2023-08-30
After a decade away, a woman heads home to Maine to grapple with a resentful sister, a naughty ex-boyfriend, midlife hormones, and sundry personal demons.
Journalist Rachel Calloway, the narrator of Christensen’s eighth novel, is a self-described “middle-aged childless recently orphaned menopausal workaholic.” Her life, she announces, is “hell.” By day, Rachel chronicles the ravages of climate change, and by night retreats to the Washington, D.C., condo she shares with her former husband (who has ALS) and his boyfriend. The marriage ended when Rachel found the men in bed together, but while she has forgiven all, the boyfriend wants her out of the condo almost as much as her “evil little lickspittle rodent of a newly appointed editor in chief” wants her out of her job. That’s more than enough drama to juice a plot right there, but in this smart yet unfocused novel, it’s just distracting backstory. The real action begins when Rachel’s narcissistic mother dies and leaves her a house in Portland, Maine. As Rachel’s plane descends “over thick pine forests rolling to meet the hard metallic skin of the Atlantic Ocean, glinting in the sunlight,” readers will instantly grasp that Christensen is serving up a dreamy new life for her embattled heroine in a postcard-pretty locale. Granted, complications abound. Rachel’s sister, Celeste, frequently berates her for not helping nurse their mother through a brutal cancer death. She’s also a passive-aggressive troublemaker: The night of Rachel’s arrival, she invites Rachel’s old flame, David Mansfield, and his new wife to dinner. It turns out that David wants back into Rachel’s bed, and she would probably welcome him—except he may or may not have done something unforgivable with her late mother. Aiming to sell her inherited house and get back to Washington, Rachel finds a homeless pillhead to move in and help renovate. (As one does.) A crisis ensues. Throughout this jumpy novel, Rachel has been lost in Dante’s figurative dark wood of midlife, but in its long finale she finds herself wandering around a literal dark wood complete with bears, until a path forward reveals itself.
Underbaked novel about how you can go home again and, if it’s coastal Maine, probably should.
"Our shelves could use more women like Rachel and Sam as a counterpoint to men in midlife who’ve dominated fiction for decades. . . . It’s exhilarating to read an uninhibited female character who is rife with contradictions. . . . Christensen also does a skillful job of animating difficult family relationships while avoiding a conventional arc of forgiveness. . . . In the end, it is surprising to see where Rachel meets herself.” — New York Times
"A deeply endearing story about confronting one’s past and constructing a new future—under extreme duress . . . . Welcome Home, Stranger . . . arrives at the most lovely ending of a novel I’ve read all year." — The Washington Post
"Kate Christensen’s new novel, Welcome Home, Stranger, is a revelation, offering characters as real as your family and friends, a rich, vividly drawn setting, grab-you-by-the-throat drama and always, lurking in the shadows, a fierce authorial intelligence. What more could you ask?" — Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool
"A fantastic study in loss—the grief kind and the yearning too, oh my god the yearning! Plus menopause. Plus Portland, Maine. I loved it." — Catherine Newman, author of We All Want Impossible Things
"To the great literature of going home again we can now add Kate Christensen’s superb new novel Welcome Home, Stranger, a triumph of intelligence and wit (which will surprise none of her many fans). The prodigal here is a brilliant journalist grieving the loss of a very difficult mother while attempting peace with those she left behind: a resentful sister and an ex-lover who can be neither trusted nor forgotten. A spellbinding book from one of our best chroniclers of the very American struggle to strive for excellence while still living in community with others." — Ann Packer, author of The Children’s Crusade
"Rachel Calloway is a compelling heroine for the present moment—angry, honest, independent, witty, brilliant, and in pain. She sometimes makes impulsive choices, but her integrity is always intact. This is the most contemporary novel I have ever read, and I immersed myself in Rachel's Portland, Maine, her family and friends, her knowledge of coming climate catastrophes, and her confusion about where home is for her. Then suddenly, I realized that I was reading about the entire human condition, portrayed in crystal sentences I will return to many times. Welcome Home, Stranger is a novel for now and for the ages." — Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming
“Kate Christensen's eighth novel is a brief, brilliant story of grief and love. It's Job on menopause, crying, 'Why am I still here?' but without the biblical overtones. It's your next book club book. It's the novel your husband should read even though I've mentioned menopause. It's your coolest friend's most astute tirade on life. I loved it from page one.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“With wit and a never-ending supply of humanity, Christensen’s characters navigate anger, grief, frustration, and pain like we all do: by putting one foot in front of the other. And the result is a disarmingly genuine and nuanced portrait of living.” — Amazon Best of the Month Pick
"If you're looking for some dysfunctional-family schadenfreude to sweeten your holidays, look no further." — People
"This snarky, vulnerable, complicated main character feels so real, you’ll swear you actually know her." — Real Simple
“Christensen is a psychological Geiger-counter, registering every particle of emotion; a wizard at dialogue and redolent settings, and an intrepid choreographer of confoundment. From gasp-inducing absurdities and betrayals to a profound sense of our paralysis in the glare of climate change to a full-on embrace of family, love, home, and decency, Christensen’s whirligig tale leaves readers dizzy with fresh and provocative insights.” — Booklist (starred review)
"In her eighth novel, Kate Christensen writes about a woman losing her mother in the context of middle age, a 50-something who returns home after the loss and yet is contending with all the funny things in life. Vivid, real, and leaving you with a chuckle, this is an uplifting story about the inevitability of life’s changes and the attitude required to get through." — Katie Couric Media
" An intricate novel, exploring family, mothers and daughters and the choices we make.” — Lee Woodruff
"A satisfying, intimate novel about complicated people at middle age, coming to terms with lost love, and the ghosts who shaped your life.” — Boston Globe
“Reading Kate Christensen’s incisive eighth novel, a quote from 19th century author Ivan Turgenev came to mind: 'A poet must be a psychologist.' As evidenced in her previous works, Christensen is both. Her prose glimmers and glints, more sensation than exposition, whether she’s shining her light on broken family, broken dreams or our broken Earth. In this short but mighty novel, Christensen does a psychologist’s job with a poet’s lyrical pen.” — San Francisco Chronicle
"An astute novel of grief and reconciliation. . . . One of the joys of a Kate Christensen book is her signature exuberance. No one writes about excess and appetite with such gusto, making over-the-topness a mainstay. . . . By the end, this book satisfies on a number of fronts. It’s about the pull of family you thought you knew, but didn’t; of long-buried resentments and freshly minted ones, as well. As a meditation on grief, it is, by turns, raucous and fiery, despairing and resolute—and wittily entertaining throughout.” — Portland Press Herald
"Few writers have a wit as razor sharp as Kate Christensen’s . . . . Her new novel follows an environmental journalist as she returns to her small Maine hometown after the death of her mother, and grapples with grief, family, and aging. I would trust no less deft a hand than Christensen’s to manage the balance of humor, devastation, and squabbling." — Literary Hub
"Christensen skillfully portrays the issues at play in many families: there are deep bonds, but also deep resentments, 'volcanic' emotions, and decades-old misunderstandings. The character Lucie, an immature, thwarted tyrant, is particularly well drawn. Readers in search of an engrossing family drama will find much to like." — Publishers Weekly
“The novel has a psychological element that invites readers to understand the behavior of its principal characters . . . . [and] The state of Maine itself is a warm, embraceable character.” — Albuquerque Journal
