We are not Ourselves

Locations
Call Number: Fiction, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Thomas, Matthew
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	Due 05-16-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Thomas, Matthew	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024

"Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on whether guests are over and how much alcohol has been consumed. Eileen can't help but dream of a calmer life, in a better neighborhood. When Eileen meets Ed Leary, a scientist whose bearing is nothing like those of the men she grew up with, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. They marry, and Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same, ever bigger, stakes in the American Dream. Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house, but as years pass it becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century, particularly the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII. The result is a powerfully affecting work of art; one that reminds us that life is more than a tally of victories and defeats, that we live to love and be loved, and that we should tell each other so before the moment slips away. Epic in scope, heroic in character, masterful in prose, We Are Not Ourselves is a testament to our greatest desires and our greatest frailties."-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Beautiful and heartbreaking submitted by zwachtel50 on June 9, 2023, 2:12pm We Are Not Ourselves follows Eileen’s life as she grows up in New York with immigrant parents, attends college, gets married, has children, and grows into old age. The story is slow moving as the author focuses heavily on the characters and how they interact with each other. This book is hard for me to rate well because it was beautifully written but definitely a little slow at times. The characters feel extremely real, and they make real mistakes and react to things in ways that may be disappointing at times, but are accurate to how someone in that situation might. The story picks up in the second half of the book, and is absolutely heartbreaking. I read this in 3 days.