Our Kind

“An innovative, intelligent and surprising book by one of the best writers of my generation.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children

Summary

Our Kind conveys the dreams and reality of a group of women who came into the quick rush of adulthood, marriage, and child-bearing during the 1950s. Narrating from the heart of ten companions—once country-club housewives—Walbert subtly depicts all the anger, disappointment, vulnerability, and pride of her characters. “Years ago we were led down the primrose lane, then abandoned somewhere near the carp pond.” Now alone, with their own daughters grown, they are finally free—and ready to take charge: from staging an intervention for the town deity to protesting the slaughter of the country club’s fairway geese, to dialing former lovers in the dead of night. The result is a thought-provoking novel that opens a window into the world of a generation and class of women caught in cultural limbo.

Select Reviews

“Brittle, funny and poignant; this is a prickly treat.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Our Kind is the book you read along with Updike and Cheever—not so much as an antidote but as another point of view on the seismic years that transformed the ladies of the ‘50s into the women of the ‘70s. Walbert has written a touching and often surreal group of linked stories about being born a little too late for one era, and a little too early for the next.”
—The Washington Post

Additional Reviews

Awards/Honors

  • National Book Award finalist, 2004
  • New York Times 100 books of 2004
  • Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2004