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    The End of Men
    The End of Men
    The End of Men
    Audiobook8 hours

    The End of Men

    Written by Karen Rinaldi

    Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Angela Dawe, Rachel Fulginiti and Allyson Ryan

    2.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The novel that inspired the acclaimed Rebecca Miller film Maggie's Plan, starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke, and Greta Gerwig.

     Isabel, Anna, Beth, and Maggie are women who aren’t afraid to take it all. Whether spearheading a pregnancy lingerie company, conspiring to return a husband to his ex-wife, lusting after an old lover while in a satisfying marriage, or trying to balance motherhood and work—they are sexy, determined, and not looking for a simple happily ever after. Through punchy, hilarious, and insightful storytelling, The End of Men shatters the confines of society, and more importantly, those we impose upon ourselves.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 20, 2017
    ISBN9780062680617
    The End of Men
    Author

    Karen Rinaldi

    Karen Rinaldi is the publisher of Harper Wave, an imprint she founded in 2012, and a senior vice president at HarperCollins Publishers. While she has worked in the publishing industry for more than two decades as a publisher, editor, and content creator, this is her first time in the role of novelist. The End of Men inspired the story for the 2016 film Maggie’s Plan.

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    Reviews for The End of Men

    2.5/5

    36 ratings18 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I have to agree with some of the other reviewers that the women in this book aren't people I'd like to hang around with due to all there whining. I even gave this to my mom to read, and she only read two chapters before giving up. I got to the point where I just didn't care what happened to them, and there are so many other books to read.
    • 3/5
      Books about "modern womanhood" (blegh!) usually make me wince, but Karen Rinaldi's novel was much more enjoyable than I expected. The novel follows four women―Maggie, Beth, Isabel, and Anna―as they attempt to balance work, families, and relationships while still maintaining a sense of self. Do they whine and bitch? Yeah, but so do I. Imperfectly executed but still interesting, The End of Men might surprise readers who go in with low expectations.
    • 3/5
      I was thinking this was going to be a wonderful summer read.I was terribly disappointed.The characters are completely unlikable. They are whiny and bitter about life twists even though many of the twists life throws at them are the results of their own bad choices. Disappointed.
    • 3/5
      Privileged wealthy women wrestling with issues such as letting go enough to let the housekeeper do the boring chores and whether Or not they should feel guilty about their affair. However, it was better than reading the news.
    • 2/5
      I loved the name of this book "The End of Men". I was fortunate to get win a copy of the book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Books. Alas, after starting to read it, the fortunate feeling dissipated. Ugh. I really wanted to like this book. I thought it was going to be lighthearted and an enjoyable read. For me, it just turned out to be characters I really could not connect with who complained. A LOT!!I have passed by it every day, several times, for over a month and have never went back to it. I thought if I shamed myself a lot, it would happen. Nope, never, ever ever is it going to happen.
    • 2/5
      I thought it was going to be humorous. I thought it was going to be interesting. But it was neither. None of the characters were likeable and at times it was hard to tell them apart. I couldn't finish it and I haven't done that in years. Really disappointing.
    • 2/5
      Not a bad book. But oh my, those women are whinny! I finished the book, but I didn't really want to. Not a book I would read again.
    • 3/5
      Books about "modern womanhood" (blegh!) usually make me wince, but Karen Rinaldi's novel was much more enjoyable than I expected. The novel follows four women―Maggie, Beth, Isabel, and Anna―as they attempt to balance work, families, and relationships while still maintaining a sense of self. Do they whine and bitch? Yeah, but so do I. Imperfectly executed but still interesting, The End of Men might surprise readers who go in with low expectations.
    • 1/5
      I have to agree with some of the other reviewers that the women in this book aren't people I'd like to hang around with due to all there whining. I even gave this to my mom to read, and she only read two chapters before giving up. I got to the point where I just didn't care what happened to them, and there are so many other books to read.
    • 2/5
      A LibraryThing win!So basically this book is about 4 unlikeable women who whine, bitch (sorry), complain and bash the men in their lives. If this story was meant to be funny I certainly didn't laugh. I know motherhood isn't easy especially for working mothers and that men can be turds at times but my goodness! Grow up, get over it and work on a solution which actually these women finally did. Without giving away any spoilers the ending did involve martinis which I had one after reading this book! This is my honest review. And honestly I had a martini!
    • 2/5
      The End of Men follows four women, Maggie, Beth, Isabel, and Anna as they juggle their home life and careers. Each of the four women are dealing with unique situations. Beth is forced to deal with her ex-husband's (and the father of her child) declining health as a result of HIV. Maggie is trying to come to terms with the fact that the man she thought she loved (and began her relationship with while he was married to another woman) isn't the person for her. Isabel is pregnant, but she's developed feelings for an old lover, and Anna is struggling to find a perfect balance between her job and family.The premise of the book was interesting, but I felt that the author was trying to do too much in one book. Each of the women could have easily been the star of their own novel- especially Beth. I found her story the most compelling and interesting. The ending of the book felt too abrupt- like the author just ran out of steam.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I'm also going to quote a lot of this despite it being an ARC. So I guess some of it is subject to change, but I can't help it. It was a brilliantly written book.There really isn't much of a synopsis to give without going too deep into the plot. Well, plot is maybe the wrong word. This isn't really a plot based book. This book is all about the characters. The End of Men follows four connected women over a year as they struggle to balance their lives between marriage, children, and time for themselves. There is an affair. More than one pregnancy. A miscarriage. A death. Births. All of the things that make up a life but here are written about in a way that really articulates the fears that come from experiencing all of these things. It's raw, enlightening, honest, and a little scary. Karen Rinalidi was able to put into words certain things I've felt that I've never really known how to describe. There was Maggie, who ended up married to the man she had an affair with and finds herself stuck with a man she isn't quite sure was ever meant to be hers (but is of course, very thankful for the child they have together). She eventually contemplates finding a way to give him back to his ex-wife. Which is hilarious and I loved it. Beth's ex-husband is HIV positive (his health is quickly failing) and carelessly continued to sleep with her even after knowing it. In fact, he endangered more than just her. (This caused such a visceral anger in me. Like my knuckles were white as I was reading her chapters.) Anna stretches herself too thin by trying to be both husband/wife, mother/father in her family despite the fact that she has a completely competent husband. She doesn't let him help with anything yet resents him for his laziness. She has a major lightbulb moment and I put a tab on the page of the book because I thought it was a brilliant moment in self-awareness."Instead of expecting her husband to shoulder his part, she expected nothing. The self-imposed burden of each and every labor-from earning the money and controlling the household finances to planning the children's meals for the week, scheduling their doctor's appointments, and countless other domestic tasks-made her resentful. Jason was a ready and willing helpful partner, but she took on more than necessary out of a perverse, ill-conceived sense of empowerment. Anna had swung the pendulum too far in the other direction: walnuts alone were not all they cracked up to be."And there's Isobel who is very happily married yet decides to make an emotionally charged friendship she's had for years a physical one without any kind of provocation. She had always felt strung around by Christopher (the man she has the affair with) but when she discovers that their physical relationship finally tips the scales of power in her direction, she revels in it. I think as readers we are meant to identify a little with each character. I certainly did. That's probably the case with every book. Much to my surprise, I most identified with Isobel. Which scared me a little. While I've never had an extramarital affair, I think it was her odd combination of vulnerability, anger, and a kind of self-defeating selfishness that I identified with. Never an easy thing to admit, but true all the same. She wanted what she wanted even if it would hurt people. Even if the person it would hurt the most would be herself. Yet she wanted it. Until she didn't. "Separating her heart from her body as a kind of surrender helped her see clearly from the first time Christopher's pull on her. She understood his actions toward her as a declaration of a kind of love, but a kind where he had all the control. He'd created a tightrope of affection on which she found herself willingly-if perilously-walking, with no net to catch her were she to fall. Staring into the darkness, she realized that this sort of unrequited romantic love was not love at all, but an exercise in self-annihilation. The appeal only to the suffering itself."What I found most interesting was that any combination of these women could be experiencing the exact same thing yet their stories were absolutely different. For example, three of the woman are pregnant at the same time yet their stories end in completely different ways. They experience the same thing yet their experiences are so unlike each others. They are all trying to find the perfect balance yet each discovers that there really isn't such a thing. Everything is always on the verge of tipping over and we're all just trying to avoid that Jenga moment. It's all good...until it isn't. This is truly a wonderful book and I'm so glad I read it. *I received an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
    • 3/5
      Four women, successful in their careers, make stupid decisions in their personal lives, putting blame on their men, while wondering why they even want men in their lives.It was hard to relate to these women, except for their relationship to their children. The issues felt dated. I did appreciate how they came to embrace healthier understandings and relationships. The whole book can be summed up in the later interchange between two of the women. One character complains about equal opportunity meaning doing it all without men taking up their equal share of work at home and she is countered, "Do you think that doesn't come at some cost? " and "you've created the life that you wanted." She admits, "Somes I just think I can't handle what I want." I received a free book as a LIbraryThing win.
    • 3/5
      4 women and the men they are involved with... what I liked: struggles of working moms, a mix of traditional and non traditional families, easy read. What I didn't like: forced wrap up of story lines at the end was abrupt and disappointing. As another post said. Worthy of a beach read but be ready to be disappointed at the end of the book.
    • 2/5
      Okay, I will confess that I read the first half of this one; skimmed over the last few chapters. Basically, the story, if it can be so called, deals with the trials, tribulations and daily lives of four women. The characters were not well drawn enough to allow for a lot of differentiation. Their circumstances were different, but their lives were similar enough and, more importantly, their personalities as represented, similar enough, that the reader had some difficulty keeping up with the transitions. Moreover, none of the characters was terribly interesting. They came across as a whiny lot and the "slice of life" nature of the book did nothing to change this. I will admit that I have a strong bias in favor of books with a point. If there was a point to be made here, I missed it.
    • 3/5
      The epitome of chick lit/ beach reads. I'll admit I was not a huge fan. It was well written but I didn't particularly care about the four women and I will even go as far to say that I even despised one (I'm looking at you Isabel!). Four women wrapped up in careers, marriages, affairs, and motherhood explore and try to make sense of the confusing female experience. Even when they have everything they want their not happy, Why is it so hard to be a working mother in the twenty first century, if only they could have men to share the burden with. Maggie had an affair with a married man, had a child with him, married him and took in his two older children as well, and now regrets everything (except her child). Isabel is married to the perfect man, is in the middle of a glowing pregnancy and embarks on an affair with her long time friend and former love interest. Beth works on being a good single mother to her daughter while her ex-husband is dying of AIDs. Anna tries to balance being a mom of two and a breadwinner when she thinks she really wants to be a stay at home mom. All four women are going through different trials and tribulations but it all goes back to womanhood and the end of men.
    • 2/5
      I enjoyed the movie Maggie's Plan. The movie Maggie's Plan had a dry wit that the novel doesn't capture. Instead of concentrating on Maggie and her plan the novel follows several young women who grapple with undeniably first world problems. These women have lucrative, satisfying careers that leave them time to ponder their feelings over child rearing at a very high level: gosh, should I leave my children with their adoring, competent father, or should I stay home with them and feel stifled? Am I really ready to commit to marriage and motherhood or should I have one last affair, while pregnant, just to make sure I'm ready? As one reviewer noted earlier, those of us in the generation that just got on with it don't have much patience for these pampered musings. That being said, I have read many books that portray upper middle class darlings much more fully and sympathetically: The Nest, The Heirs, The Interestings and any novel by Laurie Colwin are excellent examples. This book portrayed characters that provoked irritation rather than empathy.
    • 2/5
      This was an early reviewer book.This is not one I would have requested so I am surprised I received it. Either someone else's choice for me or I mistakenly requested it.That said-the book was well written but the story line just wasn't something I am interested in. Perhaps it's because I'm in my 70's and just can't relate to these women and their troubles.? Younger female reders might find this story interesting but I found it rather boring. The balancing of a career and children wasn't something my generation had time to ponder, we just did it if we had to work and raise a family too. I personally was a singe mom and had to work two jobs just to survive. I didn't have time efor wallowing in my predicament and really barely time to catch my breath many days. As such, I found this hard to read and had to make myself finish it.