He’s a difficult character to “get” at first blush, but you can understand the attraction. Of course, she does see Nick when she attends the reunion – readers expect this.

Nick just happens to be the convenient emotional memory that she can massage into what she believes would make her happier.

But I submit that her longing is mostly for happiness. Her visions of Nick, what could have been and what still might be, reveal a deep longing. It’s clear to this reader that Corinne is terribly unhappy regardless of the ho-hum marriage and her melancholy over her daughter’s eventual move to college. Will Nick be there? What will she say to him? The scenarios play out in her head, her “inner narrator” working overtime. The not knowing is all-consuming, so when her 25-year high school graduation comes around, Corinne lets her best friend Beth convince her to travel back home. Is he happy? Does he ever think about her? And his choices leading up to and after the breakup… why? Not ever fully recovering, Corinne wonders about Nick. Her thoughts often wander to the high school sweetheart who broke her heart after graduation. Daily life consists of routine errands, cleaning, cooking, caring for family, and PTA meetings – each event framed by Corinne-as-narrator as she attempts to turn the mundane into “something better.” Right away, I was put in mind of James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”įurther complicating things is her belief that had she traveled a different path after high school, her present might be more exciting, more rewarding. Author Joanna Monahan put her heart and soul into her first novel, “ Something Better.” In a story about love, memories, and struggling to rediscover who you are, main character Corinne Fuller faces a stale marriage and an impending empty nest.

Something Better by Joanna Monahan