A lighthearted novel with some interesting tidbits about chemistry and attraction and a clever criticism of how technology...
A novel about the complexities of relationships, the nature of romantic chemistry and dating in the digital age.
At the center of Diersen’s debut novel is Wisconsin-based advice columnist Roxanne Browne, who dispenses her wisdom via a syndicated column. One day, Roxanne receives a letter asking for her advice regarding online dating. Unversed in the world of Internet relationships, she decides to delve headfirst into investigating that world—particularly one site, thematchcafe.com, which distinguishes itself by claiming to use a science-based system to “match members based on common values and other key components of compatibility.” Roxanne decides to test its science via a simple plan: Both she and her beloved husband, Walker, will join the site, fill out personality surveys, then wait to be paired as a match. All does not go according to plan, however; she and Walker, happily married and with excellent chemistry, are not deemed a compatible pair—a result that launches an even deeper investigation into the site’s method of calculating compatibility. Roxanne recruits Walker to help; he’ll go on blind dates with several women the site has deemed to be good matches for him, then report on their actual, in-person compatibility. What ensues are several hilarious dates, lots of critical analysis and even more uncertainty about what makes two people the perfect pair. Within an amusing framework, Diersen’s entertaining book explores some heavy, important themes: commitment in relationships, different types of attraction, and the biological and psychological factors behind chemistry. Diersen includes many rich, well-developed, likable characters, including Alethia Dornquast, Roxanne’s narcissistic friend with an overinflated ego, and Bunny and Mack, her loving if cartoonish parents who are compared to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. However, she also includes the tales of several characters not directly related to the book’s plot, and the lengths of those stories and their level of detail often distract from the novel’s actual narrative. For example, Chapter 6 features an in-depth story about Renee, a former client of Roxanne’s, and her abusive relationship, which lasts for more than 10 pages but has no direct connection to the online-dating plot. More focus on the actual characters involved in investigating thematchcafe.com would serve to make the already engaging plot more compelling.
A lighthearted novel with some interesting tidbits about chemistry and attraction and a clever criticism of how technology can connect yet disconnect two people.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615663777
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Blue Gentian Books
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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