Saturn's Return to New York

By Sara Gran

Book Overview

Cities and families make up our lives in equal measure: both never stop changing, and both can protect us, hold us--or cut us to the bone. For Mary Forrest, 29, her city and her family are deeply entwined: her mother, Evelyn, is the editor of the most prestigious literary magazine in New York, as much a part of the city as the Chelsea Hotel (now condos) or Green-Wood Cemetery (now five figures per plot). In 1999, as gentrification morphs the neighborhoods Evelyn and Mary have known all their lives, Evelyn's mind likewise starts to slip away. Mary's life is going the way of the Automat and Luna Park, and she is furious.

As her city, her mother, and the other touchstones of her life start to fade away, Mary looks for hope in astrology, men, friends, and work. But when all seems lost, it's time to stop looking out for happiness outside, and start looking for the guiding stars within.

Elegiac and elegant, Sara Gran's first novel is reissued in a new version with a new introduction from the author.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1641290404
• ISBN13: 9781641290401
• Release Date: February 2019
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Bridget Jones in New York

This is a smarter book than I had anticipated. The heroine is smarter, her friends are smarter, even her put-downs are smarter. It is also a love story, of a daughter for her mother. An appreciation of the influence parents and background had for her. And how she has adapted them into her life. It's a shame that this book may be swept under the rug and ignored in favor of other books that receive more publicity. A real sleeper.

An observant and unsentimental young writer...

...sharing what she knows. Sara Gran does us all the huge favor of neither overreaching for a grand universal plot nor underestimating the validity of what she clearly knows from her own experience and imagination. She's unapologetic as a young woman from the big city writing about growing up, about family, about change and adaptation and cycles-- and breaking those cycles. Her narrator is brave, independent to a fault, and refreshingly aware of the limitations of her own knowledge and experience.This is a really solid first novel and does not have that awful cutesy show-offy self-consciously "quirky" quality that books about cool young women too often do. Gran is a much more level-headed writer than that. I'm looking forward to her future work.

Witty and Clever

Sara Gran's Saturn's Return to New York is a witty and clever novel, a light, yet still somehow substantial read of a young woman in New York, turning twenty nine, trying to figure out various aspects of her life. There are a lot of books out there like that, I know, but this one distinguishes itself from the pack. Sara Gran is a fine writer and her novel holds together very well. Mary, the protagonist is a likeable heroine dealing with real issues--such as her slightly troubled relationship with her mother, and her mother's failing health. It is this relationship that is the focus of the novel and not the whole boyfriend thing that dominates so many other young single woman novels. The novel is witty and well told. Everything, plot, character, dialogue, is natural and unforced. I really enjoyed this one.

Good book on dealing with the passing of your parents

This was a good book on dealing with your parents getting older and dependent and the inevitability of care taking, to some extent. It chronicled the subject's feelings very well in dealing with these issues. Not as good as I expected, but still a good book and worth reading, especially if you are experiencing or have experienced this subject.