The End of Men

April 17, 2017
Isabel, Anna, Beth, and Maggie are women living in New York City, each at a pivotal crossroads. Isabel is pregnant and loves her husband, but still feels a deep pull towards an old friend. Anna is unhappy with her work-life balance, but can’t figure out how to make time to be more present for her husband and two young children. Beth is dealing with the slow decline of her ex-husband and father of her child, who is fighting the AIDS virus, as well as mysterious threats against her business that specializes in lingerie for pregnant and nursing women. And Maggie is realizing that her partner, who left his first wife after an affair with Maggie, is not the man she wants. The four women support one another throughout this year of transition, eventually creating their own versions of balance and contentment. Rinaldi’s debut is uneven, with some forced dialogue and excessive exposition that at times distracts from perceptive observations on modern motherhood and womanhood. Though each woman’s situation is interesting on its own, the opportunity for exploring the nuances of the relationships is lost with Rinaldi attempting to pack so many characters and story lines into one novel. An entertaining and insightful concept that suffers from rough execution. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell Management.

April 1, 2017
Four New York women juggle family and career, generally preferring the latter to the former."Did you see that article in the paper the other day? A scientist in Australia found a way to fertilize eggs without sperm....It's the end of men," reports Maggie, one of four gal pals at the center of Rinaldi's uninspired debut. Maggie, Beth, and Anna work for a company called Red Hot Mama, a manufacturer of controversial sexy lingerie for pregnant and nursing women, the ongoing target of angry demonstrations and threatening mail. Anna's sister, Isabel, is an associate publisher at a magazine called Pink. Barely pregnant, she learns that her boss thinks "we should hire women who are either too old to get pregnant or too ugly to get knocked up--haha!" When she calls Anna to report this, Anna tells her not to worry. "The feeling that the world will no longer value you because you are going to be a mother will disappear once you realize that you'll get better at your job because the bullshit will become meaningless and will roll off your back." If you have a low tolerance for clunky, didactic dialogue, this is not the book for you; dated-feeling feminist ideas take precedence over both character development and plot. Isabel's husband is out of town a lot so she cheats on him with an ex throughout her entire pregnancy. Anna is really angry because her husband doesn't help enough with the kids and she's pregnant again. Beth is raising a kid on her own as the HIV-positive father approaches his demise. Then there's Maggie, who, like the protagonist of the movie Maggie's Plan, has gotten sick of the man she stole from his first wife and is now plotting to give him back. According to the author's note, she had given up on this novel when she narrated part of its plotline to director Rebecca Miller, who made it into a movie. This is now considered a selling point of the book, printed on the cover and discussed in a foreword, though it's not clear why.Creates more sympathy for its male characters than its female ones.

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May 1, 2017
Isabel, Beth, Anna, and Maggie are four mothers trying to have it all. With high-profile jobs and demanding family lives, they often lean on one other as sounding boards set against the bustling backdrop of Manhattan. Isabel works at a glamorous magazine, Maggie is a freelancer, and Beth and Anna founded a maternity-lingerie store, Red Hot Mama. When the store's latest ad campaign goes viral and becomes the target of bad press, the women are spurred into action. Amid temptations, triumphs, and tragedies, the friends discover that their shared bonds are the source of untold strength. Fans of Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It (1992) and Elisabeth Egan's A Window Opens (2016) will enjoy this glimpse inside the lives of women struggling to do everything right. Rinaldi draws from her own experience as an accomplished publisher to imbue the novel with true-to-life drama, grounding each woman's story in gritty detail. By using modern media to ask age-old questions, Rinaldi has crafted an incisive yet tender look at the high points and heartbreak of motherhood.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)