Landline (Rowell)

Book Reviews
This very direct, affecting book captures a sense of two people who once really needed each other and then, through the travails of marriage, work and parenthood, just lost their way. The magic phone becomes Ms. Rowell's way to rewrite It's a Wonderful Life…There's nothing sophisticated about Landline, nor is there any clutter. But there's the simple story of a woman suddenly able to imagine how important her husband has been to her, and how easily she managed to overlook him. What that film accomplished with an angel named Clarence, Ms. Rowell accomplishes with a quaint old means of communication, and for her narrative purposes, it really does the trick.
Janet Maslin - New York Times Book Review


Keen psychological insight, irrepressible humor and a supernatural twist: a woman can call her husband in the past.
Time


But a focus on the endings is the wrong one when you’re reading a book of Rowell’s. What matters most are the middles, which she packs with thoughtful dissections of how we live today, reflections upon the many ways in which we can love and connect as humans, and tacit reassurances of the validity of our feelings regardless of our particular experiences.
Slate.com


After the blazing successes of Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Attachments, it’s become clear that Rowell is an absolute master of rendering emotionally authentic and absorbing stories...While the novel soars in its more poignant moments, Rowell injects the proper dose of humor to keep you laughing through your tears.
Romance Times


[A] magical plot device allows Georgie to investigate what drove her and Neal apart in flashbacks, and consider whether they were ever truly happy. Rowell is, as always, a fluent and enjoyable writer—the pages whip by. Still, something about the relationship between Georgie and Neal feels hollow, like it’s missing the complexity of adult love, despite the plot’s special effects.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) The New York Times best-selling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl makes a leap back to the world of adult relationships we last saw in her Attachments.... While the topic might have changed, this is still Rowell—reading her work feels like listening to your hilariously insightful best friend tell her best stories. —Julie Kane, Sweet Briar Coll. Lib., VA
Library Journal


A marriage in crisis, a magical intervention and a bittersweet choice.... [Rowell has] taken the romantic excitement of great contemporary teen literature and applied it to a more mature story.... Her characters are instantly lovable, and the story moves quickly and only a little predictably—the ending manages to surprise and satisfy all at once.... The realities of a grown-up relationship are leavened by the buoyancy and wonder of falling in love all over again.
Kirkus Reviews