Synopses & Reviews
From Jennifer Weiner, one of America’s most celebrated and beloved writers, comes a new novel that takes on the controversial topic of women and addiction and proves to be her most absorbing and timely story yet.
Allison Weiss has a great job… a gorgeous husband… an adorable daughter… and a secret.
Allison Weiss is a normal suburban mother — until a website she develops takes off, and her life starts falling apart. Suddenly, her husband’s becoming distant, her daughter’s acting spoiled, her father is dealing with early Alzheimer’s, and her mother’s barely dealing at all. As she struggles to be a good daughter, a good mother, and a good wife, to run her business and serve as Class Mother in her daughter’s snooty private school (and maybe get to the gym every once in a while) Allison finds that the prescription painkillers she took for a back injury help her deal with more than just physical pain — they give her energy, help her feel calm, and let her get through her increasingly hectic days.
When her use gets to the point that she can no longer control it — or hide it — Allison ends up in a world she never thought she’d experience outside of a movie theater: rehab. Amid the teenage heroin addicts, the alcoholic grandmothers, the barely-trained “recovery coaches” and the overwhelmed counselors, Allison struggles to get sober, even as she’s convincing herself that she’s not as bad as the women around her. Back in the real world, Allison picks up the pieces, forms new friendships, and builds a life where she can be a mother, a daughter, a friend, a professional success…and a woman in recovery.
With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, All Fall Down is another classic Jennifer Weiner tale of empowerment and redemption that will leave readers laughing and crying to the end.
Review
"Weiner has taken a complicated, nuanced, and fraught subject and given us a narrative both entertaining and enlightening. "
New York Journal of Books
Review
"All Fall Down is Weiner's best book yet. Her portrayal of rehab is sharp, sad, and mordantly funny... Weiner's account of Allison's hard-won turnaround is pitch-perfect. Allison is a memorable character wisecracking her way through despair. Her rock bottom, when it comes, is well-drawn and convincing."
Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
"Compulsively readable. Weiner's skill is in the specifics. There's no doubt she knows how to deliver a certain kind of story, and well."
New York Times Book Review
Review
"All Fall Down is a witty, realistic criticism on the modern age and how difficult it can be to balance family, career and self, and how quickly everything can spiral out of control. Allison Weiss is a great reminder that people have weaknesses and that superheroes don't exist. Weiner fans will be happy to find this as one of her best works. For those who aren't familiar with her, All Fall Down is a great place to start."
Boston Herald
Review
"Weiner, who is a master at creating realistic characters, is at her best here, handling a delicate situation with witty dialogue and true-to-life scenes. Readers will be nodding their heads in sympathy as Allison struggles to balance being a mother, a daughter, and a wife while desperately just wanting to be herself. Weiner is one of the reigning queens of contemporary women's fiction, and her latest is sure to hit the best-seller lists. The hot-topic quality of the story line will only boost readership even further."
Booklist, starred review
Synopsis
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner
Allison Weiss got her happy ending--a handsome husband, adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician's office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder...Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class...or if your husband ignores you?
The pills help her manage the realities of her good-looking life: that her husband is distant, that her daughter is acting out, that her father's Alzheimer's is worsening and her mother is barely managing to cope. She tells herself that they let her make it through her days...but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that's becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?
With a sparkling comedic touch and a cast of unforgettable characters, this remarkable story of a woman's slide into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again is Jennifer Weiner's most masterful work yet.
Synopsis
Allison Weiss got her happy ending — a handsome husband, an adorable little girl, a job she loves, and a big house in the suburbs. But when she's in the pediatrician's office with her daughter and a magazine flips open to a quiz about addiction, she starts to wonder whether her use of prescription pills is becoming a problem. On the one hand, it's just prescription medication, the stuff her doctors give her. Is a Percocet at the end of a hard day really different than a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump and Pump class... or after your husband ignores you?
Back in the car, with her daughter safely buckled behind her, Allison opens the Altoid tin in her purse and slips a chalky white oval underneath her tongue. The pill unties her knotted muscles, erases the grime and ugliness of the city, soothes her as she frets about the truth of her looking-good life: that her husband's becoming distant, that her daughter is acting out, that her father's early Alzheimer's is worsening and her mother's barely managing to cope. She tells herself that the pills let her make it through her days... but what if her ever-increasing drug use, a habit that's becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?
All Fall Down is the story of a woman's slide into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again. With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, this tale of empowerment and redemption is Jennifer Weiner's most poignant, timely, and triumphant story yet.
About the Author
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eleven books, including Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, which was made into a major motion picture, and The Next Best Thing. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.