Some writers you wouldn't want to meet, but I feel I already have met Anne Roiphe. Her body of work is rich, complex, full of surprises at herself and the world around her. She is not afraid to admit her own mistakes, and she clearly learns from experience and in the process, teaches. Anne Roiphe is also a reader who carries certainly literary characters around with her, like a cherished friend. In this book, she has her chance to talk back to Rabbit Angstrom, Holden Caulfield, and others, the way many of us have wished to. If you are a keen reader of late 20th-century American fiction, this book is for you.

Totally agree with previous reviewers. The author combines insightful critiques of the top mid century novelists (including Updike, Roth, Salinger, Hemingway, and Ford ), with fantasies which bring her together with the protagonists of their books. Her honesty is totally refreshing. Her literary insights remarkable. As I read, Roiphes analyses of the human and societal interaction were so enlightening. Why had I not seen these revelations as she describes them?

Included are intimate views of her personal life. She weaves these themes into a seamless whole. I was enchanted from the first page.

Thank you, Ann Roiphe for a special reading experience.

This is, in my opinion, the best Anne Roiphe book since "Lovingkindness." Her essays on Philip Roth's literary trajectory including her fantasy of meeting him at the Fountainbleu in the future is a masterpiece, as is her ruminations on John Updike and his "Jewish" problem, so to speak. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's the fruit of her years as a reader, a writer, a feminist, and a mother. Her persona here is enviably understanding of the men in her life. Weaving her actual life (stories of her kids, and her lucky husband) with the author's characters and with the author's themselves is Chutzpah with Heart. It works. It is SO good that in addition to giving it five stars, I actually had the fleeting thought that it should be more expensive than it is, a first that any like idea has occurred to me about ANY book. Buy it immediately. You will be in heaven while reading it. Brilliant. Award-Winning. Nothing like her essays in The New York Observer, if that's all you know of her writing. This work of art is far tighter, far funnier, nearly perfect!!

I began this book with a great sense of anticipation, but ultimately found myself let down.

The novel traces the relationship between a liberal feminist mother, Annie, and her daughter Andrea. Like many mother/daughter narratives, the early part of the novel traces the failures of both--Annie's attempts to impress her own beliefs upon her daughter, and her daughter's rebellion from them.

Andrea's character makes a 180-degree turn in the middle of the novel, just as the reader gets used to her being a hostile, ungrateful, screw-up. Why does she become an ultra-Orthodox Jew? It's a fascinating question, but the book didn't ultimately pay off for me.

For me, the book's major downfall is the initial set-up of the characters. Andrea was, as noted above, too unlikeable to grab my sympathy or my interest to find out exactly what has become of her.

I note that my feelings are decidedly in the minority--most reviewers have liked this book much better than I did. For my opinion, though, there are much better narratives about Jewish mother/daughter relationships and modern Jewish literature in general.

This book is beautifully written.
The author captures the essence of the mother-daughter relationship.
I would recommend this book to all mothers with daughters.

This book shines. It is a book about the love between a mother and daughter, about the obstacles on the path to perfect understanding between them, about the ways in which children disappoint and delight their parents. Both the mother and the daughter are completely believable. It is impossible to predict what will happen to them after the book's end.

The writing is wonderful, almost lyric. The characters are fully drawn. The plot is entirely organic, with no disruptive elements. The story is firmly rooted in the second half of the 20th century, in the evolution of American Jewry and the haredi response to it. The booked moved me deeply. There is nothing to disappoint in this book, except that it ends.

Just completed Roiphe's memoir 1185 Park Avenue- and loved it so much had to read what she was thinking about modern motherhood. As a working mother or two living in NYC Roihe speaks to women like me who are indeed struggling with career and family. For readers who are in this position, I think they will find the book most supportive and soothing. Roiphe makes the point well that working families with children do not have enough community support needed to sustain the demanding life of working mom -that America is too "nuclear". At the same time manages to debunk alot of of fervent feminist rhetoric that simply does not speak to most women's reality. However, Roiphe may have spent too much dissecting the old feminist rallying cries of anit-men and motherhood. I think most women living real life as mothers/workers in the current times realize that much of the feminist movement rhetoric are outdated. Recommended for those interested in a woman's very sensitive and thoughtful journey through motherhood.

As a radical feminist I have to say that this book shocked and horrified me in many ways. While incredibly courageous and brilliant, diverse voices are enriching contemporary feminist discourse (especially the fantastic Mary Daly, Jane Marcus, and Susan Faludi), we sometimes find that a few women are left behind, complaining that feminism has been unfair to *them*! Well, feminists HAVE addressed the issue of children and how difficult it is for women to have to tend to them while finally giving herself the greatest gifts of all: identity and freedom. Perhaps Roiphe has fallen behind the times; other feminists are steaming on ahead!

Though there are imperfections, I greatly appreciated this book. I believe that it is an extremely important contribution for anyone interested in feminism and contemporary life for women and mothers. As a feminist, a mother and a social worker (both practitioner and academician), I have struggled to bridge the realities of my life with feminist ideologies (and I have read a great deal of this literature). No one can negate the value of the feminist movement for making huge advances for women in this world. Thank God for it. But an unfortunate and perhaps unintended outcome of feminism is that, in truth, it left a lot of women out. I am struck, year after year as I teach new groups of social work students (mostly women, in a profession built on feminist principles) how many of them feel they cannot call themselves feminists! I have also seen this in my clinical practice. I think this is because the "dogma" of feminism can be quite alienating and self-righteous--too much of how things "should" be and not enough attention to how things are for many women. That can really put people off, and, if they have poor self esteem, even make them feel flawed. In practice, feminism has not been very tolerant of different ways of life. Anne Roiphe's book, even with its imperfections, manages to call attention to these issues, and I think she is right--feminism didn't embrace motherhood in a helpful way, even if it acknowledged the difficulties of balancing work life and motherhood, nor did it help women in their relationships with men very much. I realize this is very complex, but the outcome cannot be denied. Though many read this book and interpret it as a step backwards, I think Roiphe (and her daughter, Katie, by the way) are working to reach more women, to challenge outdated feminist ideas to help modernize feminist concerns. I appreciate her dissenting voice.

This amazing book is poignant and crammed with truth. I related to many, many parts of Roiphe's efforts to be succesful, raise children, keep a husband happy, and maintain a sense of self - all of the stuff Supermom is supposed to do...but most of all I related to her whole and complete love for her children. I've never read anything better about what it truly means for an intelligent woman to be a mother in the modern world. Roiphe tells it like it really is - her honesty is wonderful.

I picked up "1185 Park Avenue" looking forward to insight on growing up Jewish on Park Avenue in the 1940's/1950's. Instead I found myself drawn into Anne Roiphe's remarkably dysfunctional family, where no individual escapes unscathed from this hellish home. I found the memoir to have no redeeming message or purpose, except to let Ms. Roiphe express her rancour at her unfortunate circumstances. What bothers me most is that in becoming so engaged in the sadness and anger of her family story, these negative vibes served to make me upset too. Another triumph of evil over redemption.

The name Anne Roiphe certainly evokes thoughts of feminism and this book gives a good indication of why the daughter, sister, and wife became the woman she has become. An interesting behind the scenes look at a dysfunctional & wealthy family in 1950's NYC...well-written and interesting not only for the historical perspective it gives us of 1950's wealthy Jewish NYC, but also for the heartbreaking story of a family that simply couldn't find one another.

I didn't know anything about Anne Roiphe when I picked this book up and I found it fascinating. Her family is dreadful in every way; the cruelty with which the children are treated, the absolute waste of the parents' and their friends' lives is appalling. But there are some laughs, in a bittersweet manner, and I loved hearing some inside dirt about the despicable Roy Cohn.