The Liz Taylor Ring Review

Jewelry has a way of making a girl shine brighter, feel prettier, sexier, like sparkly armour so they can walk into the room with their head held high. For some, jewelry can have immense meaning imbued into it, remembering who gave it to you and why, all the special events it represents.

When it comes to Schiender family, the Liz Taylor Ring is that one family heirloom, representing the decades of their parents’ everlasting yet difficult love story, proof that true love can whether the broken trust and doubts and familial pressure. But they had thought the Liz Taylor Ring had been gambled away, stolen and/or buried with their father. All of those things are true. None are true. Or it’s both cuz the Liz Taylor Ring is back in play and the whole family is divided into before and after.

Much like Janowitz’ other novels, she imbues the story with plenty of sly references to Taylor’s life and films, making it a fun Easter Egg hunt for Old Hollywood aficienados. It also has plenty of flashbacks to Liz and Ritchie’s courtship (they were named after their actor counterparts obviously though their marriage was a lot less dysfunctional), slowly filling in the gaps in the timeline to unveil Ritchie’s weakness for gambling and how the ring was gambled, stolen, buried, fake and real all at the same time.

As the for the rest of the Schiender family, they all have their own reasons for wanting to get the ring for themselves. To Addy, the eldest, it represents financial security and a testament to her parent’s marriage. This was the ring that proved her family would be safe and whole after her parent’s nine month separation. Even though the family is whole, she still does not feel secure. Instead she feels dismissed as a stay-home mom, her efforts ignored even though she helped build the family company. And her relationship with her sister. . . let’s say it’s as rocky as Liz and Dick’s marriage as she takes a martyr-like air to help her baby sister with her screwed up life because she promised their father to look after her.

Nathan wants the ring because it represents the pure, epic, steadfast love story of their parents. The kind that is destined and cannot be replicated. He can’t live up to it. Not when he’s nearing forty and is still unable to stand up for himself or his accomplishments without Addy talking over him. As for his marriage, he and his husband are no longer the same people, they haven’t talked, they haven’t touched and he’s pretty sure Diego is having an affair.

Courtney wants the ring so she can sell it off. After several years in LA, she lost her apartment, lost her savings, is in major debt to a bookie and has become a sugar baby to stay afloat. She’s the family fuckup and no matter what she does, she can’t seem to shake her sibling’s image of her as the outsider tagalong. And fuckup, can’t forget that last part. Of course, they don’t think she’s responsible enough for the ring, they talk about it as she’s not even there. So maybe if she could steal it. . .?

Honestly, to say more would spoil the book but Janowitz hits it out of the park in combining the glamour of Liz and Dick’s relationship through Lizzie and Ritchie whose gambling provides a heartbreaking sense of betrayal throughout the novel, uplifted by his genuine love to do better by Lizzie and just their undeniable connection. There’s never a doubt even though she does manage to throw some doubt with her slow trickle of ritchie’s diaries and the back-forth of the timelines.

The family dynamics are emotionally complicated but Janowitz nicely peels back the layers of resentment and bias coloring Addy, Nathan and Courtney with plenty of bonding moments that allow them to communicate better and tear away their negative perceptions of one another. They felt like a real family and it felt like I, as a reader, was standing in the room with them, peeking into their life like a candid documentarian. Ina less creepy way. Even the extra family members like Gary, and Diego (the spouses), Addy’s twins and Courtney’s sugar daddy turned friend, Sy, felt real, three dimensional people with Diego in particular having his own journey occuring alongside Nathan even though he doesn’t realize it.

I do feel that two of the ending chapters were a bit slow as it seemed like Janowitz was wrapping things up before throwing in one last surprise that picked the plot up again. Also the plot thread regarding Courtney’s bookie debts felt like an urgency that lost its importance until it popped up one more time near the end. I totally forgot about it and it felt like it was supposed to be more important than it turned out to be. Same thing with her daughters getting arrested for illegal gambling, it just felt like an event with an off-page scolding that doesn’t delve into why they decided to go there in the first place. I felt like I was missing some sort of emotional resonance there.

Nonetheless, it’s another 5 star book.