Back When We Were GrownupsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. "You’ll want to turn back to the first chapter the moment you finish the last.” —PEOPLE On the surface, Beck, as she is known to the Davitch clan, is outgoing, joyous, a natural celebrator. Giving parties is, after all, her vocation—something she married into after Joe Davitch spotted her at an engagement party in his family’s crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house, where giving parties was his family business. What caught Joe's fancy was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon this large-spirited divorcé with three little girls swept Beck into his orbit, and before she knew it she was embracing his extended family—plus a child of their own—and hosting endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of The Open Arms. Now, some thirty years later, after presiding over a disastrous family party, Rebecca is caught un-awares by the question of who she really is. Is she an impostor in her own life? Is it indeed her own life? How she answers—how she tries to recover her girlhood self, that dignified grownup she had once been—is the story told in this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel. |
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Alice Farmer Allenby Anne Tyler Aunt Ida Aunt Joyce baby ballpoint pens Barry Beatrice Beck Biddy birthday called chair Church Valley dining room dinner Dixon door dress eyes face feel felt Fondant Foo's front Froot Loop gave gazed George Eliot girls glass guess guests hair Hakim hand happened head heard Heathsville Jeep Joe's Joey kind kitchen knew Lateesha laugh look Macadam marriage married Min Foo Mother Davitch never nice night NoNo NoNo's okay once Open Arms parlor party Patch Peter playing Band Poppy Poppy's Rebecca asked Rebecca told Rebecca's mother remember Scrabble seemed shoes shoulders smile sorry sort started stood sure talk telephone tell thanks thing Tina toast told Rebecca took Troy turned voice waiting walked watching wearing wedding William McKinley woman wonderful