Wow. This was probably my favorite book so far in 2010. I flew through it and I have only done that with one other novel this year, 13 reasons why.
Firefly Lane covers the 30 year friendship of Kate Mularkey and Tully Hart. Absurdly different, they take on the world together. We enter their lives in 8th grade when Kate is a loner and Tully has moved to town with her stoner mom. They start off their relationship with Tully, in Tully form, being an awful bitch to Kate, and Kate being the friend Tully needs after a devastating experience. Tully's mom gets sent to jail and the two must rely on letters through most of high school.
Tully has decided they are going to be TV Reporters and Kate is easily manipulated into that dream as well. They are roomies at the University of Washington where they blossom and bloom in their own ways. Kate is a hopeless romantic and Tully the driven pessimist. After college they move into an apartment and get a job that Tully got for them and where they share Johnny as a boss.
Johnny like most people are drawn to Tully's personality and he is bewitched. Kate is equally bewitched with Johnny she falls head over heels with him and never breathes a word to anyone. Which, she should have because that would have saved her the heart ache of her BEST FRIEND SLEEPING WITH JOHNNY before they got together. Cuz that would have been nice.
Anywho, Kate the good Catholic girl, gets knocked up and marries Johnny. Tully can't understand marriage and tying yourself down and losing your dream. Which, Kate IS living her dream, but Tully is too stubborn to realize that HER dream isn't the same as Kate's.
Long story short, they grow up and older and Tully becomes hugely successful and Kate enjoys her life in her own way. They fight, they make up and they are always there for each other. Until they aren't after a horrendously bad decision on Tully's part. And that is alll of the spoliers I shall retell here.
My view: I LOVED IT. I adored Kate, flaws and all, and Tully was okay but she needed to be smacked. I couldn't stand how she always ran to Kate's mom to tattle. Dude, fight your own fights and realize the world is not all about you. Kate also needed to speak up for herself more. I could totally picture Johnny has incredibly handsome. Kate's daughter needed a serious attitude adjustment and I loved Mrs. Mularkey. It was such an awesomely written story that had me up way past my bedtime with tears dripping down. It probably wasn't the best book for me to read given how easy it is for me to cry about people dying lately, especially moms, but I adored it.
This was such a great book about enduring female relationships and mother daughter relationships.
What did you think? Who did you relate to the most? What part of the book made you want to throttle a character?
4 comments:
As you'll see from my post, I didn't love this book. I have met to meet someone who didn't love this book, I think I am in the minority on that.
Tully totally pissed me off. I hate how she interfered with the raising of Kate's daughter and caused more problems. She swept onto the scene and was the 'cool' aunt. Pissed me off.
All in all it was an enjoyable read. i just couldn't get past Tully's character.
Wow, this book sounds so good. Definitely headed to the top of my TBR list. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting your review! I really enjoyed the book though I had moments during it where I was about to kill Tully. However, I saw a lot of myself in Kate, and I saw a lot of Tully in friendships I have had over the years. THe difference is I don't really have friendships like that now in my adult life, I have no patience for that kind of situation.
I also saw a lot of myself in Kate's daughter even though she made me crazy. Girls are TERRIBLE during their teen years, and even though I was actually a pretty "good" kid, I still look back on things I said/did to my parents with a lot of shame. It's too bad kids have to be that way, but I guess it's part of the asserting their independence thing.
I've read such good things about this one, but I do tend to avoid books that I think might make me cry.
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