It has its moments, but it's pretty ordinary overall. I didn't care what happened and I could have put it down at any point. There's a very minor character named Harold; I would much rather read a whole book about him than this main character. This is billed as "Where'd you Go, Bernadette? meets Beautiful Ruins," and, just, no.

Loved, loved, loved!

The author rated her own book on here. In third person. I guess it was supposed to be cute or funny, but it just came off as dumb and annoying. Consider that my review of the book as well.

It's a cool premise. "I am Having So Much Fun Here Without You," is being marketed as a reverse-love story. In the fallout of an extramarital affair, a man tries to win his wife back.

Various subplots and motifs enrich the central anti-couple: a Harry-Met-Sally style montage of old married people talking about their decades-long relationships, an exploration of how the artist-husband's early work was significant to the marriage, the vast differences in both sets of parents' reactions. A clunkier bit that compares the Iraq war with regrets in relationships falls flat.

Ultimately though, it just didn't deliver what a good novel has to: reader investment in what's at stake. Maum's philandering protagonist isn't just unlikeable, he's unmemorable. Ultimately, I didn't buy the narrative arc of reconciliation, but even worse: I didn't really care what happened.

A closely-observed, wrenching portrait of a marriage gone wrong and then, maybe, right again. I loved this book.

I am so over this book. Richard effed up & basically whines through 225 pages that he doesn't know what to do to win his wife back. This book also gives off the impression that cheating in a monogamous relationship is fairly standard in Europe. I just can't be bothered to finish this heap of nonsense. Maybe it the story line moved more quickly I would have been able to finish.

So, this was one of those rare books where you read it all the way until the end, and you enjoy it! But then after you put it down and walk away, you be like, "Da HELL was THAT?" This is a story about a self-indulgent dude who has an affair, gets dumped by the mistress, caught by the wife, and always seems to miss the point and make himself the victim.

There are so many moments where our narrator is a complete douche. Par example, he tells his wife (in a moment of gallantry) that he thinks they should separate so that she can think honestly if she wants them to come back together. But when she reveals two months later that she took the opportunity to go on dates with another guy, our narrator LOSES HIS SHIT and gets all jellie, like "Please don't sleep with him!"

REALLY? You're going to have a mother fucking affair with a woman you JUST MET, and cheat on your super brilliant/hot French wife, tell her to go on a break, and then get pouty because she ACTUALLY WENT ON DATES? REALLY?

I think this could have been a really interesting and complex novel if the ending had not been so happy. I'm a bit biased, but I feel like our narrator never really learned his lesson and never handled these situations like an actual adult. Ten bucks says that in the sequel he cheats on his wife again, cuz, you know, he's a dick.

I liked this one. Set in Paris, the story from a cheating husband's point of view. Props to Maum for writing like (I think) a man would write. Also props for some really deep gems on the philosophy of why long-term relationships work, and how they endure through great mutual pain and/or distrust.

I do feel like this book felt a little green, and I can't put my finger on why. It was straightforward and pretty solid. It meandered a little, and the characters didn't grip me until I was pretty far in, but I did enjoy it. Richard's plight felt sympathetic, understandable to me. I didn't dislike him or find him sniveling, or even asking too much. Maum did a great job of getting into the head of someone who had committed adultery, and the guilt and self-reproach that often come with it. People don't feel justified to discuss this, because they are not 'victims.'

I feel educated on relationships in new ways, for having read it. But from a novel standpoint, I do feel it could have been a little tighter.

Honest, real. While I haven't personally experienced the adultery part of this novel, I do connect with the marriage part. The author does a great job of nailing down the life of a marriage and how passion can fade from the early, heady days of a relationship and what happens when it does. I love how Richard comes to view the other pieces of the marriage as just as important as what he has lost. And how he can work to get it back.

I don't think I've laughed so much while reading a novel since Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Main character Richard is a philandering turd, but is written with great humanity and humor that I couldn't wait to see how he'd correct the romantic mess of his relationships with his wife, daughter, and mistress.