Normal People Don't Live Like This |  | Author: Dylan Landis
Publisher: Persea
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.85
as of 11/22/2009 22:21 CST details
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New (32) Used (5) from $8.85
Seller: smokymtnbooks
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 3495
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0892553545
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780892553549
ASIN: 0892553545
Publication Date: September 22, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“Wonderful! Leah and Helen are authentic, vulnerable characters, whose intimate truths are exposed at perfect, unexpected moments.”—Elizabeth Strout At the center of this startling fiction debut is Leah Levinson, a teen at sea in the anonymous ordeals of a middle-class upbringing on the Upper West Side in the 1970s. In ten installments, written from varying perspectives, we witness her uneasy relationships with faster, looser peers—girls she is drawn to but also alienated by.
No one, though, alienates Leah more than her mother, Helen. Estranged yet intertwined, they struggle within the confines of their personalities, unaware of how similar their paths are. Just when they seem at a lonely impasse, each makes an impulsive change—Leah taking a risky trip abroad, Helen renting a secret room in a welfare hotel. Jolted from their old patterns, the two of them independently glimpse the possibility of a more hopeful life.
Dylan Landis is a gifted portraitist of unforgettable female characters. Normal People Don’t Live Like This is a striking debut. .
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 Stories that center around a young girl and her mother November 5, 2009
sb-lynn (Santa Barbara, California United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
No spoilers in this review.
I am usually not a short story fan, but I do enjoy them when they are linked either by character or place. Through the stories in this book we follow the lives of Leah Levinson, an awkward and sensitive adolescent and her mother Helen, a borderline anorexic with a need for order and cleanliness.
The book starts out in the 1960's, and we know this by references to Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix and other bands from that era. In the first story we are introduced to a girl named Rainey as she is being seduced by a friend of her father. She is very aware of her sexual appeal, more so than she should be at the age of 13.
By the next story we meet Leah, who is being bullied by Rainey and another girl. Leah appears just the opposite of Rainey - Leah seems physically immature and unattractive, and her parents seem protective and caring. Leah also has a compulsive need to tap and count.
But we know that there are problems at home, and Leah's mother Helen has an eating disorder. As we travel in time and follow Leah and Helen, we come to realize that both Leah's and Helen's need for order and control belie the turmoil and disarray inside. These stories take us through the development of these characters, as they become more self-aware and understanding of their own needs.
This book is beautifully written, and I think most readers will find passages where they will empathize with one or more characters. Landis truly captures the angst of an awkward adolescence, and the pain and anguish of reaching middle age without having figured out what makes you happy.
This book can be very bleak and dark. If you are looking for a light read, or a beach book - this isn't it.
 BEWARE! November 4, 2009
B. Kobzeff (Irvine, CA)
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
Beware! This book is not intended for a teen-age audience despite having a 15-year-old main character.
 a beautifully observed coming-of-age collection November 2, 2009
Cheryl K (Los Angeles, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I tore through this book in the same manner I devoured Prep--something about my apparent hunger to see an angsty female adolescence given literary weight. Landis shines her considerable literary light on moments and images: for example, the care her bisexual protagonist devotes to touching a pregnant friend's wrist rather than her stomach. It's a book of rooms (the mother character is a designer, so this is both literal and figurative); there's sturdy architecture here, but it's often masked by a beautiful set of curtains. Very occasionally I wanted some of those offstage plot points to get bigger play (what? Leah's dad died? when did that happen?), but mostly I was happy to revel in the details.
Brava! October 25, 2009
B King (New York, NY)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A remarkable achievement by a truly gifted writer. I fell completely under the spell of this mesmerizing and haunting book, and weeks after reluctantly finishing it, I still can't get it off my mind. I hope Dylan Landis doesn't make us wait too long for her next one.
A Home Run October 7, 2009
Michelle Brafman (Glen Echo)
I read this book in two sittings, and I will likely read it again to savor Dylan Landis's fine craftsmanship. Each story is perfect and whole, and there's also a sturdy narrative thread that ties these tales together, but not too neatly. Dylan is brilliant at showing how people claim and relinquish their personal power. Lots of fodder here for a lively book club discussion.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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