You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

I found this book in the apartment we were renting in Rome. It’s a typical holiday read, a thriller of a rather unusual kind but a book you would leave behind rather that take back home with you to weigh down your luggage. The story is about a New York Jewish therapist married to a paediatric oncologist. She’s written a book about women taking responsibility for the choices they make when they choose a man in their lives. And then of course, surprise surprise, her own marriage ends up in chaos. The chaos is pretty horrific. The husband is not all he’s cracked up to be and after the collapse of everything she goes on a sort of hunt to uncover all sorts of surprises. The ending is very schmaltzy. But pretty much what you’d expect from a holiday read. It’s compelling enough to keep you powering through it, but all the time you know this book is the literary equivalent of a Maccas.