It was The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud.
The NY Times review is definitely more literary than what I could ever begin to summarize. I read the book. I finished the book, but I don't think I got half of the book. The author made references to various literary and artistic works that I hadn't a clue about. Talk about an illiterate reader, that would be me. So I felt rather intimidated at times. Other times I was bored, but it was touted to be some sort of 'psychological' thriller and I kept waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
I loved the premise of the book. A 40ish, single teacher (third grade to boot!) meets a family who comes to live in the US for one year. she gets wrapped up in their lives, really searching for herself. And don't you think we all search and search and search no matter our age?
There were definitely some wonderful philosophical lines and phrases. Take for instance the title, The Woman Upstairs. Nora, the main character, refers to herself as the woman upstairs. "We're the quiet woman at the end of the third-floor hallway, whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell." You know, nondescript, someone no one really pays attention to. "People don't want to worry about the Woman Upstairs. Not a soul registers that we are furious. We're completely invisible."
After reading the NYTimes review I discovered that is a reference to a character from Jane Eyre. I think I read that years ago and obviously it has not stayed with me.
So if you are a classic reader, past or present, and have retained that information, you probably would enjoy this book.
Me, I'm moving on. My next book is Fin and Lady. We'll see how my literary skills attend to this one.
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