Good Company
Fiction
Ecco
April 6, 2021
Hardcover
320
Purchased
Flora Mancini has been happily married for more than twenty years. But everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage, and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, is upended when she stumbles upon an envelope containing her husband’s wedding ring—the one he claimed he lost one summer when their daughter, Ruby, was five.
Flora and Julian struggled for years, scraping together just enough acting work to raise Ruby in Manhattan and keep Julian’s small theater company—Good Company—afloat. A move to Los Angeles brought their first real career successes, a chance to breathe easier, and a reunion with Margot, now a bona fide television star. But has their new life been built on lies? What happened that summer all those years ago? And what happens now?
With Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature tenderness, humor, and insight, Good Company tells a bighearted story of the lifelong relationships that both wound and heal us.
My review:
This author's first book The Nest was a huge favorite of mine, so I was excited to delve into her sophomore novel. It had a lot of the same qualities as the first, such as a great cast of characters who were not always lovable, but it was also different enough to stand on its own. I really enjoyed that this was partially set in the theater world, specifically the local summer theater group in small towns. The story traverses the country from New York City to Los Angeles, with one of the main characters being an actress on a tv series, while another is a voice over actress for commercials. It was also a study of marriage, parenting, and friendship, following two couples and the daughter of one. The four adults have known each other since college, so there is a lot of history that comes into play. This is not a book with a ton of action, so if you are not a reader who appreciates characters who come with baggage and flaws, you may not enjoy it as much as I did. I thought the characters were written to be very real, and the dilemmas they faced were believable and made me pause to think how I would react in the same situations. Trigger warning if you are not a fan of cheating, that is one of the main plot points. The end had good resolution and was satisfying.
Definitely one I would recommend, particularly if you like books with more character study than plot. While I wouldn't say I liked it as much as The Nest, it will keep me coming back for more from this author.
