SAVE ME A SEAT

by Rhea Kohan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1979

The touchstone of the relationship between Joan Brenner (36, mother of three) and Audrey Miller (same basic circumstances) is their daily morning telephone call--which teems with insults, bitchiness, and fond support for each other in facing the daily travails of being rich housewives in Beverly Hills. Audrey is bossy, loud, tactless; no one else but Joan really likes her, because Audrey cuts too close to the numbing truth of how sad most of these women's lives are, how neglected they are by their hustling husbands, how guilty they feel for being at home. Mercedes, Gucci, hair-frosting, Chicano live-in maids, divorce, nursery school--Kohan has a little shtick about each element of the lifestyle. As a result, most of the book reads like a long script for TV's Rhoda--not bad, not really good, either. Then Audrey suddenly dies. Joan falls apart, then picks herself up, and a vicious ephemeral gleam is lent to lives already none too substantial. Joan's grief is either bathetic or dignified and touching--Kohan can't yet handle registers in between; the novel ends by trailing off, out of energy. And the second-hand socio-cultural pronouncements (""If New York is an amphetamine, then L.A. is a tranquilizer"") don't contribute much. But the dialogue is abundant and generally good, and when Kohan starts shaping her material, she may provide something striking.

Pub Date: April 25, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION