New Year's by Adelle Waldman

New Year's

by Adelle Waldman

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Published by: Macmillan-Picador on May 6, 2014
Genres: Novella, friends, crushes
Pages: 43
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 2 Stars

NOTICE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

From Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., here’s New Year’s, a story from the point of view of Nate’s friend Aurit—as startling, provocative and true-to-life a tale about a young woman’s dating life as The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. was about a young man’s.

She felt some part of herself relax when she was with him. She could shut off the part of her brain that was always monitoring whether she was talking too much, being "selfish."

A few years before the start of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., twentysomething writer Nathaniel Piven admires a piece of published work by a young woman named Aurit Arazi, and writes her an email expressing his appreciation. After this introduction, they meet for a drink. At the time, Nate is dating gorgeous, moody Elisa, and Aurit has an older, successful novelist boyfriend named Carter, but Nate and Aurit become friends. In the months, even years, that pass, Nate’s and Aurit’s romantic partners change, but their friendship carries on. And then, one New Year’s eve, it seems that the nature of their relationship may change. Like many readers who got to know Nate P. in The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., Aurit is pretty sure that, when it comes to relationships with women, Nate can be an asshole, but is there more to him than that? In New Year’s, author Adelle Waldman exposes the mating psyche of one brilliant young female writer, with the same shockingly accurate eye that brought the world Nathaniel P.

I must say I didn't realize 2 things when I requested to read this book: That I should have read The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. prior to reading this follow-up and that it was only 43 pages long. I'm not really a novella kind of girl unless it's a follow-up to something I really enjoyed reading.

There's not much to really say about this story, other than I felt there was too much exposition. It was lacking in dialogue and heavy on Aurit's background. It was a tale of one friend having a crush on the other, but there wasn't enough dialogue for me to even tell whether her crush was justified or not.

Perhaps if you've read the original book, this one will make more sense to you. I'm sorry that I can't offer much more than this.