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Fallback Plan

by Leigh Stein
Fallback Plan

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9781612190426
ISBN10: 1612190421
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

A charming, smart and hilarious debut novel about the tricky period between college graduation and moving out of your parents’ house

Just graduated from college, Esther Kohler’s post-graduate plans include: returning to her parents’ house, taking old prescription tranquilizers, hanging out with Jack, her unrequited high school crush, and re-reading her favorite children’s books.

But Esther’s parents decide she should do something— anything—while mulling her future. So they volunteer her to work as a nanny for their neighbors, the Browns.

It’s a tricky assignment: six months earlier, the Browns’ youngest child had died. Still, as Esther finds herself falling in love with their surviving daughter May, she’s impressed by how well they seem to be coping. And as Esther and her old high school flame resume a confusing relationship, she finds it easier to escape to the Browns' house.

Soon, though, she finds herself assuming the role of mother to May, confidante to May’s mother Amy, and partner in crime to Amy’s husband Nate.... And when these conflicting alliances inevitably collide, Esther is forced to create her own definition of who she really is.

Both witty and heartbreaking, The Fallback Plan is a beautifully written and moving story of what we must leave behind, and what we manage to hold on to, as we navigate the treacherous terrain between youth and adulthood.

Synopsis

A hilarious debut  novel about the tricky period between graduating from college and moving out of your parents’ house

What to do when you’ve just graduated from college and your plans conflict with those of your parents? That is, when your plans to hang out on the couch, re-read your favorite children’s books, and take old prescription tranquilizers, conflict with your parents plans that you, well, get a job?

 

Without a fallback plan, Eshter Kohler decides she has no choice but to take the job her mother has lined up for her: babysitting for their neighbors, the Browns.

 

It’s a tricky job, though. Six months earlier, the Browns’ youngest child died. Still, as Esther finds herself falling in love with their surviving daughter May, and distracted by a confusing romance with one of her friends, she doesn’t notice quite how tricky the job is … until she finds herself assuming the role of confidante to May’s mother Amy, and partner in crime to Amy’s husband Nate. Trapped in conflicting roles doomed to collide, Esther is forced to come up with a better idea of who she really is.

 

Both hilarious and heartbreaking, The Fallback Plan is a beautifully written and moving story of what we must leave behind, and what we manage to hold on to, as we navigate the treacherous terrain between youth and adulthood.

 


About the Author

This is Leigh Stein’s first novel, although at 26 she is already an accomplished writer. A former New Yorker staffer and frequent contributor to its “Book Bench” blog, her poetry has been published in numerous journals, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and earned her Poets & Writers Magazine’s Amy Award. She lives in Brooklyn, where she works in children’s publishing and teaches musical theater to elementary school students.

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Tammy Dotts , January 03, 2012 (view all comments by Tammy Dotts)
For some people, the time after college is a second adolescence. Responsibilities of exams and classes are over, but responsibilities of the real world haven’t kicked in yet as recent graduates look for a job in their chosen field or continue to struggle to define what they want to do when they grown up. The latter is the situation facing Esther in Leigh Stein’s The Fallback Plan. Having moved back in with her parents, Esther feels very much in between stages of her life. She drifts for a bit before landing a babysitting/nanny job with family friends. The family’s youngest daughter died six months before the novel opens, and Esther’s job involves entertaining the remaining daughter, May, while her mother works on a mysterious art project in the attic. Along the way, Esther indulges her previous college and adolescent side by hanging out in playgrounds smoking marijuana with childhood friends. The book moves quickly, and Stein draws clear characters at crossroads in their lives. The problem, unfortunately, is that it’s hard for readers to care about characters who aren’t sure whether or not they like themselves. Esther’s inability to move forward as an adult could be an interesting character trait if Esther seemed more invested in moving forward or had strong feelings about it either way. Instead she drifts, a little too willing to accept whatever is thrown at her without being upset or joyful over her circumstances. Esther doesn’t seem to have an opinion of herself and it’s difficult for a reader to care much about her either. It’s telling that the stories Esther tells May to pass the time are more interesting than Esther’s own story. The original fairy tales center on a young panda girl whose travails mirror Esther’s. When Esther falls for Jack, one of her childhood friends, he shows up in the panda’s story. How the panda experiences the crush is not as predictable as what happens to Esther and Jack. Also predictable is the relationship between Esther and May’s father. Yet, despite the predictability, nothing happens. Esther has a safe pseudo-affair with May’s father, but it doesn’t progress to the point of danger. She sleeps with Jack, but the lack of emotional consequences or effect on the plot makes it another “meh” event in Esther’s life. Amy shows clear signs of being dangerously unhinged and Stein lays the groundwork for a big event that would threaten May or Amy that never materializes. The novel ends as it began. Esther recognizes that her childhood is over, but doesn’t have a firm plan for the future or a firm grasp on who she wants to be. She’s grown closer to her parents and recognized she wants more than meaningless sex and affairs, but the overall impression is that the events of the novel weren’t that important to Esther, which makes them not that important to a reader.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781612190426
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
01/03/2012
Publisher:
MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING
Pages:
224
Height:
.57IN
Width:
5.55IN
Thickness:
.75
Copyright Year:
2012
Author:
Leigh Stein
Author:
Leigh Stein
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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$9.50
List Price:$14.95
Used Trade Paperback
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