Ayelet Waldman is perhaps best known for having set off a bit of a moral brushfire when she announced in an essay in the New York Times that her love for her husband, the writer Michael Chabon, trumped her feelings for the couple’s children. While that strange business didn’t exactly paint the most attractive portrait of Waldman, there’s no denying that with Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, she has produced a truly compelling novel. The two women at the center of this rather disturbing story are at the opposite ends of a nasty divorce and child custody arrangement; both are self-absorbed and neurotic enough to make Waldman’s perceived transgressions seem petty by comparison. There isn’t really anyone to root for here, but that doesn’t get in the way of the nasty fun (or the happy ending). Almost certainly coming soon to a theater near you.
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