The Inseparables

April 4, 2016
Nadler’s (Wise Men) perceptive novel of a modern family unraveling revolves around three generations of women. Henrietta Olyphant is a recently widowed women’s studies professor, and the author of a decades-old trashy, sexy novel called The Inseparables, which is set to be reissued. Oona, Henrietta’s daughter, is divorcing her husband. And Oona’s daughter, Lydia, has suffered the misfortune of having a topless photo of her spread like wildfire around her private school. Without her husband, Henrietta struggles to keep up appearances and is forced to sell her home and possessions to pay the bills. Lydia
worries that the boy who stole the photo from her phone will continue to release scandalous photos of her. Oona complicates her sad divorce—and her relationship with her daughter—by getting romantically involved with her couples counselor. Throughout each scene, Nadler captures the awkwardness of growing older during all phases of life. The characters share humiliations, yet also find the resilience
to move on. This novel contains plenty of romance, tension, and tenderness to make for a rich and compelling read. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
Three generations of smart, articulate women deal with challenging life passages.Henrietta, 70, lost her beloved husband--a famous chef--11 months ago and cannot recover emotionally or financially. Her straits are such that she has grudgingly allowed the reissue of The Inseparables, an X-rated bestseller she wrote in her 20s. She's also started selling tchotchkes from around her house, but the most valuable of them, a weathervane, has gone missing. Meanwhile, her daughter, Oona, an orthopedic surgeon, is navigating the waters of a choppy divorce from her pothead ex-lawyer spouse, Spencer, and has embarked on a dubious relationship with their couples therapist. Oona and Spencer's 15-year-old daughter, Lydia, has been the victim of a terrible classmate at boarding school, Charlie, who made her think he was her boyfriend, gave her her first kiss, and then posted pictures of her breasts on the Internet. "Hartwell took students as young as six, taught them Mandarin, Shakespeare, and computer coding, and spat them back out in to the world as currency traders or diplomats or white-collar criminals." This Charlie kid is getting started early; he's ruined Lydia's life in a way not completely different than the overexposure that still torments her ex-sex-writer grandmother. Nadler (The Wise Men, 2013), a male writer in his 30s, truly dazzles with his understanding of women--this is the kind of book that will cause female readers to fall in love with the author. The three parallel plots unfold very tautly for at least two-thirds of the duration, then things slow down with too many flashbacks and digressions in the climactic chapters. The resolutions of all the problems are a little flat, if unarguably realistic. But these things are more something for book groups to talk about than serious flaws.Love this writer. Love these characters.

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Starred review from June 1, 2016
The Inseparables is the title of one of America's most famously trashy books (think Fear of Flying with diagrams), which Henrietta Olyphant wrote in her younger days and has been trying to live down ever since. Now her publisher wants to bring out a new edition, and Henrietta agrees because she needs the money. She is still grieving for her recently deceased husband, Harold, an uncompromising chef whose upscale Boston restaurant drained the family coffers. Daughter Oona, a busy orthopedic trauma surgeon, is facing the dissolution of her 20-year marriage to Spencer. And Oona's daughter, 15-year-old Lydia, has been suspended from boarding school because of a nude selfie that has made it onto the Internet, an embarrassment allowing sly comparisons with Henrietta's novel, which now seems quaint in contrast to what is freely available online. The title The Inseparables refers not just to Henrietta's book but also to the bonds that underpin the lives of these women, whose shifting perspectives present events that unfold over a few days. Nadler (Wise Men, 2013) excels at setting and sustaining a scene, and he writes with confidence and compassion about people trying to navigate their way through disruption.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)