THE OTHER SHULMAN

Name: THE OTHER SHULMAN
Author: Alan Zweibel
ISBN: 1-4000-6266-7

by Alan Zweibel ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2005

Mildly amusing, but a work from the co-author of Billy Crystal’s current Broadway hit, 700 Sundays, could have packed more...

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This comic novel about a lovable loser who runs in a New York City Marathon is an adult first from Zweibel, Emmy-winning TV writer and author of Bunny Bunny (1994), a memoir of Gilda Radner.

Shulman is the middle-aged owner of a failing stationery store in Fort Lee, N.J. He’s overweight (248 pounds), has been likened to “Woody Allen with a glandular condition” and hates running. So when he announces his marathon entry, his older, successful brothers are contemptuous, his wife Paula plain baffled. But Shulman needs to escape the realities of bankruptcy and of a nonexistent sex life, and his sponsorship money will go to an AIDS project. The goodhearted Shulman, who has hastened his bankruptcy with freebies and markdowns, is in fact a self-made victim incapable of anger. But there’s the Other Shulman, the name he gives to his spitting image, first encountered on a running path when his super-aggressive double charged toward him, forcing him into the bushes. The Other Shulman, natch, owns a chain of stationery megastores, and he’ll continue to best Shulman at every turn. Does he really exist, or is he Shulman’s liberated id on a rampage? It doesn’t really matter, for this loose-jointed tale, alternating between the marathon and earlier comic diversions, pursues its comedy as erratically as Shulman pursues his training, from Shulman’s gig behind the scenes on a TV game show to his very public kiss with a fellow runner, another prelude to nothing. Zweibel injects a more serious note with the HIV-positive Coach Jeffrey, who before his sudden death dictates a letter to Shulman containing the usual self-help stuff (commit to your dream, etc.), preparing for the fairy-tale ending.

Mildly amusing, but a work from the co-author of Billy Crystal’s current Broadway hit, 700 Sundays, could have packed more of a punch.

Pub Date: July 12, 2005

ISBN: 1-4000-6266-7

Page Count: 305

Publisher: Villard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAUGH LINES
by Alan Zweibel

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A FIELD GUIDE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE
by Dave Barry & Adam Mansbach & Alan Zweibel

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
by Adam Mansbach & Alan Zweibel ; illustrated by Neil Swaab

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.