Book Review: Gossip

Title - Gossip

Author - Beth Gutcheon

Genre - Chic Lit

Format - Hardcover

Published - March 20th 2012

Publisher - William Morrow

(Goodreads)(Amazon)

Synopsis

The critically acclaimed author of Good-bye and Amen, Leeway Cottage, and More Than You Know returns with a sharply perceptive and emotionally resonant novel about all the ways we talk about one another, the sometimes fine line between showing concern and doing damage, and the difficulty of knowing the true obligations of friendship.

Loviah “Lovie” French owns a small, high-end dress shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Renowned for her taste, charm, and discretion, Lovie is the one to whom certain women turn when they need “just the thing” for key life events: baptisms and balls, weddings and funerals. Among those who depend on Lovie’s sage advice are her two best friends since boarding school days: Dinah Wainwright and Avis Metcalf. Despite the love they share for their mutual friend, there has always been a chilly gulf between Dinah and Avis, the result of a perceived slight from decades ago that has unimaginably tragic echoes many years later.

An astute chronicler of all that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship and motherhood that explores the way we use “information” — be it true, false, or imagined — to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.

Review

I received this book from a good reads giveaway. At first I was a little hesitant because it's not really my type of book. However within a chapter I was hooked. I best describe it as biography style in a way. Your getting the story of from the point of view of Loviah. She tells the story of her life and friends beautifully. I found the characters very well developed, almost as if I knew them. The book was a quick read for me, I had a hard time putting it down. I enjoyed the story very much. After finishing it I know it will go on my to be read again shelf because it feels like a book you could read over on a cold winter afternoon with a cup of tea. Most enjoyable to read it flowed along beautifully.