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    In a Perfect World: A Novel
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    In a Perfect World: A Novel
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    In a Perfect World: A Novel
    Ebook303 pages5 hours

    In a Perfect World: A Novel

    By Laura Kasischke

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In a Perfect World is critically acclaimed writer Laura Kasischke’s new novel of marriage, motherhood, and the choices we make when we have no choices left. Kasischke, the author of The Life Before Her Eyes, tells the story of Jiselle, a young flight attendant who’s just settled into a fairy tale life with her new husband and stepchildren. But as a mysterious new illness spreads rapidly throughout the country, she begins to realize that her marriage, her stepchildren, and their perfect world are all in terrible danger . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061941825
    Unavailable
    In a Perfect World: A Novel
    Author

    Laura Kasischke

    Laura Kasischke teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, she has published eight collections of poetry and ten novels, three of which have been made into films, including The Life Before Her Eyes.

    Read more from Laura Kasischke

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    Reviews for In a Perfect World

    3.5/5

    115 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. It covered so many issues: global warming, epidemics, motherhood, family, and survival. These topics don't sound like they would go together, but this book is beautifully written in the way it ties them together. The author based a lot of this story on the Black Plague which I haven't read much about. I am now interested in reading about it. Not all the characters are likeable at first, but many redeem themselves as the novel progresses. This is definitely a novel about the choices we make and the choices we are sometimes forced into. This book holds a lot of fodder for book club discussions. Definitely will be reading more from this author.
    • 4/5
      At first I disliked the book. Kind of romantic, almost a chic-lit story of a not-too-bright flight attendant who falls in love with a pilot. Blah. But then the pandemic strikes and the story turns into something else. This is definitely not the post-apocalyptic story I suspected, but an interesting one nonetheless. I kept wondering, though, would it really be so easy and peaceful to live in a world where the infrastructure is more or less lost? Would life in small town America continue peacefully - only without electricity - while the big cities collapsed? They might. But for how long?
    • 4/5
      I was unsure about the novel for most of the time I spent reading - it seemed purely superficial, lacking some sort of depth that could truly draw me into the story. While the situation was eerily prescient for our current times, I just couldn't quite connect with Jiselle's life. And then the author gave this book the absolute perfect ending - for THIS story - and it all came together. I'm extremely happy I stuck it out until the end, because it wound up being a thoroughly rewarding experience.
    • 2/5
      A very dark, slow book about the ending of the world and what could happen. Jiselle, a 32 year old flight attendant marries the most eligible, best looking pilot flying the skies and ends her career to stay home with his three children. What I couldn't figure out was what took her so long to realize she had been duped? Reminded me of "The Road" only not written as well. And the ending? No ending whatsoever!
    • 4/5
      A lovely, yet disturbing book. Jiselle is a determined woman. I cannot seem to get this book off of my mind; perhaps, because I'm afraid it will be our future.
    • 4/5
      Flight attendant Jiselle is tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. When pilot Mark Dorn walks into her life that all changes. The two join together after a whirlwind courtship and decide to marry. The only obstacles they face are the world being under economic failure due to a plague called Phoenix flu and Mark's daughters who let it be known there is no place for a stepmother in there home or hearts. Left alone while her husband travels, Jiselle does her best to win over the daughters and fight for their survival as the plague worsens. Her only happiness at times is Mark's son who, unlike his sister's, accepts her role. The first part of this book was a bit of a struggle for me. It was a bit on the slow boring side. I am glad I stayed with it as it turned out to be very engaging. I found myself reading as fast as I could to find out what was to become of the characters I had grown very found of. But yes, I to was let down by the ending as stated by other reviews. There was no closure. That to me is okay if the ending builds the reader up to believe there will be an encore, but that is not what happened. Sadly, I was left with wanting to know more, but the feeling of, I'm never going to know. If I had been giving a different ending this book would have probably reached a five star.
    • 4/5
      At 32, Jiselle McKnight has been a bridesmaid no less than six times, so when her co-worker, a sexy airline pilot, starts to woo her and wants to marry her, she is more than happy to overlook a few things to become the next Mrs. Mark Dorn. Doubts plague her relationship before she even gets married- after all he could just be marrying her to to gain some reliable childcare- and although her mother tries to save her from the similar problematic issues that destroyed her own marriage, Jiselle is unwilling to listen.The mysterious Phoenix flu, whose origins and causes are widely speculated yet never pinned down surround the inauspicious beginnings of Jiselle’s marriage, and the hysteria about the the outbreak does little to ease her into wedded bliss to a perpetually traveling and highly attractive husband or into the instant family that she is attempting to create with two teenage daughters who hate her, and a meek young stepson. Jiselle has to find a way to either sink or swim within her new role as wife and stepmother but also find her footing in a country caught in the throes of a nationwide epidemic.Jiselle was a hard character for me to cotton to in the initial chapters of this book. Naive and more than a little detached she seemed to float through the world without any urgency or a sense of the consequences of her actions. Marrying a man with three kids whom she had yet to meet, a week before her wedding as people are dropping like flies from a flu whose source is yet unidentified, seemed to be the height of crazy. The novel unfolds with a curious vague and dreamy quality that matches Jiselle’s personality but seems a little odd at times when compared to descriptions of the epidemic.I warmed up to Jiselle as she started to wake up a bit and take responsibility for herself and got a better handle on her role within the family, and was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this novel. While none of the specifics of the epidemic were ever discussed there was enough information about the changes in the environment and the functioning of the society to keep me grounded in the novel and the gravity of their situation.I enjoyed that the narrative could focus on the personal aspects of how the epidemic affected the family and the changes that it made in their lives, the ways that it would bring them together and tear them apart. Kasischke strikes a fine balance between the dream-like and the horrific, and though most of the book is is limned in the weight of serious matters the book manages to escape being overwhelmingly bleak. I read with great curiosity to find out what would become of Jiselle and her family.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading this book but I didnt like the ending
    • 4/5
      Only missed a five-star rating because of the extremely frustrating ending and some other minor things that bugged me. Other than that I loved it. I may even reread it soon.
    • 4/5
      This is a really good apocalypse book that looks at it from a different angle. A lot of books look at the overall picture of an apocalypse, giving you a sort of omniscient point of view about what has befallen the country, but this one puts you inside the story, telling you only what the main character knows, leaving a lot of questions that make the story that much more believable and realistic and that much more creepy as well. The only criticism I had was that the last couple of pages sorta fell flat. Then again, it's hard to end a story like this well. Overall, I'd say that if you like apocalypse-y stories, definitely give this one a read.
    • 3/5
      In a Perfect World is a novel about family, love, acceptance...and coping with the end of the world as we know it. The story centers around Jiselle, who becomes a stepmother to three kids just as a plague begins sweeping across the US. Jiselle is separated from her new husband, and learns to cope with the kids and all that is happening. This was a good book, but I could not help but compare it to (Life As We Knew It), which had a very similar plot, but left me crying and worried about whether the characters would survive. This story is less intense and somehow less personal, despite the introspective nature of the main character.
    • 4/5
      While some dystopian books take place in an imagined future where things are very different from our own world (like The Hunger Games series), In A Perfect World takes place right in our here and now. There are no fantasy elements to this book at all—everything seems utterly believable and possible, which made it a more effective and scarier book for me.Our glimpse into a world that encompasses nothing less than a complete breakdown of our society is Jiselle, a flight attendant who has "landed" the handsome and charismatic pilot Mark Dorn. In her 30s and tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, Jiselle is ready to settle down and imagines a perfect little world with her ready-made family. (Mark has three children whose mother died a few years before.) Jiselle leaves her job and moves into the idyllic little town where Mark has a picture-perfect home. Anxious and excited to be the stepmother, Jiselle is eager to meet her new family. What she finds is three children who are less than thrilled—with the exception of the young boy (gotta love those boys!)—with their new stepmother. With Mark away for a good portion of time, Jiselle struggles to make the transition into her new life.In the background of Jiselle's life, there are rumblings of another kind—a mysterious Phoenix Flu is causing troubles through the country. Even celebrities seems to be getting it and dying. (OK...a little editorial note here: I just loved that Kasischke killed off Britney Spears with the flu! Take that, Ms. I'm A Terrible Singer Yet Have Achieved Huge Success!)As the story progresses, Mark is away more and more often, and Jiselle finds out some disturbing information about her new husband. And as the Phoenix Flu begins to become more and more of a problem, Jiselle's focus begins to shift from getting adjusted to family life to surviving—a skill she finds herself to be more adept at than she ever imagined.As conditions worsen and society begins to fall apart, Jiselle is thrust into a nightmarish world where isolation, survival, sickness and death become a part of everyday life. Yet the worse things get, the more Jiselle's world actually becomes "a perfect world." With an ending that will leave readers who need things tied up at loose ends, this book surprised me in how it shifted and turned and twisted and changed into something that I can't quite describe. Consider it an uplifting story about the end of society as we know it.Reading this right after The Hunger Games, I think this book came out on top for me. Where The Hunger Games is flashy and showy with its tantalizing premise, this book is more subtle and slow and deep. Written in an almost distant, chilly type of prose, Kasischke has created a dystopian book that truly scared and disturbed me yet also made me feel good about the world at the same time. As I said, this isn't a book that ties things up in a nice little package for you, but I thought it suited the story well. If you're looking for an adult book on the opposite side of the dystopian spectrum, then this book is for you.The Bottom Line: I'm giving the book 4 stars. I was drawn into Jiselle's world in an almost hypnotic way. Each page brought me closer to horror but also to goodness. This is a book that I could envision happening in our lifetime, and I think Kasischke did a wonderful job of keeping it from falling into a run-of-the-mill "Oh No...There's An Epidemic" type thriller. This book has a vibrant beating heart if you take the time to look for it.