Modern Lovers (Straub) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In all of her novels, Emma Straub seems to peer into her characters’ hearts in a most believable way. Her latest is no different: in Modern Lovers, we meet up with way cool college bandmates three decades later. Zoe, Elizabeth, and Andrew—now middle-aged—live near one another in gentrified Brooklyn, yet despite their trendy, almost precious life-styles, Straub manages to bring them to life, far beyond any level of caricature.  READ MORE.
Keddy Ann Outlaw - LitLovers


Ms. Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters…[that] this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits…. In [Straub's] capable hands…even the most hackneyed occasions are transformed into revealing or comic moments…. She captures the jagged highs and lows of adolescence with freshness and precision, and the decades-long relationships of old college friends with a wry understanding of how time has both changed (and not changed) old dynamics.... [D]eftly and thoughtfully written.
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani


[I]n Emma Straub’s witty third novel...[to] be once young and briefly famous and painfully of-the-­moment and then morph into ­regular-people middle age is...insulting, as if your whole life is the worst Instagram fail. And this is where we find the novel’s 40-something friends, past millennial hipness and on into hot flashes.... Modern Lovers hurries to tie up its loose ends, and the interwoven climaxes seem sludgy. The final chapter employs a lazy literary device, a series of announcements...that would seem more at home in the closing credits of Animal House. But up until then, Modern Lovers is a wise, sophisticated romp through the pampered middle-aged neuroses of urban softies.
Alex Kuczynski - New york Times Book Review


Summer in the city has never felt so good.... Modern Lovers celebrates the updated look and feel of familial love and all of its complexities. Straub’s clever and perceptive observations on growing up are gentle reminders that coming of age isn’t just for kids.
Washington Post


In Modern Lovers, Straub’s new intertwined families are stuck in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, for the summer, but there are plenty of fireworks—including a teen romance and a potential movie about the friends’ punk-rock past.
Newsday


[Modern Lovers] has the smart, cool sensibility of Straub's other novels, and you're sure to love this one just as much.
Elle


Straub lets her characters fall apart and come together in their own messy, refreshingly human ways— always older, sometimes wiser, but never quite done coming of age.
Entertainment Weekly


With a real-estate agent, a chef, a yogi 'guru,' and teens sneaking off to do what teens do when teens sneak off— Straub’s latest has something for everyone.
Marie Claire


Bestseller Emma Straub gives us an insightful look into middle age, parenthood, and the funny way that passions never fade, no matter how much time passes by.
Harper’s Bazaar


[Straub] sets her observational wit on three middle-aged friends (former college bandmates) who find themselves in a crisis of identity as their now-grown children head off to college themselves.
Huffington Post


(Starred review.)Straub spins her lighthearted but psychologically perceptive narrative with a sure touch [and]...excels in establishing a sense of place.... Events move at a brisk pace, and surprises...enliven the denouement.... [A] warmly satisfying novel.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [E]ngaging.... Sprinkled with humor and insight, this is a Brooklyn novel with heart. Straub's characters are well rounded and realistic; even the teenagers are sympathetic.... [A] drama...built around the small moments of life. —Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.
Library Journal


(Starred review.) [I]n Straub's fond gaze, [Brooklyn] feels like an enchanted land out of a Shakespearan comedy.... She's a precise and observant writer whose...characters are a quirky and interesting bunch, well aware of their own good fortune, and it's a pleasure spending time with them.
Kirkus Reviews