I enjoyed it very much. There are some elements that felt a little thin; as a native southern Californian I felt like I could see her relative unfamiliarity with the geographical setting at times. There also were a few points early on before I got sucked in when I thought she was trying too hard for a descriptive metaphor.

But at her strongest (character) it was everything I’ve come to love in her books. I liked seeing her focus on motherhood, and the obligations of a working mother toward her family. In past novels she’s had obvious issues with her viewpoint characters’ mothers; they’re problematic people, and she tends to leave them under-examined and unresolved in a way that I suspect reflects her own ambivalence. So I liked that this book put the protagonist in that role and made those issues central.

That the book deals with a (somewhat) older person’s concerns felt honest to me, as reflecting Rowell’s own life experience. And as someone who’s a fan of both time travel stories and romantic comedy, I enjoyed how she wove in those elements. On the rom-com thing, this book reminded me a lot of Attachments, which she explicitly described as an attempt to replicate a romantic comedy movie in book form. Landline does that too, and does it better than Attachments. I  think it has a chance at a movie deal. I hope it gets one.

The cameo appearance by a couple from a previous book was fun. Knowing it was going to be there definitely had me guessing through the latter part of the book, and when it happened it was very satisfying. I’m not sure I would even have noticed without Rainbow having tipped people off on Twitter; it’s kind of subtle. But it made me happy.

Have you read Landline yet? If so, what did you think?

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lies:

hardcoverworlds:

I’m not sleeping until I finish this book.

(Featuring homemade chai hot chocolate.)

I believe it. Judging by my own experience, and others’ reports on Tumblr, staying up late to read Rainbow’s books is a common occurrence.

I don’t know the actual date yet; all I’ve seen is “spring/summer of next year.” But I expect to be up in the wee hours with Landline.

Greetings, me of the past. It’s me, me of the future. You were right. And the date you stay up into the wee hours to finish Landline will turn out to be today: Wednesday, July 9, 2014.

I suppose I could be telling you something more specifically useful, like the result of yesterday’s World Cup semifinal, so you could place a big bet and make scads of money.

But I think instead I’ll just use my magical ability to send Tumblr posts from the future to tell you you’re going to like Landline. A lot.

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Closer…

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Closer…

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