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A Window Opens: A Novel
A Window Opens: A Novel
A Window Opens: A Novel
Audiobook11 hours

A Window Opens: A Novel

Written by Elisabeth Egan

Narrated by Julia Whelan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

What happens when having it all proves too much to handle? In this “fresh, funny take on the age-old struggle to have it all” (People) a wife and mother of three leaps at the chance to fulfill her professional destiny—only to learn every opportunity comes at a price.

“A winning, heartfelt debut” (Good Housekeeping), A Window Opens introduces Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age. Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a (mostly) happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker, or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.

Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up, and her work takes an unexpected turn. In the midst of her second coming of age, Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all but, what does she really want the most?

“Smart and entertaining…with refreshing straight-forwardness and humor” (The Washington Post), “fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette will adore A Window Opens” (Booklist, starred review).
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 25, 2015
ISBN9781442387973
Author

Elisabeth Egan

Elisabeth Egan is the books editor at Glamour. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Self, Glamour, O, The Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Huffington Post, the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Newark Star-Ledger. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

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Reviews for A Window Opens

Rating: 3.8979165833333336 out of 5 stars
4/5

240 ratings26 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great story, smartly written, narrated by the amazing Julia Whelan. It takes you along with Alice Pierce and her family while she, her husband, and three children live, love and struggle as a middle class family in New Jersey. Job changes, kids growing up way too fast, grandparents aging and needing their children’s help all while running the rat race of life. Great reminder to always remember what’s important and to stop and smell the roses!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was very enjoyable and relatable to anyone who has struggled with finding the balance between work and motherhood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this quite a bit. Alice was extremely easy for me to relate to, particularly because of her love of books and reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have no idea why I loved this book so much, but I did. It resonated with me even though I probably don't have very much in common with Alice. Even with that being said I loved her character and the story and feel like there is so much that can be related to no matter what. I think this is one of my favorite books so far this year. I couldn't put it down and when I finally finished I couldn't stop thinking about it. Alice seemed like a good friend whom you watched and learned a little from.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Trending downward toward 2.5 stars....I am just as conflicted as this book is. While I was moved to tears by some parts of it, I was put off by the incessant product-placement/name-brand dropping pop culture references. Wish I had counted! The premise starts as the typical suburban conflicted mom story: Alice works part time for a magazine, loves it, has time to spend with the kids and life within range of NYC is good. Then her husband Nicholas loses his high-powered attorney position (is passed over, actually and has a tantrum that leads to leaving the firm), starts to drink too much, opens his own private practice and leans on Alice to work full-time at a brand new job and industry. This part was fascinating: the author's imagining of the "next thing" in the publishing industry was well-done. Alice lands at "Scroll" a concept company that will have book salons -- wherein consumers simply come in and plug in get all the reading material electronically, virtually, what-have-you. Alice loves developing this idea and learns to get along with the next generation without too many stereotypical tech misunderstandings -- impressive adapting, really. But the vibe doesn't feel right and causes some tension with her (paper)bookstore owning best friend. Meanwhile, it's the juggling act with the sitter and the kids and family AND her own parents -- her father is dying of throat cancer. It becomes an entertaining search for what really matters in life, with a feel-good ending and some unexpected surprises along the way. Good vacation read, just wish it wasn't so scattered.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this book mostly. I was moderately amused by the author's ridicule of corporate life - a life I enjoyed thoroughly until I retired. While I understand that some of it is mock-worthy, I do think she went a little overboard demonstrating that neither the author or the character even tried to understand.

    But, the story held up pretty well and I was interested until the last 30 minutes. The last 30 minutes were just one self-involved, pontifical, sanctimonious rant against the life that I, personally, have enjoyed. I know for a fact what the author does not. One can have a rich, valued life without a husband and children.

    Probably I should take away a star but really it was fun and compelling except the final 5%.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4.5 stars

    A Window Opens is a smart, funny and poignant debut novel by Elisabeth Egan. This entertaining story is fast paced with appealing characters that are flawed but easy to relate to. A heartwarming and touching story that will make you laugh and cry as lead protagonist Alice Pearse tries to balance a full time job with the demands of motherhood, marriage and aging parents.

    Alice is a happily married mom of three whose peaceful life is about to undergo a dramatic transformation. After a change in her husband Nicholas's career, she willingly trades in a part time job she loves for a new position job with a new and innovative company. A longer commute and full time hours mean less time with her family, but she is excited to about her new career. However, her enthusiasm soon wanes as her workdays spill over into family time and the company's focus shifts into areas she is not comfortable with. At the same time, an unexpected and heartbreaking diagnosis for her beloved father adds to her stress when she helps her parents manage his care. Her relationship with Nicholas becomes even more strained when his drinking spirals out of control and their endless fighting takes a toll on their marriage and family life.

    Alice's excitement at her new job quickly wanes when she is thrust into a bewildering position that she knows nothing about. Just as she gets a handle on the demands of the job, the company switches gears, forcing her to once again play catch up. Her workload is overwhelming, her boss's expectations are ever changing and the long hours leave little time for her spend with her family. She depends more and more on longtime babysitter Jessie to manage the day to day details of the children's lives which eventually leaves Alice feeling like an outsider to her own life. However, with her family depending on her paycheck, she feels trapped in a job that she is beginning to loathe.

    Alice is also heartbroken when her father's health takes a turn for the worse. With her brother living out of state, her mom is counting on her to go to doctor's appointments and provide moral support. Working for a big corporation whose main attention is their bottom line, Alice is soon pressured to up her productivity just as her parents need her the most. This story arc is one that will resonate with many readers who often find themselves trying to raise young children while also juggling aging parents and their health issues.

    A Window Opens is a heartfelt novel that many readers will relate to. Elisabeth Egan touches on many issues facing women (and families) today in a straightforward and sensitive manner. The characters are well-developed with believable problems to overcome and the storyline is realistic and engaging. An incredibly moving novel that I highly recommend to fans of contemporary literary fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this and provide an honest review.

    I completed A Window Opens in four hours, because this is a book for people who love books and I am definitely one of those.

    Alice Pearse has an idyllic life, she works part time as a book reviewer for a magazine, has a husband with a great job at a law firm, three children she can dote upon, and time for all the extracurricular in between, like spin class and PTA. One day though, her husband announces he wasn't going to be making it to partner and oh, he quit to start his own firm. Alice puts some feelers out, hoping to ease their financial strains, and lands herself with a dream job at Scroll. Scroll is a brand new start up that aims to change the bookstore content and Alice is the leading employee for connecting publishers to Scroll. Life keeps moving though and Alice finds herself torn between the demands of a job, with an ever changing concept, and her family life. Her husbands detached, her children feeling neglected, and her father needs her support. As the book moves through the seasons, Alice finds herself torn between the true difficulty of balancing a career and the full-time demands of being a mother, wife, friend, and daughter.

    I adored this book and immediately suggested to a few friends of mine that they pick it up when it hits shelves. Elisabeth Egan successfully weaves a story of the challenges of being a mother in the corporate world. She writes with a true love for books and knowledge of the industry that I feel really lent to this book. I really liked the characters, even when they were in the pitfalls of real life struggles, and Egan's method of flashbacks made this novel that much more relatable. She doesn't shy away from the struggles of sick parents, friendship battles, or sugarcoat how hard Alice and her husband worked to get to where they were. The concept of landing one's dream job, only to find that it is not all that it seems, is all too common in my life and my friend's. Egan approached this wonderfully, with Alice learning herself while watching Scroll change right in front of her. A Window Opens is truly a realistic journey and as Alice finds her way home and back into the arms of her family I was really inspired by how real and ordinary the story really was.

    The novel's various methods of dialog did throw me off at first, this isn't my normal preference, but the text messages and e-mails grew on me. They actually helped build the character more than I expected, especially Alice's manager who successfully played the role of friend and judgmental boss.

    A Window Opens isn't a novel with a new concept, but I think it is a fresh take on an old concept. The dilemma for women in the corporate world and balancing family life is approached in a new way and Egan really did a fantastic job of blending several real life situations into the plot. I adored this book and I am really looking forward to hearing my friend's thoughts as well.

    My reviews can be found at carleneinspired.blogspot.com.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found this reminiscent of "I Don't Know How She Does It" and "The Nanny Diaries." Immensely readable!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

    By way of a story, there is nothing new, in fact, this type of story has been done time and time again. Alice is struggling to do it all - she's part of the sandwich generation with demanding kids, a sick/elderly parent, and also a husband that not only loses his job, but develops a drinking problem. She's likable enough, and it wasn't so much what she had to deal with (Egan really pours it on thick), but how she deals with things. Readers may identify with her and find the book entertaining, or not relate to her and find the book a bit dull. Or maybe readers will be too distracted by their own busy lives and feel guilty for indulging in reading when they should be doing other things.

    What was interesting to me was Alice's professional journey, I also work in publishing, but it wasn't enough to really sell the story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Book Review: A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan A special thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

    It took me a while to get into this book and to warm up to the characters. Once I got into the book, it was an enjoyable, easy read. I thought it was going to be a humorous account of the ups and downs in Alice Pearce’s life, but it had some serious moments such as her husband’s addiction and her father’s illness, not to mention the employment issues and raising a family. I found the second half of the book much more enjoyable than the first half as I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended. I’d recommend this book to fans of women’s fiction.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I LOVED Alice! What a delightful character to listen to in the audio read by Julia Whelan. This book had a little of everything fun to read/listen to.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan will most likely appeal to the masses much more than it has appealed to me. The writing style is pleasant and the characters are nicely done. There are some interesting formats scattered throughout including emails, texts, and such. Well shiz, even the storyline is good, albeit very average.
    Unfortunately, as a package, it didn't wow me. It is nice to be able to relate to a characters, but I would rather learn something from them or at least make a serious connection. A Window opens neither entertained in any way that made me want to shout it out to my friends, nor did it open my eyes to anything noteworthy. What I got was an average read that was mediocre in entertainment with nothing much happening other than contemporary life.
    A Window Opens may be a better fit for fans of chick-lit. I am just ot this books target audience.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you're a working woman who has even the tiniest iota of regret about the things you missed or could have done differently had you not been working, you may want to think twice before reading this book. It just might bring up all those shoulda-woulda-coulda things you wish in your heart you'd done differently. It did for me, at least, which tended to lessen the enjoyment of the reading, and heighten the introspection. There also was a lot of product placement in it, which, if they make it into a movie ever, may make sponsors easier to find.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good book. Easy read but a bit more intense than a basic chick lit book. I would have loved the job being offered.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good read about Alice Pearce; wife, mother and daughter. While happy with her part time job, she has to find a full time job after her husband doesn't make partner at the law firm where he works. They have 3 young children and her father is suffering from cancer. While you can see where this is going, it was still an enjoyable ride.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Alice was quite satisfied in her part-time role at a fashion magazine and parenting her children. When her husband leaves his attorney position suddenly (after throwing his laptop across a board room), Alice feels the need to find a full-time career to support her family while her husband starts up a private law practice. When Alice is offered a huge position for an up and coming corporation, it seems too good to be true. Scroll intends to offer a luxury salon-like reading experience to e-readers and "carbon readers" and wants Alice to select books for their intended customers. After landing this dream job, Alice struggles with full-time working mom conflicts, evidence of her husband's lies, and work-related disappointments, as Scroll gradually slips away from their original marketing plan. This was an enjoyable light read about work-life conflict, a desire to find the "perfect job," and trying to have it all. I enjoyed this novel because it mixed several of my favorite interests, including bookstore culture, literary themes, and the visceral descriptions of food, coffee, and reading. #SRC2015 #Booksparks
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Here's a pleasant domestic tale without the thrills and the drama. When her lawyer husband doesn't make partner, Alice gives up her comfy part time job and her time with her three school age children to take up the reins of lead breadwinner.She ends up at Scroll, a seeming amalgamation of Amazon and the fictional company from Dave Eggers "The Circle", having been promised by her hot-and-cold running manager Genevieve that she would become a persuader of publishers to follow Scroll's new model of public reading salons featuring "carbon-based" (paper) and e-books. Alice takes that morning train while husband Nicholas sets up a local law office and becomes the secondary (they have a nanny, of course) caregiver for their kids. Comedies and tragedies ensue, in a most enjoyable and realistic way.The comedic center of the novel is Scroll, by turns hilarious and soul destroying. This is a most enjoyable read, and finally the sour suburban taste (for some) of Gone Girl is dissipated!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It wasn’t until I was about a fourth of the way into the story that I got sucked into the tale; I’m not a thirty-something like the main character of this novel and my life didn’t face the same trials. But just when I was thinking about setting the book down, I did get sucked in and from there to the end I never stopped turning pages.Alice Pearse was happy with her life as a mom-wife-part-time-writer until her husband came home one day and said he’d quit his job. Alice quickly obtains what appears to be a dream job---she’s helping launch a start-up innovative bookstore---but the view from closed doors of her job isn’t quite what she’d hoped. A gentle look at what companies say vs. what companies do along with an inside look at women at work and home today. Very good story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a good read that deals with the issues and struggles of trying to have it all. Alice is the mother of 3 young children, daughter of aging parents, and a wife supporting her career-struggling husband. Her beloved part-time job has to be given up in favor of a full-time job when her husband has to start over with his. She finds what appears to be the job of her dreams with great compensation and a taste of the high life in Manhattan. Things are looking up, or are they?The struggle of holding everything together, including a job that isn't what was promised, is the lion's share of this story. I found it a bit depressing at times, but the author keeps the story rolling, and eventually a window opens bringing some desperately needed fresh air to Alice and the story.I enjoyed this book and will pass on my recommendation. This one will probably appeal much more to the women, even if it's not completely in the chick-lit category. Many women will relate at least in part to Alice and understand the challenges that she and other career moms face. Incidentally, if you have a love for books and small bookstores, like I do, you will also enjoy the part that they play in the book.I thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received this books in a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review. I think this book actually deserves a 3.5 rating. It was a quick enjoyable read and the kind of light chick lit reading I was in the mood for. The protagonist Alice is is a part-time working mom with three kids who suddenly needs full time employment when her husband Nicholas suddenly leaves the legal firm he is working at. As Nicholas sets up his own practice, Alice finds work in a NYC company called Scroll. What seems like the perfect job turns into a nightmare and Alice struggles to find the balance in being a mom, being successful at her demanding job and dealing with her father's battle with cancer. I think the book was well written; witty, funny and sometimes poignant. The story line is not new but I didn't mind that. There were moments that I could identify with Alice and times were I was rather annoyed by her and how she avoided dealing with situations. The book could have done with a little less name dropping of brands. All in all, an entertaining read for my long NJ Transit commute (different line than Alice!).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had mixed feelings about this book. The author's writing was good enough to merit four stars, However, I recognized early on that the protagonist had made a big mistake - and it took her too long to realize it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Just because numerous articles and books have been published debunking the myth of having it all, doesn't mean that people don't still try, sometimes out of necessity. But there is no doubt that this quest is stressful and hard, hectic and all-consuming. Elisabeth Egan's debut novel, A Window Opens, is the tale of one woman's need to try and make it work for herself and her family.Alice Pearse is the happily married mother of three. She has a relaxed part time job reviewing books for a women's magazine that allows her to still be a part of the PTA crowd. Her beloved parents live quite close and she has a wonderful babysitter to help her on days she's working. Her husband Nicholas is a lawyer at a high powered firm and they all seem relatively content with their lives. That is, until Nicholas finds out he won't be making partner at his firm and decides that he's going to start his own small legal practice. Worried about what this means for them financially, Alice starts to look for full time work to keep the family afloat while Nicholas slowly builds a client base. She lucks into a job that seems like a book lover's dream: content manager at startup Scroll, a company intent on creating an entirely new bookstore experience. Alice will be on the ground floor of something truly innovative and she is one of the people who gets the opportunity to find and curate the collection of books that will be available in these amazing sounding literary lounges. The only downside seems to be the very real threat these e-book and first edition p-books (that's Scroll speak for paper book) reading rooms pose to traditional brick and mortar independent bookstores. But Alice can look past that; she has to, doesn't she?Setting aside the troubling fact that the company's parent is a monolithic retail mall developer, Alice is initially excited about the vision of Scroll and its focus on the whole reading experience. Even if she is a good decade older than most of the employees and she smirks at the ridiculous jargon they all use, she is fully invested in her job. As a matter of fact, she's so invested that she feels she's missing out on the home front. And she is. She's so attached to her phone, tied to her emails, and consumed by her job that she barely sees what's going on with her kids, she misses a doctor's appointment where her father discovers that his throat cancer has reoccurred, and she misses the fact that her husband is suddenly drinking too much as a way to alleviate his own stress. Meanwhile, Scroll is not designed to accommodate a work life balance and its clearly stated intentions are changing from what they once were, morphing at the speed of light to something that isn't quite as aligned with Alice's beliefs as it once was. Alice is frazzled and unhappy, stuck in a juggling act that just serves to make her feel terrible. Things must come to a head and Alice has to decide just how far she can stray from her ideals before she no longer likes herself and how much her family's and her own happiness means to her.Alice is an appealing character who just wants to do the best thing for her family and to be happy. She is pulled in a million different directions and her thoughts and feelings on the push and pull are incredibly realistic. Egan's depiction of the book world, the flux that it is in, and the threat of huge, impersonal corporations which hire enthusiastic people, only to dismiss their very valid suggestions and concerns about the industry, is spot on. There is much that is heartbreaking here, a struggle to adjust, terminal cancer, and the almost too late realization of what is most important in our lives. Egan doesn't condemn anyone for their choices but she clearly explains the compromises that we all have to make and the cost those compromises can bring. Nicholas is a frustrating character, unable to slide into the role in which Alice served him for years and resentful that she needed him to do that. I wanted to like him for the loving things he did but instead he made me angry for his lack of realization about how his decision to start his own firm and to burn his bridges at the old place would seismically shift his family and all the roles, his included, in it. The narrative pacing is a little uneven in places, with definite slowdowns in the tale. There are brief light moments but this is not really a funny book; it is far more serious than it initially seems. It's an examination of the lives we build, the trade-offs we make, and finding the balance we can live with, even if that balance will never be 50/50. It's sad but ultimately hopeful and incredibly relate-able.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Alice Pearse is a likable character, a character many of us can identify with. She is a mother to three young children, married and works three days a week at a magazine, reviewing books. That is until her husband finds out he did not make partner and wants to open his own law office, which means Alice must find a full time job until his own office is up and running.She is offered what she thinks is a dream job, a new type of book store that offers first editions, e-books and other things in awesome setting. Until things change and her dream job morphs into something different. This is a novel about books vs. e-books, her friend's independent bookstore versus a whole new reading experience. There are humorous bits, usually coming from the mouths of babes, (we all know kids say the darndest things),. A novel that asks the question, Is it ever possible to really have it all? To find out what Alice decides you need to read the novel. A lighter read, but one that deals with some important issues, issues relating to what is called the sandwich generation among others. ARC from publisher.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received an advanced reader copy of A Window Opens from NetGalley. I loved this book! Alice Pearse is a mom trying to balance going back to work full time after her husband leaves his job, being a good mom to her 3 kids and helping her parents as her dad battles lung cancers. She is a very relatable character - she struggles with issues that all women can appreciate. The book made me laugh and it made me cry. I look forward to reading more from Elisabeth Egan in the future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was sufficiently intrigued by the description of A Window Opens to invest my reading time in an advance copy of this debut novel. The book did not disappoint. Although the attractive cover leads one to think this is a chick lit book, there was a lot of substance to the book. I enjoy reading books about the book industry, and I found the extreme ideas of where the industry could go very scary. I am much older than the main character, but there were many things in her life to which I could relate. It was interesting to read about her father's illness; I don't think I've ever read about a laryngectomy before this book. I could empathize with the difficulty of handling a parent's terminal illness while one has other work and family responsibilities. In the same vein, the author portrayed the character clearly not being able to “have it all”, a very realistic portrait of someone in her circumstances. She made many serious mistakes neglecting her parents', children's and husband's needs.I would highly recommend this book to book discussion groups; I think there are many issues worthy of discussion. I looked at the author's twitter account and will check out her book recommendations. I look forward to her next book.