Title: All Fall
Down
Author: Jennifer
Weiner
Publisher: Atria
Books
Publication Date: June
17, 2014
Genre: Contemporary
Women’s Fiction
Reviewed by: Ellen
Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 4/5
SUMMARY
Allison Weiss got her happy ending: a handsome
husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the
suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician's office, she opens a magazine
to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder: Is a Percocet at the end of the
day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a
Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class, or if your husband ignores you?
She tells herself that the pills help her make it through her days; but what if
her increasing drug use, a habit that's becoming expensive and hard to hide, is
turning into her biggest problem of all?
REVIEW
It took a while for All Fall Down to draw me in, yet, about fifty percent along, I
simply could not put this book down. For Allison Weiss it starts with one
prescription painkiller a day to make her cope better. One painkiller that
escalates to more as the normal pressures of living seems to spiral. That is,
until the pressure is no longer about coping with daily life, but about getting
more pills.
I really thought this book would bore me to tears.
Fortunately, the lively, witty prose and Allison's sense of humor kept me
reading.
At first this seems to be the account of a neurotic
woman who takes painkillers to put her on a high in order to cope with, what appears
to be, a perfectly ordinary, even perfect, life. Soon, however, it becomes
apparent that it is the little things; the oversensitive child, the husband's
casual female acquaintance, the marriage that has lost its romantic edge, the
father with Alzheimer’s, and the pressures of work on social media that is
driving Allison to self medicate. In the end, the reader gets a look into the
mind of a true addict, experiences the main character's fear and despair when
the pills run out, and witnesses the long, often frustrating, healing process.
A comfortably paced, sensitively written novel, All Fall Down is a worthwhile read for
those who have dealt with addiction as well as those who have friends or family
who are going down this dark path. It is a tale of fear and despair but,
ultimately, of hope and healing.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Jennifer Weiner is
the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eleven books, includingGood
in Bed, and In Her Shoes, which was made into a major motion picture, as well
as The Next Best Thing. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives with her
family in Philadelphia.
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