The Learning Curve

MUCH better than her Pride and Prejudice book. Plenty of wit and an insightful look into elementary school teaching. The plot is rather convoluted and everything gets sorted out rather too rapidly in the last couple of pages. You could wish the h was as insightful about adults, and herself, as she is about children but from the reader’s point of view she makes up for it by being so witty. On the whole very worth reading. This is an addendum: I have recently learned that Ms Nathan died young. What a loss to us all!

A group of teachers at a London school have a year of miscommunications and confusion in their professional life as well as in their personal lives. The Year 6 teacher Miss Nicky Hobbs has her hands full with her newest class, especially when she discovers one of her favorite pupils (Oscar Samuels) has a father that doesn't seem to be a part of his life. The ear full that Nicky gave to Mark Samuels was a career ender, if he told her boss, but maybe it is the eye opener that Mark needs to become a better father. A very large, long book that had a lot happening all the time. The beginning of the book took a very long time (about 100 pages) to get to the point. Normally I like back story and `more information', but this one almost had more than necessary. While I enjoyed the romance of the main characters (Nicky, Mark and Oscar) that part seemed rushed at the end. It was a complicated romance with a lot of working parts all the way around. Once I was able to get into the story, it was fun and sometimes funny with all of the misdirection.

As with her previous works, Melissa Nathan's fifth and last book "The Learning Curve" is a warm-hearted, quick-paced pleaser that explores the tenuousness of love and life. Her protagonist this time around is Nicky Hobbs, a thirty-year-old primary school teacher who finds herself facing the sad thought that she may never be able to juggle both career and having children. Not that she's anywhere near to getting married or having children, but the thought is pressing itself upon her rather more these days. At the beginning of the school year, Nicky instantly takes a liking to Oscar, one of her students, whose workaholic father is often absent from the picture. Oscar's father, Mark, believes he is doing his best to provide for his son; what he learns from his son about his teacher disturbs him - he believes Nicky to be a meddling busybody and is ready to give her a piece of his mind. Instead, during a confrontation at Parents' Night, it is Nicky who gives him a piece of her mind and helps Mark to see that some things have to change. To complicate matters even further, they develop a mutual crush on each other but can't reveal their feelings to each other. As Nicky applies to become headmaster at the school, she finds herself in competition with a Rob, a fellow teacher (and her college boyfriend), who suddenly is very interested in starting things all over again - or is he? Nicky finds herself questioning the motives behind both of the men in her life, while trying to determine exactly what she wants out of life, and what she is able to have in this world. "The Learning Curve" is sadly Melissa Nathan's last, as she passed away two months after finishing this book from breast cancer. This last novel is full of her trademark wit and her uncanny ability to write about real life and the mix-ups that always happen in the name of love. While technically what the literary world would term "chick lit", Nathan's five novels have constantly risen above the sordid vapidness that the genre title often encompasses: she brought a warmth and intelligence that is lacking from most of this genre's formulaic plots and fabrications. Indeed, "The Learning Curve" examines the idea of women having to choose between career or children; why can't she have both and be successful at both? And it is debated marvelously under Melissa Nathan's sure hands. She will truly be missed.

What a wonderful book! I have enjoyed all of Melissa's books. It saddens me that this is her last book. I will miss her along with many others. My condolences to her family!