Four women living in New York, struggling to balance personal and professional lives, facing break-ups and breakdowns, while learning the virtues of female friendships. Sound familiar? Yes, it definitely does, and Anne-Marie Casey's debut novel, An Englishwoman in New York, is a watered-down version of its momentously more brazen and ambitious predecessors. When Lucy's husband loses his job, the family give up their cushy lives in London for a lower-paid position and more modest existence in Manhattan. This fresh start forces Lucy to examine her life after nearly 10 autopilot years of "supervising" the nanny, housekeeper and two children. In the process she rekindles an old ambition and befriends three women: Julia, a successful television producer who struggles to balance career ambitions with marriage and motherhood; Christy, the unfulfilled penthouse wife of an older, wealthy man; and Robyn, the outsider who works two jobs to support her husband and children. Casey recounts eye-glazing tales of midlife highs and lows from each woman's perspective in a disjointed, chopped-up narrative. Ever-dependable New York, disappointingly, doesn't get the starring role the title suggests. It's all a bit timid and dull.
