Here One Moment

Here One Moment by Australian author Liane Moriarty is unnerving. It poses a lot of questions about how we live our lives and think about death—the choices we make, coincidences, and how we react to challenges. It’s a mind-fuck of a book.

It delves into personality disorders like sleepwalking, OCD, depression, and introversion, all of which I am intimately acquainted with. It documents relationships between spouses, parents and children, roommates, coworkers and bosses. As SNL’s Stefon would say, “This place has everything!“

https://youtu.be/NctoAyRDtzU?si=nIsZO4M_PreImVF0

During an unexpected delay, an airplane full of people are trapped as an older woman systematically begins sharing the manner and timing of their deaths. That in itself is terrifying—stuck for hours inside an airplane full of stale air with kids puking and babies crying—then some random crazy lady in a trance starts spewing predictions about when and how every passenger will die. She approaches each person with her mantra, “Fate can’t be fought.”

I love this reviewer’s perspective: “A riveting story so wild you don’t know how she’ll land it, and then she does, on a dime.”—Anne Lamott

The Husband's Secret

I cannot recommend The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.  DUMB book; Dopey characters; Absurd situations—I was hoping for profound, thought-provoking, and complex. I got contrived, cliched, banal, unimaginative, pedestrian, uninspired . . . Ah, this Amazon review says it best:

"What a disappointment. In fairness, I couldn't bear to finish this book. Gossipy, petty, predictable, and shallow. If you don't like to watch Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer, steer clear."

I did manage to plow through to the end because I downloaded the electronic version from the library and only had 14 days to finish reading it. It was the most disappointing and hackneyed ending of a book I have ever read!