ANA TURNS

The day of a woman’s 60th birthday becomes a kaleidoscope of encounters with the significant people in her life.

Ana Koehl has put her degree in social work and her master’s in literature to marketable use as a “manuscript therapist” who whips her clients' texts into shape. On April 28, 2017, her birthday, she has arranged her day to see all her favorite people in New York City before a large family dinner: There's her best friend, Fiona, whom she’s known since grad school; her husband, Henry, an anesthesiologist who manages his chronic pain with medical marijuana, which has caused distance between the two spouses; her lover, Lance, with whom she’s been having an affair for seven years; and her adult child, Simon, who is rapidly changing before her eyes. Yet scattered into Ana’s day are other appointments she feels obligated to keep: calling her abrasive mother, who has sent a birthday email noting the financial costs of raising Ana; seeing her brother, George, who is both distant and dismissive; and meeting with one of her clients, a writer struggling with how to bring her book manuscript into final form. Ana’s account of her day is interspersed with third-person sections told by other people in her life. Gornick has written a novel in the vein of Mrs. Dalloway (which Ana reads throughout the day), structured on the progression of one significant day while also moving through time in the alternating sections to show how some of Ana’s complex relationships coalesced into their current forms. Ana is a richly developed main character surrounded by an intriguing supporting cast (though there might be slightly too many sub-storylines) in this thoughtful meditation on how time affects the bonds of family, friendship, and romance.

Engaging and introspective.