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Other People's Houses

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Other People's Houses

Written by: Abbi Waxman
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
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Buy Now for $23.31

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About this listen

 “Abbi Waxman is both irreverent and thoughtful.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin

The author of The Garden of Small Beginnings returns with a hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything.

At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...

*record scratch*

As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...

After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families--and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage. Fiction Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Marriage Funny Witty Family Drama Fiction

What the critics say

Praise for Other People's Houses
Named A Highly Anticipated Book for 2018 by InStyle online, Elite Daily, and Hello Giggles • One of Popsugar's “10 Books Your Favorite Celebrities Are Reading This Spring”

“We absolutely adored Abbi Waxman’s The Garden of Small Beginnings. And if it’s possible, we’re even more in love with her much-anticipated follow-up, Other People’s Houses. April’s book club pick is set in stone.”—Hello Giggles

“Meet your new favorite wry writer.”—The Daily Beast

“Hilarious ruminations about child-rearing, shopping, and other parents give [Other People's Houses] broad appeal that should extend beyond fans of Waxman's first novel.”—Publishers Weekly

“Once again, Waxman manages to take a far-reaching topic and sprinkle it with spicy dialogue, adorable kids, and characters who feel like best friends...Frances is equal parts warmth and snark as she considers her friends and neighbors through the lens of TMI. Recommend to those who like to turn pages quickly without sacrificing complex characters.”—Booklist

Praise for The Garden of Small Beginnings
As seen in Elle.com, The Washington Post, Woman’s World, Flavorwire, HelloGiggles, Bustle, Brit & Co, and more!

“Filled with characters you’ll love and wish you lived next door to in real life.”—Bustle

“Brilliant...Quirky yet very real characters sparkle on every page.”—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author

“A quirky, funny, and deeply thoughtful bookl.”—HelloGiggles

“A summer beach read with meat.”—Associated Press

“This is my favorite kind of book—hilarious, sad, joyful. Beautifully written. Fun. I dare you not to enjoy it.”—Julia Claiborne Johnson, author of Be Frank With Me

“A beautiful book full of humor, heart, and deep insight...Abbi Waxman’s quick wit and heart shine brightly throughout this debut novel. I just loved it!”—Molly Shannon, actress

“Funny and poignant. Guaranteed to make you laugh and cry. May make you want to play in dirt and grow a new life of your own.”—Wendy Wax, USA Today bestselling author of One Good Thing

“Full of wry humor and a cleareyed view of how life keeps offering good things...This debut begs for an encore from Waxman.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Waxman’s] narrative and dialog are drenched with spring showers of witty and irreverent humor.”—Library Journal (starred review)
All stars
Most Relevant
Good narration, interesting story and point of view. Good character development and plot. would recommend.

Enjoyable

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I really enjoyed this novel by Abbi Waxman. She takes the mundane of daily life and turns it into a great read. The characters are relatable and I love how she is able to get into the head of almost every character so seamlessly. This is my third novel by Waxman and I’m looking to gobble up the rest!!!!

Modern day Jane Austen

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*trigger warning: quotations and descriptions involving gendered and domestic violence in the plot *

I have listened to several of the author's other books and found them mostly clever, enjoyable pieces of social satire. That seemed to be the case with this one - until it veered into a jarring degree of misogyny in the form of social acceptance of violence between a married couple. The book revolves around the social repercussions of a married mother's affair with a younger man, in which we hear about how this apparently outrageously transgressive act (seriously, at the end of the second decade of the 21st century?) unleashes an array of responses such as jealousy, insecurity and comparisons of marriages amongst the neighbourhood. So far so predictable - until a series of scenes in which the enraged husband verbally abuses his wife at home, publicly states that he wants her dead, describes to her his fantasies of beating her to death, publicly states his wish for her violent death in a traffic accident and, during a party in which the entire neighbourhood is in attendance, physically assaults and again verbally abuses her. What is most jarring about all of this is that the entire neighbourhood - including the main female narrator - considers this all the 'normal' behaviour of an angry spouse and the most they will do to intervene is to remove the female character from the scene. Instead of looking more deeply into the sources of the (thinly-sketched, rather flatly stereotyped skinny blonde) adulterer's barely-mentioned depression and need to look outside of the marriage to get her needs met, she is dismissed as wanting to be 'young and sexy', then judged and blamed for the effects of her actions not only on her own family, but on those of the neighbourhood. The public displays of misogynistic violence are treated by the other characters as the acts of a husband 'being a dick' , but nothing more serious. The other female characters, in particular the narrator, treat the adulterer with scorn, impatience and barely-concealed judgement, and when two of the character's children go missing, the most sympathetic female character threatens - on TV - that if her son is hurt she will 'rip off [the adulterer's head] and piss down her gaping neck wound', a jarring statement of which much fun is made.

Even someone with the most cursory understanding of domestic abuse and institutionalised misogyny would find this story disturbing. I kept waiting to find that the descriptions of an abjectly abusive and toxic marriage, along with the the neighbours complicity and lack of compassion was part of the satire, but if this is the case, it was never made clear. I also wondered (partly due to character's names such as Frances, Ann and Iris) whether the story was set far enough in the past for such violence to remain unremarked upon, but references to forty-something 'Gen X parents' place it squarely in the present. As such, instead of the tongue-and-cheek social commentary for which the author is known, this book read as an apologia for the continued normalisation of misogyny, rape culture and domestic abuse. I would strongly recommend avoiding this book if you have any experience of these issues or care about anyone who does.

weirdly disturbing and misogynistic

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