Book Review: Go Gentle
Here’s my review of Go Gentle by Maria Semple. Leave a comment if you’ve read it, plan to read it, or have any book recs to share. And don’t miss today’s writing prompt.
Go Gentle by Maria Semple is a unique novel that surprised me in a good way. It’s as reflective as it is entertaining and as witty as it is solemn. I truly didn’t know what to expect with each page I turned, but appreciated how Semple was able to weave a suspenseful turn of events around the protagonist’s evolving life of the mind— two things that readers may not expect to naturally intertwine, but nevertheless do in this novel, in a way that ensures the main narrative remains engaging.
At the beginning of the novel, readers are introduced to Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher and divorcée living a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side with her teenage daughter, working as a moral tutor to twin boys of a wealthy couple who enjoy dabbling in the fine arts. Following a disciplined life of the mind whilst managing a group of women who live in her building and pool their resources together to form what they like to call a ‘coven,’ Adora believes she has found the key to happiness— She even wrote a moderately successful book on it! — until a mysterious, handsome stranger comes into her life and everything she thinks she knows begins to turn upside down.
Adora introduces herself thus: “But how you do anything is how you do everything, and one might say my life’s work has been chasing the Platonic ideal.” And at the beginning of the novel, until a propulsive series of events involving shady backroom arms deals, secret meetings, subterfuge, double-dealing, bomb scares, and international political intrigue trigger Adora to delve into her past, as well as her present, that’s exactly who she is: someone living the Platonic ideal. Or so she believes.
Adora’s character is expertly crafted and as complex as she is relatable throughout the novel. And as someone who studied philosophy at the collegiate level for nearly a decade, I loved her use of philosophy in everyday life and appreciated how it influenced who she was and who she evolves into over the course of the novel. I also appreciated that while her character was Stoic, she never came across as extremely stiff or condescending, aside from pivotal interactions she has with her daughter.
Adora’s relationship with her daughter, Viv, is one of the most organic and consequential relationships in the entire novel, as it is impactful in its subtlety and ordinariness. Their witty banter is enjoyable and relatable to read, even for those readers who may not have children. And it is also central to Adora’s reevaluation of the life she’s decided to curate as a Stoic later in the novel when they have a major conflict in Paris. Sure, the handsome stranger and Adora’s newfound exploits (catalyzed by her employer’s exploits), challenge her ‘amor fati’ approach to life, but it is her daughter who is able to give her one of the major gut punches she ultimately needs.
I did, however, find Adora’s other relationships somewhat surface-level and convenient at times, though I’m sure there are plenty of readers who won’t agree with this assessment. I suppose I just wanted to see Adora interact with her ‘coven’ in more emotionally profound ways in the end, in less transactional ways, though that might have been intentional? I also wanted to see Adora have more of a history with her love interest Digby, aside from one meeting that lasted fewer than five minutes 30 years prior, before they formed and professed their deeper emotional attachments to each other. Or maybe I wanted to see them interact more than two or three times before they declared their love for each other? Again, there are enjoyable romantic elements permeating this book, which make it engaging and endearing, and make it easier for readers to follow Adora as she questions her ‘life’s work’ as a Stoic, but I struggled rooting for her relationship with Digby for most of the novel, nonetheless.
Overall, this novel was a joy to read, and I found it hard to put down. I would recommend it to those readers who are interested in exploring the ‘life of the mind,’ but don’t want to be bored to tears as they do so, as this novel is anything but boring. I would also recommend this novel to those readers who enjoy reading stories about mid-life transformations (a.k.a.‘mid-life crises’) that are extremely fun to follow and have a bit of mystery and romance thrown in for good measure.
Here are a few notable passages from the novel:
“‘Externals,’ I said. ‘They make for a highly unstable existence. They put you in a constant state of fear that your happiness will be taken away.’ ‘So you can’t want anything?’ Lucien asked. ‘He who wants nothing is the richest man in the world,’ I said, paraphrasing Seneca. ‘The less you want, the happier you’ll be.’”
“‘No, no, no. Intuition tells me you’d be perfect. We want women like us. Women who present as scary, but have good hearts. Women who know how to get shit done. Women who, despite our age, share a dirty little secret: we’re just getting started.’”
“I had to smile: excellence withers without an adversary. And adversaries come in all shapes, sizes and interpretations of day-to-night.”
“It’s a thing Stoics do: meditate on worst-case scenarios. Which is not about working yourself into a neurotic doom loop. It’s about preparing for things not to go your way. So when they inevitably don’t, you can say, ‘I expected that.’ Think of it as inoculation against emotional extremes. Because who needs those?”
“‘That’s a common misconception about Stoicism. It’s not Keep Calm and Carry On. It’s Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On. Stoics are very passionate people. The key is to be correct in your passions.’”
“It’s not enough to be happy. You have to be aware of it, and enjoy being happy. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s the difference between living and being truly alive. In that moment, I made a point of immensely enjoying my happiness.”
“Stoicism tells us it’s not a two-step process (event + emotional reaction). But a three-step process (event + our judgment of the event + emotional reaction). What we’re having the emotional freakout about is not the event itself, but what we tell ourselves about the event. A universe of possibility exists in this middle step. What if we tell ourselves that we’ll fix our car and life goes on? Or that the job could have been a washout, and now we’re available for the next, better opportunity? Change the judgment to change the emotion.”
“The promise of Stoicism was a tranquil mind, abiding good cheer and secure joy. Added bonus: you could start this minute. Added, added bonus: you didn’t need anybody else to do it.”
“I couldn’t get over how modern Stoicism felt. Not just ahead of its time, but ahead of our time, too! I rued the hours I’d wasted in therapy blathering about my terrible childhood while a nice lady nodded sympathetically and checked her watch. Sure, I got some insight. But insight is the booby prize. What good is insight if it traps you in victimhood? In Stoicism, there are no victims. It’s all you.”
Have you read this book yet, or plan to read it soon? Leave a comment to start a discussion. Or tell us what we should read and review next!
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© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
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