NOTHING TO LOSE

by Consuelo Baehr ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1982

An ad writer gobbles her way through her miseries to ultimate whaledom. . . but finds Love and Slim Hips with a half-Puerto-Rican retailer--in this brassy little urban romance. April Taylor, sole offspring of parents who clothed, fed, and ignored her, is a product of that portion of Queens which revels in meatloaf and Gravy Master. But April makes a special effort to control the pudge when she takes two courses at the New School--one in ad writing, the other titled ""Change your Emotions and Win in the Market."" And she marries her investment teacher, Harald. Then, however, when Harald wanders astray, April begins to eat . . . and eat . . . and divorce follows. So eventually the single, fat April will wind up working at the Burdie's department store in Newark, New Jersey. (Newark? ""Don't walk from the station. Take a cab."") And it's there that she meets Luis O'Neill--child of a Puerto Rican mother and absent Irish father, Princeton grad (thanks to a few uncommonly interested women patrons), and fast-moving career man, with plenty of one-night stands and martini-lunch firms in his past. Will April and Luis find True Love? Of course. But first, happily working in Burdie's dusty cubicles, spurred on by a rotten love life and an unfortunate ladies'-room accident (a toilet-seat snapped in two, stitches required), Daisy must begin to shed those ugly pounds--which she does, thanks partly to colleagues Dan (a black homosexual) and his lover Pierre. And thus, its the new and gorgeous April who will entrance executive Luis . . . leading to a promise of ""forever"" in California. Lots of romantic dawdle--but the tough retailing ambience (with the emphasis on the undersung backroom talent) is funny and convincing, making this a good deal livelier than Baehr's previous glossy-soap effort, Best Friends.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION