Share Marilyn Simon Rothstein’s ‘Lift and Separate’ With Your Girlfriends for LOL Fun [REVIEW]

When your life turns upside down, sometimes you need a good friend’s humor to pull you through. (Photo by j. cliss, Flickr)

When a wife loses her husband of many years to a woman with a bust size bigger than her IQ, she must learn to navigate life without the spouse she built her very existence around in Marilyn Simon Rothstein’s uproarious novel, Lift and Separate. 

Lake Union

Meet Marcy Hammer. When her husband of 32 years, Harvey, dumps her over the phone, her world is turned upside down. Rather than sit idly by and watch her life slip down the drain, she gathers good friends, great clothes, and a party-size bag of potato chips to munch on while she simultaneously seeks out the humor in her situation and learns to navigate life on her own.

Rothstein’s betrayal of Marcy Hammer’s is nothing short of genius. Although Marcy’s out of touch with reality and completely shell-shocked, she tries to be strong in the wake of disaster, even if she is soft around the edges and a total marshmallow in the middle. Despite all of this (or perhaps because of it), readers will fall in love with this sweet but flailing character because of who she represents: any woman jilted in her prime.

Rothstein deftly uses humor and wit to guide her readers through arduous topics which can frequently be bogged down by emotion. Little things like throwing away her husband’s toothbrush seems like it should be a no brainer for Marcy. But even trivial acts like this seem difficult at first because Marcy’s life has become so enmeshed with her husband’s that she doesn’t know which toothbrush is his and which is her own.

Then there’s the best friend, Dana, who never fails to cut through the bologna. “I’ll buy one for you,” she says with her trademark snark. Leave it to Dana to acknowledge the elephant in the room. She’s always quick to take action, rip off the Band-Aid and simply toss the emotional baggage out the window. Scenes like this (and there are plenty of them) will have readers laughing until their sides ache.

These are two friends who rely on one another through the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between, and their relationship is the very heart of this book.  Yes, starting over is difficult. However, when a woman has a friend who sticks closer than a sister, she is truly fortunate. So pick up a copy of Lift and Separate today and celebrate the Dana’s of the world: friends who uplift us and remind us that life is precious and truly worth living.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is the author of Lift and Separate, a finalist for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award. Look for her second book, Husbands and Other Sharp Objects, in 2018.

Before publishing her debut novel, Marilyn owned an advertising agency in Connecticut for more than 25 years. But her writing career actually began at Seventeen magazine.

Marilyn received her master of arts in liberal studies from Wesleyan University and a master of arts in Judaic studies from the University of Connecticut. She earned her degree in journalism from New York University.

She grew up in New York City and married a man she met in an elevator. She invites you to follow her on Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.

LIFT AND SEPARATE
By Marilyn Simon Rothstein
304 pgs. Lake Union. $14.95

Purchase Lift and Separate at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble.

Lift and Separate is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.

Lift and Separate Giveaway

Congratulations to Deborah Mazoyer who just won a copy of Lift and Separate. Although this giveaway is over, stay tuned for more great opportunities to win.