Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

A Window Opens

by Elisabeth Egan

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Aug 2015, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

In A Window Opens, Elisabeth Egan brings us 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, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. 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. Fans of I Don't Know How She Does It, Where'd You Go Bernadette, and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it's possible to have it all, but what does she - Alice Pearse - really want?

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Women may not be able to have it all, but this novel can." - Kirkus

"Starred Review. For its insider's view of the publishing industry and some not-so-thinly-veiled jabs at Amazon, fans of I Don't Know How She Does It (2002) and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) will adore A Window Opens." - Booklist

"Though the author successfully skewers start-ups and corporate culture, Alice's disillusionment with her trendy employer is slow to play out, filling much of the space with repetitive plot developments." - Publishers Weekly

"A winning, heartfelt debut." - Good Housekeeping

"Elisabeth Egan's wry, up-to-the-minute social comedy perfectly captures the harried life of a working mother who is, by necessity, on call 24/7 in every sphere. Filled with humor and heartbreak, this acutely observed debut is compulsively readable." - Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train

"A buoyant, engaging novel that manages the rather remarkable feat of taking no sides even as it takes no prisoners. A delightful and impressive debut." - Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion

"An instant classic. Egan manages to be wise, honest, poignant and laugh out loud funny about marriage, motherhood, daughterhood, and that ever elusive concept: having it all." - J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Bestselling Author of Maine

This information about A Window Opens was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Diane S.

A window opens
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. (less)

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

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; 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.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.