Disturbing the Peace
Grade : B

Sarah Bridges turns thirty-five, and runs smack-dab into a mid-life crisis. She enjoys her job as an ESL teacher very much, but it takes up almost all of her energy and free time. She likes her boyfriend, Stoddard, and yet, three years into their relationship, they're both insisting that it's "casual." She's written a book about her immigrant students' experiences in coming to America, but though several editors have read and approved of it, no one is actually purchasing it. And last, but most definitely not least, she's never confronted the circumstances of her birth and adoption - circumstances that have always been shrouded in peculiar mystery. Sarah has a birth mother she's never met, and it's starting to bother her that her personal history has so many holes in it.

All of this anger and confusion about herself and her life comes to a head in the middle of an interview she's doing with the uber-successful Alex Astor, a Romanian immigrant who has the kind of glittering rags-to-riches story Sarah hopes will help sell her book. She and Alex tangle, and he asks her why she wants to hear everyone else's sob story and not even think about her own. In a rage she storms out, but afterwards she asks herself that same question. And since she cannot find a ready answer, she begins to investigate her past and to try and find her birth mother.

Disturbing the Peace could probably be lumped into the Brit Chick Lit sub-genre even though the heroine is from New York City. It has many of the same elements: the older heroine with at least one angsty problem, the not-quite-working-out relationship, the urban lifestyle. But Sarah is a bit different from the run of the mill Chick. First, though she's written a book, she's not a professional writer, nor does she work in an office. Her job is also not a blow-off consideration to her. She loves her chosen profession and gets a good deal of satisfaction from helping her students. Sarah is also a fairly together person. She doesn't abuse substances, food, sex, or her credit cards. She's just a responsible adult trying to make better sense of herself.

The adoption angle is, to the best of my knowledge, realistically portrayed. Sarah finds the process of finding her mother to be frustrating, difficult, and emotionally wrenching. And at the end of her search things turn out differently than she'd imagined they would be. Newman doesn't tie everything up in a nice neat package, though there is a resolution of sorts.

Perhaps the weakest part of the book was the romantic sub-plot, which occasionally sizzled and then was relegated to the backburner. Either more or less of this sub-plot would have been better, most preferably more. And then at times the story veered off course with Newman giving the reader extraneous backstory of several unimportant secondary characters. These scenes were not a burden to read, but they were largely unnecessary.

Disturbing the Peace is a well-written, somewhat romantic, occasionally funny book about a woman in search of her roots. Sarah as a character is more likable than many of her Chick Lit cohorts, and her story is interesting. I can recommend this book without qualm, and I will keep my eye out for Nancy Newman's future efforts.

Reviewed by Rachel Potter
Grade : B
Book Type: Women's Fiction

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : March 28, 2002

Publication Date: 2002

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