THEN! The book derails to talk about the death of Ava's sister and there's an elderly detective. And then, coincidentally, an old lady at the book group dies and leaves Ava a copy of the book she couldn't find and a note saying she knew Ava's mother. The coincidences start piling up as Maggie somehow gets herself clean (*sigh* as if it would be that easy) and there's something very familiar about the woman at the bookstore in Paris.
Look.
I'm struggling with this novel. On one hand, I like Ava. I really like Ava's friends. Kate is so excited for Ava when Ava has sex with a younger man! Yay for supportive friends. I loved the scenes of the book at the book club because they honestly had interesting discussions. On the other hand, ugh with Maggie. And, ugh so hard at the coincidences.
And, here's the hardest part. I, generally, as you know, think this world has been run for and to the advantage of men for too long. But I honestly think Ann Hood hates men? Consider her treatment of Jim, Ava's ex-husband. Many adulterers in this book get POVs and even redemption arcs. Nada for Jim. Maybe that's okay because this is a book for women and about women and fuck Jim (maybe). But then there's Theodore, Ava's father, who raised her after her mother left and is now suffering from dementia in a nursing home and Ava literally believes nothing he says. Theodore is the HERO of this book as far as I'm concerned - a man who did everything to the best of his ability - and no POV for him? Not even when the book went to flashback? And his current state? Ugh. I just can't. When I'm defending male characters, something has gone really really wrong.
So how do I rate this? I don't know? It's complicated. I'd love to chat about this book with someone else who has read it, but I find it hard to actually recommend it, you know?
3/5 stars (maybe 2? maybe 2.5? I don't know)
Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
Anna Karenina
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughter House Five
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
To Kill A Mockingbird
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| Why aren't people saying Moby-Dick is what mattered the most to them? Don't they care?! |
Lines of note:
Ava took another breath. She talked to her students all the time standing in front of the classroom, confident and in charge. Why was she so nervous here? (chapter 1)
I have a colleague who is an excellent teacher. He also is paralyzed if asked to speak in front of a group of more than two people that is not his personal classroom. LOL.
...every time she decided to go she got lost...Everyone knew the store and they directed her, pointing and showing with their hands the confusing parts of the route. Still, she'd get lost. (chapter 1)
Have Sarah tell you the story about how I thought they towed my car because I couldn't find it after we met for lunch. My inability to navigate is legendary.
Hank Bingham decided immediately that he did not like Paris. For one thing, everything looked different than it did at home - the people and the signs and the buildings. It even smelled different. He supposed that people who liked to travel did it for this ever reason, but Hank liked being home. He found comfort in knowing shortcuts and knowing where to get the best beer on tap. He found comfort in sameness. (chapter 36)
YES! I am Hank Bingham. I know people love to travel, but it's really and truly not my jam.
Things I looked up:
Roger Williams (chapter 34) - an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and later the State of Rhode Island. He was a staunch advocate for religious liberty, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with the Native Americans.
Hat mentions (why hats?):
matching hat and scarf and gloves the color of Christmas trees (chapter 1)
forgotten gloves and a hat (chapter 1)
porkpie hat(s) (chapter 1 x5, chapter 3 x2 chapter 5, chapter 8, chapter 24)
the guy in the hat (chapter 1)
matching hat and gloves (chapter 3)
Santa hats (chapter 3)
silly hat(s) (chapter 3, chapter 20)
winter hats and oversized sunglasses (chapter 3)
fake fur hat (chapter 3)
adjusted his hat (chapter 5)
dumb hat (chapter 5, chapter 16)
"Did he take off his hat?" (chapter 8)
pushing his hat back (chapter 20)
enormous straw hat (chapter 30)
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How many of those book club books have you read? Are you also shocked😮that Moby-Dick didn't make the cut for books that mattered the most? What book matters the most to you?
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