Starred review from February 13, 2023
A series of uncanny events befall a woman at her company’s annual banquet in Cooney’s captivating latest (after One Night Two Souls Went Walking). Trisha Donahue grew up poor, but now, at 44 and married with two kids, she’s a successful analyst. On banquet day, though, things start to fall apart. To begin with, the venue, a countryside restaurant that’s located near where Trisha grew up, has recently reopened after being allegedly damaged by a comet. And Trisha has just been passed over for a promotion that she and her colleagues had considered a done deal. At the restaurant, she leaves her table during the dinner to wander around the building, and upon walking into an empty room, her inner life fires up (“The deepening hush around me felt like a new friend, just for me”), and things get delightfully weird as the night goes on. A restaurant employee brushes off her questions about the comet and an old boyfriend serves her dinner in an attic, where others visit from her past. Along the way, she reflects on her humble origins and the desperation of her new life. This elegant and off-kilter upending of the office novel sings.
June 10, 2024
The day is the company's Banquet Day; the location, the Rose & Emerald, a rural inn. Trisha Donahue might've stayed home, knowing she'd been passed over for a promotion that seemed practically made for her, but the grand old country inn has been a place of fascination since her childhood, and her absence would be noted. So, a single day of reminiscence unfolds, shadowed by old-guard misogyny and midlife uncertainty but lit by encounters with old friends and the tale of a comet. Cooney's (One Night Two Souls Went Walking) 11th novel will resonate with listeners who commiserate with workplace indignities or the ups and downs of making a living just outside Boston. Narrator Samantha Desz infuses Trisha's voice with just the right balance of long-suffering annoyance and reflective humor, keeping her open to small joys in the present (the Rose & Emerald's homemade whipped cream) and optimism for the future even while she ruminates over past insults. VERDICT In this smart, fanciful slice of life, a woman finds she has the courage to defy her corporate bosses in the male-dominated Massachusetts tech sphere. Excellent audiobook narration captures her frustrated ambition and a wealth of well-characterized emotion.--Lauren Kage
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