“Lots of ambitious books announce themselves; this one doesn’t need to. The first novel by Betsy Lerner forgoes all fanfare and conceit as it refines a 20-year coming-of-age into an elegant thread of taut, perfectly paced milestones. The prose is controlled, but neither virtuosic nor spare; the plot, enticing but neither Dickensian nor minimalist. Decidedly un-trendy, crescendo-less and restrained, this tragicomic family saga is a Bach prelude to the Rachmaninoff of a writer like Jonathan Franzen. ”

“The younger of two siblings grows up the shadow of her beautiful, reckless, mentally ill sister. ‘Here are the ways I could start this story,’ Amy Shred says, offering three choices in a brief prologue to memoirist and literary agent Lerner’s debut novel. The story unfolds with the verisimilitude of a memoir: Amy’s nuanced relationships with her mother, her father, and her partners are all utterly convincing and relatable. A seamlessly constructed and absorbing fictional world, full of insight about how families work.”

“Smart, funny and moving . . .this bright, clean, gallivanting story rewards an open mind and heart with crisp prose, fresh plot turns and dimensional dishy portraits we can instantly recognize. Amy’s voice — a perfect amalgam of weary cynicism, jealousy, angsty and steady, painful love — wins us instantly. Myriad scenes will make you want to both howl and laugh for their authentic, helpless absurdity. Lerner delivers a scrappy mélange of Mel Brooks and Sylvia Plath.”

“In her absorbing memoir, Lerner probes marriage, career, motherhood, depression, aging, death, religion and sex, discovering that, although the Bridge Ladies’ generation differs from hers, they share common values of love and kinship. This beautifully written, bittersweet story of ladies of a certain age and era will have wide appeal.”

“A deeply affecting memoir…a generous and honest examination, she honors these women’s lives.”

“Lerner] doesn’t preach on how to write a book but rather tries to help writers and would-be authors cope with such problems as ‘being alone with it.’ It’s a survival course. She wants to help the writer who cannot get started embark, the writer stalled between projects ignite. She wants you to be an effective ‘self-promoter’ and not a ‘self-saboteur.’ The book is also an affirmation that late bloomers can become successful writers.”

“An object lesson in how women can lose themselves in the quest to lose weight…Lerner’s generosity and bravery illuminate every page of this masterful story of a worthwhile life. ”