by Bill Richardson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 1997
A sweet nothing of a sequel to Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast (1996), a collection of recipes, book lists, and slightly silly narrative noodlings about the lives of fraternal twins Hector and Virgil, their pets, their guests, acquaintances, and idle hours at their British Columbian island retreat. When we last left the brothers, whose stories have become Canadian broadcaster Richardson's coyly amusing stock-in-trade, life was close to perfect, even if the inn's assortment of eccentric, blue-haired guests could be counted on to set off controversies about breakfast garnishes and yogic breathing. After being offered lists of the brothers' favored cookbooks, some peculiar recipes, and titles appropriate for lavatory reading, we learn that Hector has adjusted to his intermittently passionate relationship with lubriciously feminine journalist Altona, and Virgil, who still can't abide the sound of a saxophone, can smile kindly on the fishy belches of Waffles the cat. The brothers have taken on a handyman, Caedon Harkness, an unemployed roof-thatcher and proud owner of Canada's only thatched-roof mobile home. Harkness was found acceptable by Mrs. Rochester, the inn's Bible-quoting parrot, and now shatters the mornings by humming arias from Tosca and Turandot as he dusts. A whiff of a plot appears about 70 pages in, when local poet Solomon Solomon, disreputable lecher and drunk, is apparently incinerated when his 12-foot-thick ball of cigarette foil is struck by lightning. Could the mysterious, coded manuscript found in a locked safe behind a bad painting in the brothers' inn be the poet's perverse masterwork? Did he know the bachelors' longdeceased mother? And, oh, yes, does anybody need a recipe for bottled pickles? Harmless, sweetly miscellaneous glimpses into a pastoral paradise that, at its best, resembles its author's definition of a good bathroom book: so ""sufficiently pithy that it can be absorbed in brief spurts.
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1997
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Wyatt/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
Categories: FICTION
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.