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The Divorce Papers: A Novel
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The Divorce Papers: A Novel
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The Divorce Papers: A Novel
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The Divorce Papers: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Witty and wonderful, sparkling and sophisticated, this debut romantic comedy brilliantly tells the story of one very messy, very high-profile divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it.
 
Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm's most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly's. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane-and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she's never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can't be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It's her first divorce, too.

Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn't leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships-not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where'd You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.

Read by Rebecca Lowman, Käthe Mazur, Arthur Morey, and Emily Rankin with selections read by Susan Denaker, Mark Bramhall, Fred Sanders, Mark Deakins, Kim Mai Guest, Marc Cashman, and Kimberly Farr
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 18, 2014
ISBN9780804166348
Unavailable
The Divorce Papers: A Novel

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Rating: 3.5634519131979694 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Thought it was going to be like every other chick lit book. I really tried to like it, but couldn't. I guess I'm not a fan of memos and such. I wish it had a more novel feel. Couldn't get into it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of a divorce told entirely in the form of legal documents, internal memorandums, emails and handwritten notes, which allows many different viewpoints to be told. I found it to be entertaining, in large part because I was a legal secretary/paralegal for many years and truly enjoyed all of the legalese. Anne Sophie Diehl, the attorney for the wife in this divorce, also has her personal story told mainly via emails to a dear friend, so the book isn't entirely about the divorce itself. As far as showing the ins and outs of divorce negotiations, it's pretty scary. I do have one quibble about Sophie, in that she wrote some extremely, overly familiar internal memorandums to senior lawyers in the firm who were helping her with the divorce (since she is primarily a criminal trial lawyer) which I found to be inappropriate and unrealistic based on my experience. However, this was acknowledged late in the novel, and I was glad to see that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a delightful novel in the depilatory style. I found it amusing and educational. I never knew much about divorce before and this book covered the legal side of it in some depth. Her characters were highly literary - out of the ordinary -- and that was also enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although I was a bit uncertain about picking up a book that included “legal papers”, I enjoy the epistolary style and couldn’t say no to this interesting new way of writing about relationships. I’ll tell you right now – picking this up was the right choice! The only thing I didn’t like about the format was that, as with Burial Rites, the documents chosen to end the story robbed the climax of some of its emotional impact. Everything else about the format was perfect. I loved that the different documents were all formatted appropriately. It gave the book a unique feel and added texture to the story. The documents were well organized and the plot flowed without interruption from one source to another. Every character had a distinct and believable writing style. The author did not use our often poor modern communication as an excuse to write poorly. The people writing the letters in the book are well-educated, many of them raised on letter writing, often writing professionally or passionately to friend. Their letters sounded natural and suited their personalities perfectly. They were funny and intelligent and convey all the right emotions.

    Even the legal documents were more accessible than I expected. The author made a brilliant choice when she picked a lawyer new to divorce law as her main character. This meant there was some explanation of the law in her communication with her mentor. It also meant that relevant bits of the laws included were highlighted. Personally, I still couldn’t bring myself to skip the unhighlighted bits, but I did find the highlights helpful. In another brilliant decision, the story doesn’t revolve entirely around the divorce case. We also learn about Sophie’s life and her emotional response to the divorce case. Her growth as a person gave some much needed optimism, given that even a successful negotiation for divorce isn’t an especially happy resolution. I also liked that some events outside of Mia’s interaction with her husband impacted the divorce case. These events put the story in context, giving the story substance by fleshing out the world in which it’s taking place.

    This story was a beautiful intersection of chick-lit and literary fiction. It deals with the themes of relationships, careers, and dating which often draw me to chick-lit about 20-something women. However, it is also told in a very unique format which to me exemplifies what the modern epistolary novel should be. This shows the cutting edge thinking I expect from literary fiction. It was also a very thoughtful book and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in books that examine relationships in interesting ways. I’d actually recommend it to others who share my love of non-fiction that includes an insider perspective on an interesting career as well, because I found the legal aspect of this story fascinating. A great book which could appeal to readers with a wide variety of interests.

    This review first published on Doing Dewey.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sophie Deal is a criminal attorney at an old New England firm in Massachusetts. At twenty-nine, she is content in her surroundings and her cliental. One day, the daughter of one of their richest and most powerful clients walks in and needs a divorce attorney. She had just been handed papers at one of the most chic restaurants in town and is out for blood.All the divorce attorneys are out-of-town, but the head to of the firm pulls Sophie to do the in-take interview. The client, Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim, like Sophie’s forthrightness and pulls strings to get her assigned to the case.Other than negotiating divorce law, there’s not much plot here. I did like the epistolary style Reiger used: memos and e-mails. It made what could have been a dry story much better and faster to read. I didn’t like the pages that concentrated on the legal briefs. I think those could have been deleted. However, there are those readers who have wanted to see the info once it’s mentioned. The format also led to a quick read, which kept me reading, and when the legalese was excluded, it was a fun story.I give The Divorce Papers 4 out of 5 stars. I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was a bit worried about this one when I hit the "transcription" of the intake interview that the main character had with her client. The language was stilted and definitely literary--no matter how I fiddled with the tones in my head, I just couldn't imagine anyone actually speaking the way they did.*

    Fortunately, we were not subjected to many instances of actual talk--this clever epistolary novel is told in legal office memos, emails between friends, extracts from state laws, and court summaries. Sounds dry? I could easily imagine people who would think so. The key parts of the state laws were highlighted to save a reader from having to read the whole thing.

    Which is hilarious, because reading the whole thing is totally my thing.

    I'm the person who, when reviewing the family history files, didn't want to pull only my great grandparents' pages from their middle school yearbooks because the whole thing had a story to tell--so this was a great book for me. I got to read the memos, the case summaries, and I loved it!

    Don't let my description so far put you off, though. It's amazing how much I learned about the characters, who were all lovely and complex, with great backgrounds (one of them uncomfortably familiar). I do quibble the reality of all this personal information being shared in office memos (does any workplace act like that these days?), but it built such real-sounding people that I'd like to know, and a world with the reality of casual sexism and the people who have to confront their own internalized privilege while also navigating a normal, rocky life.

    I was a bit skeptical at first about the fact that the story was set in the made-up city of New Salem in the made-up state of Naragansett, but I think that was done entirely for practical purposes, so that state laws could be simplified for us non-lawyerly readers. What started out feeling gimicky ended up being quite well-developed an nuanced.

    Unfortunately I wasn't quick about my type-up, which means I probably have fewer details than usual. Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely encourage anyone looking for some adventurous reading to give it a try.

    *I read an ARC, so it's entirely possible this was edited a bit later (though given how final-looking everything was, it's unlikely).


    Quote Round-Up


    p 26 (Excerpts from an article by a lawyer about divorce): In my experience, men rarely leave, no matter how unhappy they are, unless there's another woman. ... The obverse doesn't hold. if the woman is the one who is asking for a separation, there may not be anyone else. A lot of women simply want out; they fantasize about being alone, sitting in a white room with no phone.
    Not quite sure what the second half of that last sentence means, but otherwise an interesting observation. I'd have liked to have read the whole article, because it sounds interesting, but it would have bogged down the narrative structure.

    p 34 (The intake interview transcription): I almost lost my patience here. This was where I kept trying on different tones of voice for Mia and coming up blank--there was just no way I could get what she was saying to sound like something someone would actually say. It would be great as an internal dialogue--I hope the author writes more in the future--but for supposedly spoken words? Nope, not working for me.

    p 91 (Note from Mia to her would-be ex-husband): In his letter, Mr. Kahn addressed me as Maria. If he does it again (or calls me Mia), I won't sit down in a room with the two of you and negotiate.
    What might have been casual sexism later looks more deliberate, but this caught my attention as I read the letter from Mr. Kahn because it's something I see and hear so frequently: men referred to as "Mr. X" and women called by their first names, or even nicknames, in the same situation. Just plain disrespectful!

    p 187 (An email from Sophie to her best friend):Never get divorced. The things you fight about are so demeaning. Everything comes down to money. I keep thinking of Oscar Wilde's definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. He was talking about a divorce lawyer.
    Was tickled to see this turn up. I actually see this quoted rather frequently on the economics list!

    p 271 (A letter from Mia's father to Sophie's boss): You're not Jewish, are you? It's fine, of course, if you are. I was just wondering.
    You wouldn't expect a scuzzball stupid enough to say this to turn out to have any redeeming qualities in a book...but he does. That's what I like about the complexity of these characters: they're so real in having their little hidden horrors that you kind of pretend not to hear because they're otherwise so nice. I know people exactly like this guy, but we still end up liking him--even if part of the reason I love his daughter is her threat to withhold his granddaughter until he wakes up and smells the antisemitism on his own breath.

    p 321 (An email from Mia to Sophie): I didn't want to bother you on the phone again, bu I thought you'd want to know about my follow-up conversation with my asshole husband, the eminent oncologist.
    Have I mentioned that I love Mia? Because I love Mia: her frankness, her self-awareness of her ridiculous wealth, her upper-class snobbishness, her rough-and-tumble fighting words. The best of the 1%.

    p 394-395 (A psychologist's report on Mia's daughter): A child in Jane's class had been sent to the headmistress's office for swearing at Liz [a teacher]. The parents were called in and the father made a scene. He started yelling, in the hallway, at Liz for making a fuss about nothing. Ms. Meiklejohn, who was fetching Jane, saw what was happening. She went up to the father and said, 'Excuse me, but you're a fucking asshole.' The father swung around and yelled at her, 'Who the hell are you, and where do you get off calling me a name like that?' Ms. Meiklejohn said, 'Well, that's what my daughter told me your son said to Ms. Sugarman, though he didn't say "Excuse me." I thought it was rude, but I wanted to test it on someone. I see it is rude, and upsetting.'
    HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I LOVE MIA? BECAUSE I LOVE MIA!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    From the Publisher:“Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s her first divorce, too.”I received The Divorce Papers from Crown Publishing as an Advance Read and overall, I enjoyed it. While the epistolary novel is not a new idea, author Susan Rieger brought it up to date with emails and topical references in an easy to read manner that propelled the story line fluidly. Utilizing this medium, Rieger introduces us to Sophie, the aforementioned attorney; her life, loves, fears, and workplace drama through this correspondence while employing the backdrop of an increasingly acrimonious divorce case to illustrate and personify her characters.Several story lines are interwoven as threads throughout the divorce case; through Sophie’s correspondence with its principal players we see the effect the case has on Sophie both personally and professionally. Sophie’s relationship with her parents and the effect their divorce had on her is paralleled nicely as she works on the divorce and her love life is adequately portrayed through her communication with her dearest friend. The novel is riddled with legal documentation that while its inclusion acknowledges the readers ability to read it, doesn’t take into consideration that many people didn’t choose to go into law for a reason- they don’t find it interesting. Where a synopsis of quoted case law would, the reader was faced with pages and pages of ancillary, unnecessary info- we get it- it’s a lawsuit and the author studied law. I skimmed over the majority of the settlement paperwork as tedious and frankly unnecessary- I don’t read novels to look at balance sheets. I understand that they are an integral part of a divorce case but feel that somehow they could have been trimmed down or presented differently.I wouldn’t really describe the book as humorous per se, but there were some amusing passages and I liked the characters I was supposed to like. I felt that both Sophie and the defendant in the divorce case, Mia, were dynamically round characters who rather reminded me of people I knew in real life. While The Divorce Papers was engaging, and entertaining it had the potential to be a truly funny, gutsy novel if it just had a little more, I don’t know, oomph?Having said that, overall I liked the book for what it was and I have a feeling that despite any short comings I felt it had it’s going to get a lot of hype and probably a movie deal
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Started off really good and I love stories told in letters, memos and emails but not so much with legal papers. It was hard to get past the many legal letters, documents and forms.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a really interesting style of storytelling. It was epistolary, but modern. I did enjoy the story and the arc, although I don't think it will stick with me long-term. Not my favorite book ever, but still worth reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A young criminal defense lawyer is asked to handle a divorce case for a rich client because there is no one in the civil department able to handle the case. Told through a variety of emails, texts, memos, etc. Cute story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found this book entertaining, although in a few places I skipped the lengthy legal documents in favor of getting to the next portion of the actual storyline.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love an epistolary novel. I think I just like reading other people's mail. Legally. And this had it all. Sophie is a relatively newly minted criminal attorney dragged into a divorce case representing the wife of a couple who are interesting. It was easy to read and a very satisfying story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book really rang all my bells. I love epistolary novels especially when they're done well. For the most part I think The Divorce Papers was well done. The relationships were well developed and each of the characters has a well developed personality and depth. I also thought the inside look at being a lawyer and what a contentious divorce involves was really fascinating. Interoffice politics as well as dealing with the divorcing couple. Ok so I did burn out a little on all of the lawyerly articles included in the book. Still I thought this was a really fun, unique, novel of letters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was not especially looking forward to reading this novel, maybe because of the format in letters and documents, but it turned out to be quite a good read. Yes, it was about a divorce, acrimonious and hard fought, but it was also about much more. Sophie Diehl is the criminal lawyer who is talked into taking a high profile divorce case by her boss when no one else with experience is available. We see her through letters, memorandums and emails wrestling with the demands of the case, dealing with her own issues after her parents divorced, and wondering about her less than satisfactory boyfriend experiences. She grows up, yes at age 30, before our eyes, and develops into a person who does not have to speak everything she thinks, and can more easily assume the mantle of the smart, professional lawyer without second guessing herself all the time. The book also successfully develops the minor characters such as her parents, her friend Maggie, the divorcing parties especially Mia, and her office colleagues. An added bonus are the many literary references and quotations although maybe these characters are a bit too clever. Some of the legal documents are at times too long but easily glossed over without losing the narrative. A very successful first novel by a practicing lawyer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was fun from start to finish. I enjoyed the epistolary format, which allowed each important character to speak for him or herself. Having gone through divorce, albeit with a lot less money at stake, I found the issues and behaviors to be true to life. Sophie, the young attorney handed the case, is engaging, and I can see why Mia, the divorcing woman, decides to hire her instead of more experienced help. Indeed, Sophie's inexperience is an advantage on at least a couple of occasions. All in all, I would recommend this novel; in fact, I am planning to pass it on to a friend who does a lot of family law.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Divorce Papers chronicles the learning process of SophieDiehl a criminal attorney cajoled into handling her first divorce case. At first Sophie doubts her abilities in handling a divorce but her own experience as a child of divorce and assistance from her mentor at the firm Sophi's fears are allayed and her client was very satisfied with the result. This was written in an epistolary format which helped when some of the more tedious details of a divorce(ie financial considerations)were discussed. The emotions in the book range the gamet from fear, anger, and ultimately happiness it's a good quick read and enjoyable
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sophie Diehl is a young criminal lawyer at a well-respected New England law firm who is corralled into doing the intake interview with Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim, whose husband of 17 years, a rich and successful child oncologist, has served her with divorce papers. The novel is an epistolary one, told in the form of letters and memos and legal documents. It's a challenging way to tell an intriguing story of love and marriage and the failure of both, but the author makes it work well. Sophie reluctantly accepts her first divorce case when Mrs. Durkheim takes a liking to her and insists on having her as her attorney. What follows is a multi-layered story that brings out hidden strengths in Mia Meiklejohn and Sophie Diehl as an increasingly bitter divorce forces both of them to examine their own selves, and how they relate to those they love. A surprisingly fine, funny and wrenching first novel from a long-time lawyer who became a writer late in life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sophie is a criminal lawyer who by luck of the draw gets handed a divorce case in which she has no experience in. She buckles down and learns how to get the job done. We are told her story though correspondence between the characters in the epistolary style which I enjoyed. I must say though it kind of caught me off guard that the woman Sophie is acting as a divorce attorney for, Mia, is going through a divorce in 1999 and has a 10 year old daughter - just like I did. Although it took me nearly three years to get through the process, I should have had Sophie as my lawyer!;) Anyway, it made me kind of sad to live through that all again, all those documents and the poor little girl in the middle of it. It's not some upbeat happy go lucky chicklit kind of story, it's pretty truthful, and having gone through it myself I can say it was pretty much spot on. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was how HIGHLY intellectual the characters came off as, always quoting this author or that play. That struck me as kind of snobby, still I'd recommend it for an easy read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I like the concept of the epistolary novel, and have seen it done well in other instances. For me this book is not one of those instances. It appeared from the cover page that the documents that make up the book were Sophie's case file - but no, she's also included copies of emails to a friend and a guy she's met. Okay, so the author has chosen to include other sources - in which case, why not include Sophie's journal? That way she could ramble on about her insecurities in a way that might make sense for an EDUCATED PROFESSIONAL. The memos that Sophie wrote to her boss, complaining about how unqualified she is, and mentioning numerous personal issues, were difficult for me to read. As a female attorney myself, I was horrified to think that someone might believe an attorney would handle herself that way.Similarly, the incredibly casual tone of the early correspondence between Sophie and her client really grated on me. It was so unrealistic, but not (to my mind) escapist enough.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first epistolary novel I've read and I thought it was clever, insightful, and highly entertaining. I've always been fascinated with the legal system and it was particularly interesting to me to have a sort of insider's view into the thought processes and procedures of a lawyer taking on her first divorce case. As an accountant, I've always been curious about the financial aspect of divorce so the financial documents and division of assets really appealed to me. I had feared that this would be a mostly intellectual read, since the story was told entirely through documents, but that wasn't the case. The intense emotions surrounding a divorce were all there and were believable. The only thing I didn't like was the email correspondence between the lawyer and her best friend. I think some insight into Sophie's personal life was important to understanding her thought processes but her emails were a bit excessive at times.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A delightfully fun novel told in the form of papers - memos, letters, emails, and legal documents - following a young criminal lawyer who gets roped into handling a high-profile divorce. Lots of utterly fantastic female characters, and a delightful turn-of-the-millennium nostalgia setting. I absolutely loved it and read the whole thing in two days. My biggest complaint would be that, although people are frequently complaining about being overly emotional, they seem pretty subdued to me - but maybe I'm not enough of a Yankee.(Oh, and it takes place in a fictional state in the US, which I always find delightful, as that doesn't happen nearly often enough. It makes good sense in a book with so many legal documents, though; it gives the author a great deal of flexibility.)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Perfect for the plane (which is where I read it).The Divorce Papers is amusing but not laugh-out-loud funny. Despite its chick-lit pink cover (detest, detest, detest), the book features some seriously interesting legal writing (Ms. Rieger is a lawyer, and this is her first novel). Sophie is a criminal lawyer in the fictional state of Narragansett who's pulled into a high-profile divorce case against her better judgment. As the title suggests, The Divorce Papers is an epistolary novel, combining Sophie's memos, legal briefs, court cases, emails, rage notes between soon-to-be-ex-spouses, and other documents. I liked the (invented) legal cases the best; Sophie's emails to her boss (both personal and professional) made me cringe -- no lawyer I know would ever in million years write in such a fashion to her (or his) boss, but that's artistic license, I suppose. A subplot about sexism in law firms had great potential, but fell flat. I'd like to see what Ms. Rieger could do with a protagonist who doesn't whine about being teased for going to Yale Law (seriously?) and a subject other than divorce, especially given the detail and wonderful voices of her case summaries.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For me, Susan Rieger's 'The Divorce Papers' was that long desired impossible-to-put-down contemporary novel.Epistolary novels aren't easy to pull off successfully, but Reiger hits it right. The missives are a combination of emails, memos, hand penned letters, and court documents detailing the divorce of wealthy client Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim (with due emphasis on the Meiklejohn). The likeable protagonist is a young criminal attorney selected by Mia to handle her divorce. Mia is all too human and down to earth and seeks a divorce lawyer she can relate to. And while Sophie Diehl would much rather defend accused felons, she ably learns to handle the complexities of divorce law (with a little guidance from her mentor).These are characters with rich, complex backgrounds. The novel is deftly plotted; the letter form is not a hinderance; it's downright comic in places.I had a great read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'd probably give this a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed half points. It was a little odd to listen to an epistolary novel, but having multiple narrators helped. I am not fond of reading about rich people, so I was surprised that, for the most part, I enjoyed this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent book. Loved the style of the writing. Fun and interesting. Amazing what can be cleaned from letters etc.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This truly excellent novel tracks the breakdown of a marriage and the development of a young lawyer in parallel- and is surprisingly entertaining! Sophie is a criminal lawyer not a divorce lawyer but when her straightforward manner captures the interest of a rich and powerful client, she finds herself tasked by the firm with taking on the case. The story unfolds through a series of letters, briefs, emails, newpaper articles, etc. and is nevertheless engaging from the first page. I found myself unable to put this book down, and delighted in the personal victories for Sophie (and Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim). Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Having gone through the divorce process myself, I found this book to be both funny and true to life! I especially loved the rapport between the lawyers (as it gave a peek into the other side). I really enjoyed the format. It took me a few pages to get my bearings, but once I was able to follow all the characters, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the epistolary style of writing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good read to peek into the process of divorce through the memos, emails, and papers of a law firm.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    very well written - interesting format I really enjoyed the book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I've never read an epistolary style novel and after reading The Divorce Papers I'm not so sure if I'll read another.The story centers around Sophie Diehl, criminal attorney whose career is thrown a curve ball when she is asked to represent a client in a divorce case. Ms. Rieger uses email, personal notes as well as legal articles to support the divorce element of her novel. Although I do applaud her eagerness to present the reader with an authentic sense of civil law, I found I was skipping over those portions of the novel; finding them tedious and full of legal jargon. I found the epistolary style taking away from the flow of the novel. I had to continuously focus on who the writer is and who they are addressing. And perhaps because of this style of writing, I didn't get a good grasp of character development. Overall the divorce occurring in the novel is glossed over. No one gets really vindictive. It ends up a run of the mill divorce and I found myself not interested in who got what. There is a sub-plot of Sophie needing to come to terms with her own parents' divorce which I think is the underlying reason as to why she didn't want to handle the divorce in the first place.There is also a brief and completely under developed romance in the story. Again, probably due to the style of writing, the relationship was without any depth.