Book Review: The Heights-Peter Hedges

The setting for "The Heights" is the everyday life of a young couple with two small children, who live in  the trendy Brooklyn Heights neighberhood. Unlike their well heeled neighbours though, Kate and Tim struggle with money and live in a tiny apartment  Tim is a history teacher who is working on his long over due dissertation and Kate is a stay at home mom. However when Kate is offered a lucrative job helping charitable organizations, things start to change. Tim's decision to stay home has him filling Kate's shoes with the local moms, complete with pet names. Things change further when they meet the charming, beautiful and extremely wealthy Anna. Both partners are instantly drawn to her, but a mutual attraction develops between Tim and Anna. Meanwhile, an ex-boyfriend of Kate's re-enters the picture, declaring that he never stopped loving her.  There's nothing particularly new or thrilling about a tale of marital discord in the suburbs, but perhaps that is where "The Heights" is different--there is no marital discord, Kate and Tim seem to genuinely love each other and are both incredibly likable characters. Whether that's a strength of the book or not, I am not sure. Hedges alternates between telling the story from Kate's perspective and telling it from Tim's perspective, with minor characters checking in once in a while. It's an interesting technique but at times it is difficult to differentiate between the two voices and some character development is lacking. By the same token, there is little threat to the couples marriage. Although both are tempted by others,  and it's not hard to imagine them going astray, there is also little doubt about the ending. The characters are well crafted though and it's easy to get drawn into their world and to consider the complexity of their situation.

Hedges is indeed a master at creating magic out of day to day affairs and this is the strongest point of "The Heights", whether they are getting coffee or at dramatic crossroads in their lives the characters' lives are genuinely interesting and a reader is easily drawn in. The downside, though, is that the occasional plot point is brought up and then completely abandoned with no hint to it's significance. You could argue that that is how real life is, and you would be right, but whether or not it works within the context of the novel (and this novel in particular) I am not sure.

At the end of the day this is an enjoyable novel with likable characters and an involving story but it is not life changing nor groundbreaking.  Infidelity is an interesting topic but there is nothing new said about it in this novel.