Et cetera. The concept of mid-tier celebrities on the nation's hottest shopping channel may have enormous possibilities, but...
A first novel that tries for the fierce bite of satire but ends up with not much more than nasty little nibbles at the familiar.
Pity the talent on the shop-at-home channel dubbed—yes—Sellevision. During the “Toys for Tots” segment of Slumber Sunday Sundown, gay, lonesome Max inadvertently exposes himself in front of 60 million kids and their parents and loses his job—and any possibility of another. On-air person Peggy Jean Smythe, meanwhile, is a clueless, churchy mother, the oldest of whose three sons would rather play with C-4 than Silly Putty because of issues he has with mother dear. When she's bundled off ranting to detox and rehab for 30 days to get in touch with her addiction to Valium and alcohol, her much deprived husband takes up with Nikki, the almost 16-year-old Lolita from next door whose issues are a whole lot more fun—not to mention kinky—than Peggy Jean's. Then there's Leigh, who is having an affair with married boss Howard Toast, who shows no signs of leaving his own wife. Until, that is, Leigh, after consulting with already-exposed Max, exposes Toast on air and gets him fired and kicked out of his wife's house—whereupon Leigh becomes a feminist icon and much-sought-after talk show guest. And then there's Bebe, Sellevision's most successful host, who finds Mr. Right through a personal ad she puts on the Internet—except that he just might turn out to be the long-lost brother her mother put up for adoption before she was born.
Et cetera. The concept of mid-tier celebrities on the nation's hottest shopping channel may have enormous possibilities, but greater wit and sophistication than Burroughs seems able to summon—so far—are needed to raise this outing from the banalities of soap and silliness to the power of real satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-26772-X
Page Count: 208
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
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