Sugar Free, Book Review: Getting Back

It’s the 70’s. You are experiencing college life, all of the freedoms it affords, and you fall in love for the first time. Life is amazing, liberating, and beautiful among the backdrop of Cat Stevens, Laugh-In, and bell bottoms. But over the course of one summer semester, the girl of your dreams breaks up with you to marry a man.

Getting Back tells the story of successful CEO Elizabeth Morrison and how thirty years later, she is faced with meeting Ruth Abramson- the one that ‘got away’ or rather ‘walked away’ all of those years ago.

The book opens in the year 2008, and continues to hop back and forth between the 70’s and 08. Typically this form of storytelling can cause reader whiplash, however author Cindy Rizzo was able to transport me through the decades seamlessly. Initially, I found it an oddity that the author chose to present the story in the year 2008. I wondered if it was because by then the characters were already in their fifties and if she placed them in present day 2015, it would make them roughly 60ish? Anyone that knows me also knows about my undying love for Meryl Streep, who is currently 66, and I find her by far the sexiest woman alive. So I would have no problem reading about older women, but who knows?

We are introduced to Elizabeth Morrison as the main character. She is a successful business woman, CEO of one of the most lucrative publishing companies in the industry, and repetitively identifies as ‘Queen Elizabeth’- not the monarch, just a moniker she calls herself. This is the character I should have been drawn to. (Give me an older powerful woman wearing a business suit, and I am complete putty). This is the character I was supposed to empathize with and whose heart I wanted to mend. But honestly, I could never seem to care about her. The author continues to say that Elizabeth has the persona of ‘Queen’, but I believe you have to actually write the character that way. For example, the author needs to give her snarky dialogue, ruthless business sense, a signature glare, a clipped tone, or something/anything resembling a superior personality would be great really.

Instead I found Elizabeth to be extremely boring and pathetic in her actions. In the opening chapter, we discover Elizabeth has kept a makeshift scrapbook of sorts that contains articles and pictures of Ruth’s accomplishments from the last thirty years. For me, it was a little stalker-ish, but some may view this as romantic. And I found Elizabeth’s behavior towards a secondary character, Tracy Patterson, creepy and disrespectful.

Elizabeth’s one redeeming quality is that she is generous to the cleaning staff and anyone else beneath her in the ranks of the corporate world. It reminds me of the famous quote by Albert Einstein, “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” So standing ovation to Rizzo for at least giving Elizabeth that character trait.

I suppose another reason I could not feel for Elizabeth was because I could not get behind the emotional torment she had regarding Ruth. I felt Rizzo didn't make me feel the anxiety Elizabeth was supposedly experiencing over knowing she would see Ruth after 30yrs. Once again, all the author did was state that Elizabeth couldn't concentrate, focus, sleep, etc... I wanted the author to describe the turmoil, place me in the disheveled suit, put the weight of the bags under Elizabeth's eyes onto my own shoulders. But the author didn't even mention rumpled clothes or heavy eyes. Rizzo just states over and over how Elizabeth can't sleep until she takes ambien. I might as well have been on ambien while reading it because her anxiety wasn't memorable. There was such a lack of emotional pull when it should have been paramount. Just the thought of seeing Ruth after all of these years is a major plot point and could have been fleshed out much more effectively. 

On the flip-side, I found the character of Ruth extremely refreshing. Her back story was simply fascinating and rich in historical significance. Rizzo made Ruth’s character likeable, interesting, and completely endearing during her collegiate years.

I'd almost believe that the author herself is a Jewish immigrant from how well she writes the perspective of someone who has traveled that path and tries to fit in once they arrive in America. We see Ruth struggle with understanding little things like her friend’s lingo to major issues such as frugality and the apparent waste us Americans are so terribly fond of.

I do wish I could have read things more from Ruth’s perspective, especially when we see her in the later years. I believe whole-heartedly that if the book were told from Ruth’s point-of-view, then I would have had a much more meaningful experience over all. 

The time span covers many important historical events such as the holocaust, feminist/early gay movement, 9/11, and even the original outcome of Proposition 8. Therefore, the historical part is heavy in content, importance, and grief. And then it's paired with thirty years of extreme pinning and missed opportunities. I think this book comes with hard liquor if you purchase the paperback.

SPOILER: The ending is entirely unromantic (don’t worry the ladies end up together). But the ending even managed to be depressing by focusing on how in 2008 Prop 8 was approved. So, we have the holocaust, 9/11, thirty years of angst, and now let's incorporate more misery into the characters' lives with Prop 8. Could Rizzo not at least have ended the story in 2010 when Prop 8 was overruled? Why end the novel with an outdated version of Prop 8? I could understand it if the book had been published in 2009, but for a 2015 book it seemed odd. Remember how I found it peculiar that the story was told in 2008? Well, I guess this was why. END OF SPOILER.

In addition, I found the story line was filled with too many inconceivable notions. Take for instance, Ruth’s son Mark. He favors Elizabeth in appearance, even down to the patrician nose, which isn’t too far of a stretch- god knows my brother doesn’t look anything like our parents. But then it gets completely ridiculous when Mark even carries the same traits, tastes, and mannerisms of Elizabeth. Mark dreams of working in publishing, and his love of Casablanca and Thomas Hardy just happened to be the topics of Elizabeth’s senior thesis some thirty years ago- I mean come on. That’s just too much. For a moment, I thought maybe Ruth had sought out a sperm donor that resembled Elizabeth in order to explain the similarities because at least that would have been believable, but no.  

Another concern I had about this book was how it goes from 3rd person to 1st person, sometimes in the same paragraph. I am uncertain if the fault should lie with the author or the editor on that? It is one thing to tell a chapter in one narrative and then to tell the next in another, but to do it in the same paragraph seemed grammatically incorrect, awkward, and disruptive of the flow. 

Don't get me wrong, there are some great things about this book.

1-It's not the typical lesbian story.

2- I love that the characters are older women.

3- It has great historical references throughout that the history nerd in me enjoys.

4- I like that it tackles the issue of what happens when the woman you fall for gives into society or familial pressures instead of being true to themselves. (God knows that one hit me right in the gut, making me think of my own first love). 

I am grateful Rizzo did not follow the typical formulaic tale that we normally get with lesfic. This story is not mushy, sappy, or so ridiculously sweet that you get a toothache reading it. Seriously, sugar-free. And I especially appreciate that I haven't had to read about how sparks or tingles or butterflies erupt all over the two main characters every time they look at each other. Rizzo most definitely owns a thesaurus and chooses her descriptors carefully and beautifully.

It is also profusely apparent that months of research went into the physical aspects of this story. The reader will have no problem visualizing every setting, room, or article of clothing the character is wearing. Rizzo does an impeccable job of creating scenes- so much, that I truly felt as if I were along with Elizabeth and Ruth during their walks through Riverside Park.

When I saw the premise of this novel, I couldn’t get my hands on it quick enough. However, overall I felt disappointed with this book due to its continued angst, heaviness, and implausible content. I will give Ms. Rizzo a second chance and read other works of hers as I have no doubt she is a gifted writer. This book had the framework to be phenomenal, but instead it fell flat for me.

While I absolutely can appreciate what Rizzo wrote, this one is a bookend.

NOTE: This book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of a review.
http://ylva-publishing.co.uk/product/getting-back-by-cindy-rizzo/