This Side of Married Praise Chapter One Order Reading Guide

More praise for This Side of Married


Pastan deserves kudos for this funny, flinty first novel about an overbearing obstetrician intent on getting her three daughters well-married.

- Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer

In this delightful novel, the mating habits of the subspecies we might call Very Intelligent Women are examined by a writer whose eye is sharp, whose wit is keen, and whose heart is open to the possibilities that love offers, when pride and prejudice -- not to mention interference and infidelity -- are vanquished, if only for the moment.

- Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier

Jane Austen's honey-and-vinegar spirit is alive and well in Rachel Pastan's delightful novel. She has grasped, with style and authority, the Austen paradox: that women's independence can be laced with the need for love, both given and received; and that wit and a critical eye can -- must -- serve a moral and, finally, forgiving vision. This Side of Married may mark its author's debut, but she has commanded the dance floor like a pro.

-Rosellen Brown, author of Before and After

This Side of Married is the kind of smart, funny first novel you read with a perpetual grin, eager to learn the next plot twist, sad to turn the final page.

- Steve McCauley, author of The Object of My Affection and True Enough

This Side of Married is a three-sisters treasure: tender, witty, and filled with love. Rachel Pastan is a wonderful writer.

- Luanne Rice, author of The Perfect Summer and Dance with Me


Rachel Pastan has written a novel about families and falling in love that is at once moving, funny, and true. This Side of Married is a wedding bouquet of great wit and affection.

- Meg Wolitzer, author of The Wife

Rachel Pastan's This Side of Married is a beneficence for all who've grieved there were no more Austens for us to read. A funny and clever book.

- Lore Segal, author of Her First American

"Love at first sight," "whirlwind courtship," and "happily ever after" are not mere cliches in the Rubin household; they are the truisms that Dr. Evelyn and Judge Rubin have fed their daughters throughout their legendary 40-year marriage. They have, therefore, unwittingly set impossibly high standards, ones each daughter despairs of ever achieving for herself. Unable to conceive a child, Isabel's marriage to Theo is failing rapidly, while Alice chalks up yet another in a long string of disappointing relatiionships, and Tina becomes engaged to a man who is still legally married. You can almost hear their parents asking, "Where did we go wrong?" Smart and insightful, with just the right combination of commonsense and cynicism, each daughter ultimately follows her heart to her own, rather than her parents', storybook ending. Pastan cunningly reveals the myriad sides of being married--the good, the bad, and the ugly--in an engaging look at the current state of love and courtship.

-Carol Haggas, in Booklist


A Modern Update of a Classic in Sun2Surf of Malaysia.

"Book clubbers, Jane Austen, Fame" by Donna Rifkind in the Baltimore Sun, May 2, 2004

Review in the Boston Globe, May 9, 2004

Interview on Bill Thompson's Eye On Books

Pride and Passion in the New Jersey Star Ledger, July 11, 2005

Recommended Summer Reading in the Chicago Sun Times, May 30, 2005


This Side of Married Praise Chapter One Order Reading Guide