BIODEGRADABLE SOAP

by Amy Ephron ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991

The title here indicates that Ephron may have no illusions about her latest effort, which is--like its precursors, Cool Shades and Bruised Fruit--an airy little nothing, a sort of ""And this is how it was in southern California at the end of the 20th century among entertainment-business Yuppies."" You know the type. . .agents, actors, producers, along with their wives, lovers, private exercise trainers, heated swimming pools, collagen-treated wrinkles, and imponderable motives. Take Claudia Weiss, mother of two little Teenage Ninja Turtle-loving girls; she becomes obsessed with environmental concerns the day her hotshot agent husband, David, leaves her. David takes up with the Italian sizzler Lara Angnelli--not so much because of her sizzle but because he finds her egotism a restful break from Claudia's chaos. So Claudia spends her days worrying about medfly spraying, contaminated fish and beaches, Tiananmen Square, and Lithuania. Meanwhile, David, who's renting a house that begins falling apart the minute he moves in, helps his buddy Mark get out of a sticky situation that arises when Mark shoots his wife's lover in the foot. And before David finally goes back home to Claudia--presumably because he's lonely--Ephron treats readers to a host of other ersatz earth-shatterers, like Mark's struggles with an out-of-whack car phone, and Claudia's loathing of grilled radicchio. Mildly amusing, maybe, for L.A. in-crowders and wannabes, but Ephron's satiric edge is dulled by her penchant for the saccharine and too sketchily drawn characters.

Pub Date: April 1, 1991

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991

Categories: FICTION