LOVE, PAIN, AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING

by Doris Dorrie ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1989

Acclaimed young German filmmaker Dorrie, best known here for Men, makes her literary debut with four stories fashioned from four of her movies. Each of Dorrie's stories works like a little movie: a character or a dire circumstance forces her quirky characters to live out a strange and unexpected ""what if."" In ""Straight to the Heart,"" a depressed and isolated young student decides to dye her hair blue and play her saxophone on the street. She captures the attention of an austere dentist, who offers her a contract to brighten his life with her interesting bohemian ways. The young woman is driven crazy by their austere, uncommitted life in his country house, however, so she stages a phony pregnancy that has a literally electrifying ending. The story ""Men"" will be familiar to many American moviegoers: a 40-ish, pompous advertising executive loses his wife to an aging hippie, so he seeks his revenge by moving in with the laid-back chap and turning him into a model bourgeois just like himself. ""Money"" offers a hilarious, heart-wrenching scenario: a housewife turns to bank-robbery when she learns that her lackluster husband has lost his job in a toy factory. Finally, in the haunting ""Paradise,"" a scientist meets his wife's old school chum, a countrified idiot savant who reads Flaubert. She sparks passion in both spouses, and teaches the husband that love is the ultimate projection. Lean, exuberant little scenarios about the demented side of middle-class life, likely to appeal to hip, young readers.

Pub Date: May 1, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION