The Physics of Relationships by Chas Halpern (Review by Stephanie Rowitz)

I really liked the setup of this book. Lexi is a lonely, sixty-something widow who lets her best friend and her daughter’s former schoolmate move in with her as they all navigate their next steps. I enjoyed reading from the unconventional perspective of an older protagonist who doesn’t know what to do, or how to fill her time anymore. Her husband is gone, her children are grown, and she doesn’t need to work. What does one do with the rest of their lives? That’s the question this book attempts to answer, and it mostly involves learning how to relate to people who are at different stages in their lives. Lexi makes connections to unlikely characters, like her lackluster dinner date who teaches her the importance of having something in your life that you’re passionate about. However, I didn’t like the daughter’s friend who manipulates Lexi emotionally in nearly every conversation. I also didn’t really care for the demanding best friend who constantly pulls Lexi into her chaos. However, I did like how this story ebbed and flowed. The reader is privy to Lexi’s thoughts, worries, and reflections as she meanders through her various adventures and misadventures. However, it fell a little flat for me. I couldn’t figure out why the reflections seemed to lack depth, until I looked it up and discovered that the author is a cis-gendered man. While I appreciate the attempt to understand a woman’s psyche, I ultimately thought that he didn’t quite pull it off. The story left me wanting more for these female characters, even the one-dimensional ones. Maybe even especially the one-dimensional ones because I think they would’ve been more compelling characters if we saw more sides to them. All in all, The Physics of Relationships is a quiet, subtle novel about what happens when one chapter ends and the next one hasn’t begun yet.