This realistic and funny novel will appeal to women of all ages, while men should find it attractively controversial.
A smart, witty, sometimes hilarious coming-of-age novel for and about the boomer generation.
Anny Applebaum is 65, an artist and an art lover, 10 years divorced, who supplements inadequate social security with money she earns writing a newspaper column for seniors. Her editor, a young woman who likes and admires her, has to inform her that their boss plans to cut the column unless she can come up with topics that attract more readers. Meanwhile, her daughter continues to push her into seeking a mate and suggests she try one of the online dating sites. On JDate, Anny finds Marv, and they set up a date to meet in person. He is an attractive 75-year-old diamond merchant who appears to reciprocate Anny’s initial attraction. Following advice from her daughter and a couple of friends, she doesn’t go to bed with him right away, but their first kiss leads her to expect the proverbial phone call. When he doesn’t call for weeks, she is disappointed but has an idea for a column, which she titles "The Viagra Diaries." Starting with Mr. X (Marv), she writes about all kinds of guys she meets and interviews, and column after column inspires so much reader response that she is given a much-needed raise at work. Before long, her column becomes nationally syndicated, and she becomes a star. Along the way, she speculates on how renewed sexual vigor via Viagra has influenced the dreams, expectations and relationships of her generation. The ending, which is really a new beginning for Anny, is enticing and exciting. No, 60 is not the new 40: As Anny would say, why should it be? Sixty is a time to enjoy life and continue to pursue one’s dreams.
This realistic and funny novel will appeal to women of all ages, while men should find it attractively controversial.Pub Date: April 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4516-8861-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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