Until she was found dead along the bank of the Hudson River, Molly Marx led an enviable life. A young wife and mother, Molly now finds herself in The Duration, where with the help of a refreshingly unorthodox guide, she can observe the friends and family she left behind: her philandering plastic surgeon husband, the irresistible colleague who became her lover, a competitive twin sister, her controlling mother-in-law, a loyal but confused friend, and - most importantly - her purest love, a three-year-old daughter. As Molly watches them try to untangle the events leading to her mysterious end, she relives her past and learns the fates of those she loved most (and least).
Exploring marriage, fidelity, friendship, family, and mortality, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a funny, yet tender love story about a flawed but appealing woman forced - better late than never - to take responsibilities for the choices in her complicated life.
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"I liked this book very much -- except ..... It's an interesting premise -- a woman is dead, who was young and healthy with a husband and child, and we don't know if this was murder, suicide, or an accident. Her family and friends mourn while she watches from "The Duration," a place LDS people might recognize as the spirit world. She has some powers now that she has passed on -- it takes her no time at all to move from one place to another, she can watch people's actions but can also hear their thoughts, and she has a "bull-shit meter" -- she can tell when people are lying. She reviews her life as she hangs around her friends and family. The characters are well-drawn, consistent, multi-faceted, so you can both love and hate them all. The writing is tender but incisive. If I could give this book 3-1/2 stars, I would, because what ruined it for me is what ruins most "modern" books -- the easy acceptance of adultery (as long as love is involved), promiscuity, homosexuality, and shallow materialism. As if all that were normal. And apparently, to this author, it is. Almost innocently so. I find that attitude so disturbing -- it bothers me as much as the mysogeny of Austen's world bothers most modern women. There is some bad language, some sex (not too graphic). Too bad -- I'd like to read this author more, but I won't."
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Deanna (4 out of 5 stars)