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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Rieger, S. 2014 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm's most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly's. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she's never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can't be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It's her first divorce, too. Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn't leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and
Author Notes
SUSAN RIEGER is a graduate of Columbia Law School. She has worked as a residential college dean at Yale and an associate provost at Columbia. She has taught law to undergraduates at both schools and written frequently about the law for newspapers and magazines. She lives in New York City with her husband. The Divorce Papers is her first novel.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Rieger's clever and funny debut-an epistolary novel told through memos, e-mails, and letters-Sophie Diehl is a criminal lawyer, working for a law firm in the fictional state of Narragansett in New England, similar to Massachusetts. As she says herself, "I like that most of my clients are in jail. They can't get to me; I can only get to them." One of the firm's managing partners asks her to do an intake interview for Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim, daughter of one of the firm's most important clients, whose husband served her with divorce papers at a local restaurant. Sophie reluctantly acquiesces and has to learn how to handle a divorce case (rather than a criminal one), while juggling family dynamics, nasty interoffice politics, and the ups and downs of her own romantic life, all as the year 2000 approaches. Lovers of the epistolary style will find much to appreciate. Rieger's tone, textured structure, and lively voice make this debut a winner. Agent: Kathy Robbins, Robbins Office. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A brutally comic chronicle of high-end divorce told through letters, emails and a huge pile of legal memorandums. This is the first novel from Columbia Law School graduate Rieger. Brilliant 29-year-old Sophie Diehl is an up-and-coming criminal defense lawyer in the prestigious firm of Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski in the fictional New England state of Narraganset. Mia Durkheim, nee Meiklejohn, the daughter of one of Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski's wealthiest clients, has been served divorce papers by her husband of 18 years, pediatric oncologist Daniel. After Sophie fills in for the firm's vacationing divorce specialist, Fiona McGregor, to take Mia's initial interview--transcript provided--Mia decides she wants Sophia to represent her. Sophie reluctantly accepts the civil case under pressure from managing partner David Greaves. The intimacies of Mia and Daniel's marriage are laid bare largely through Mia and Sophie's emails and Sophie's detailed memos to David about the case's progress. The couple's skirmishes are comically vicious, while the issue of custody concerning their sensitive, precocious 10-year-old daughter deepens the marital drama. As Sophie gears up to battle the sleazy New York lawyer Daniel has hired, she also must contend with Fiona's ruffled feathers and office politics involving ethnic, class and gender issues brought to light in a flurry of interoffice memos--shades of The Good Wife. Meanwhile, Sophie's emails to her best friend chronicle a nonstarter romance and her complicated relationships with high-achieving, eccentric parents whose divorce still troubles Sophie. Rieger pulls out every legal document connected to the case, including witness affidavits, settlement offer breakdowns and legal invoices. Extremely clever, especially the legal infighting; this book should prove hugely popular with the legal set as well as anyone who has ever witnessed a divorce in process.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Sophie Diehl is a young law associate working for a well-established New England firm. She specializes in criminal law, working with people behind bars, at least partly to avoid the face-to-face contact family law requires. But with the other associates out of town, Sophie is called to do an intake interview for a divorce case. She agrees, with the stipulation that her involvement ends when the interview is over. Instead, the high-profile client takes a shine to Sophie, insisting Sophie handle her divorce. With heavy support from her boss, Sophie agrees to tackle this new challenge, becoming a better, more confident lawyer in the process. Rieger presents her story in epistolary fashion, through personal correspondence, office memos, e-mails, articles, and legal papers, giving the novel an almost voyeuristic feel. Where Rieger excels is with her characters. Sophie and her crowd are witty, insightful, and interesting people. Although the legal documentation gets heavy at times, Rieger's method of delivery makes her first novel a refreshing and absorbing read.--Gladstein, Carol Copyright 2014 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ACCORDING TO THE oft-repeated statistic, roughly half of all marriages in this country end in divorce - which makes "The Divorce Papers," Susan Rieger's epistolary first novel about one couple's messy split, certainly relatable. But how many people want to relive the emotions of a marriage's demise, from the initial shock to the ensuing despair, fury and vengeance? Yet "The Divorce Papers," through its ingenious setup and voyeuristic pleasures, overcomes these hurdles as Rieger excavates the humor and humanity from a most bitter uncoupling. After 18 years of marriage, Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim is ambushed when her husband, a prominent physician, serves her with papers at a chic local restaurant. Similarly blindsided is Sophie Diehl, a 29-year-old criminal attorney with no experience in divorce law, roped into the case after unwittingly earning Mia's trust during an intake interview and compelled to see it through by a senior partner at her firm. The women form an odd pair - Mia the cultured, privileged daughter of one of the firm's biggest clients; Sophie the self-deprecating lawyer with an aversion to direct client contact - but it's through their shared experience (or inexperience) that Rieger's novel is most fully realized. In that sense, "The Divorce Papers" is as much Sophie's story as Mia's, chronicling everything from the backbiting politics of a white-shoe law firm to the financial and social tolls of divorce to the collateral damage it inflicts on anyone caught in its orbit - particularly Mia's daughter. The novel's most distinguishing characteristic is Rieger's modern twist on the epistolary form, the narrative cleverly unfolding through handwritten correspondence, office memos and emails, news articles and legal papers, even floral delivery cards. Rieger, who taught law at Columbia and Yale, is clearly equipped to handle the legal aspects of the story, as evidenced by the settlement offers and memorandums that document the contentious back-and-forth between the warring parties. But it's in the personal correspondence that she really shows a storyteller's imagination. Starting in the opening pages, when Mia realizes her husband is having an affair with a dermatologist, the emotions and insecurities of the characters are laid bare in the intimacy of their exchanges. They fret, they despair, they act badly, often in hilarious and unconventional ways. Both Mia and Sophie are fine narrators for the attendant drama, their intelligence and eloquence apparent even as their circumstances change. Indeed, Rieger's characters are at times almost too clever, coming off as preternaturally self-aware no matter the nature of their correspondence or the parties involved. They are always "on," even at moments when they would more likely be unguarded or less astute. "I've made a major sociological breakthrough," Mia announces in one oddly jaunty note to Sophie: "I've discovered the seven stages of divorce, a kind of parallel to the 12 stages of grief." Elsewhere, Sophie sends her boss a confessional email about her own parents' divorce: "My parents were the stars of all our lives, and we, the children, were the supporting players. We had speaking parts but no big scenes." This strain of pretentiousness permeates the dialogue, lending it a sometimes unnatural, Sorkin-esque quality. In a story told entirely through correspondence, the tone of affectation can be monotonous and overbearing, no matter how witty the quips. Then again, I'd rather read about people who are too clever than not clever enough, and Rieger clearly shows patience and sympathy for her characters, even at their most unlikable. Midway through the book, Mia offhandedly remarks that her divorce is "mentally stimulating - when it's not emotionally shattering," an observation that succinctly sums up Rieger's literary feat: finding entertainment and compassion in the wreckage of a failed happily-ever-after. After 18 years of marriage, a physician serves his wife with divorce papers at a restaurant. EMILY GIFFIN'S latest novel, "The One and Only," has just been published.
Library Journal Review
Sophie Diehl, a young criminal lawyer, is assigned to a divorce case. It is not her area of expertise, and she is unhappy about it, especially as the case brings back painful memories of her parents' divorce. The story is told through correspondence Sophie receives and sends to her boss, her best friend, her boyfriend, her client, and other important people in her life. More than ten narrators, including Rebecca Lowman and Kathe Mazur, read the book, as each character who sends an email or a letter is read by a different speaker. The epistolary format does not lend itself well to the audiobook format since the letters are prefaced by a painfully slow and irritating delivery of the letterhead, which in printed media the reader would glance at and move on. Verdict This book would be more enjoyable in print.-Ilka Gordon, Aaron Garber Lib., Cleveland (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.