Between You and Us: A Novel

This debut novel explores dating, marriage, grief, toxic parenting, and life choices through the story of a 30-ish woman who accidentally steps into a different version of her life, one in which her family is wealthy rather than poor, her young daughter hasn’t died, but her marriage is quite troubled. Scenes flip between the prior course of her life and the challenging few days when she inadvertently crosses into an alternate reality that came into being years ago when she made a different choice. I liked how the relationship between Leona (the main character) and her husband developed, and was fascinated by how the same two people were portrayed interacting differently in the changed circumstances of the alternate world. Much of the difference between worlds has to do with wealth and class; I thought the plot was a good vehicle for exploring such factors. I also liked the more existential questions the book raised: How would each of us be different had one key decision been different? What would we think of the version of ourselves that would have developed under those conditions? If we had the chance to jump to an alternate version of our life in which something we had lost was still present, would we do so? How would we weigh the many pros and cons between those different life courses? I did find some aspects of the book unsatisfying. Leona’s mother and mother-in-law both were pretty deplorable. I appreciated the tensions that created, but would have appreciated more nuance. There were some coincidences I found implausible. And I wasn’t convinced that the other version of Leona would have made the choice she did in the first place. Overall, though, the book is an excellent first novel.