Rose Feller is the older sister who is a successful attorney and constantly bailing her younger sister out of trouble. Things look to be finally going her way, she has a great boyfriend and good shoes and work is going well.
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Maggie is the younger sister who is the one who has always been told that she is beautiful but stupid. She has a severe learning disability which she also uses as a crutch to keep from having to act as an adult.
Rose yet again bails Maggie out and Maggie ends up living with her for a while. All is not as good as they operate on different value sets. Then Rose comes home early and finds Maggie and her boyfriend having sex. Rose kicks them both out and the falls apart. When she finally gets out of bed she decided to take a leave of absence from work and winds up starting a pet care business, and loving it. She also meets someone who she used to work with and falls in love.
Maggie on the other hand lives the life of a street person at Princeton until she uncovers a long lost grandmother. She then goes to Florida to live with her and through the help of the “older” people in the complex finally finds what she is really good at and makes it into a career and is able to make amends with Rose.
The review of this Book prepared by Tanya
Atria, Oct 2002, 25.00, 432 pp.
ISBN 0743418190
She is twenty-eight years old, never held a job for more than three months, and likes to party on somebody else's dime. Maggie Feller has learning disabilities that make her feel inferior to her older sister Rose who breezed through law school and landed a job as junior partner at a prestigious firm. Rose takes Maggie in when she runs out of money but kicks her out when she discovers her boyfriend in bed with her sister.
Maggie goes to Florida to meet the grandmother she has never known and she gradually makes a place for herself in her elderly relative's heart. Rose quits her job and becomes a dog walker, not caring to caring to learn the whereabouts of her sister. When she finds out that Maggie is in Florida with the grandmother she also never met, Rose flies down for an awkward family reunion. It is up to Maggie to find a way to heal past wounds and old injuries.
IN HER SHOES is a funny, poignant and dramatic family saga starring three very different women with different needs and regrets. It is a story about a dysfunctional family and the love that binds them in spite of themselves. Readers will empathize with Maggie because she has the most to overcome but the audience also will feel for Rose and the betrayal that deeply hurt her. Fans will admire the changes she makes in her life because of it. Jennifer Weiner is a talented storyteller who knows how to describe the human condition.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
