Foolishness: a Harlequin romance written by Andrew Weil.
A New Age first novel by Canadian Harbor, a poet and short-story writer (Let Me Be the One, 1997), about a young woman who becomes obsessed with her reflexologies.
Mad, driven passion can take on a universe of forms, but it usually leaves its victims feeling rather pleased with themselves in the end—possibly because they made it out alive, possibly because they fell apart so spectacularly in the first place. In this case, narrator Claire Vornoff begins in the traditional way, unhappily ensconced in the quietly depressing routines of daily life. Claire works as a physician’s assistant and takes courses in literature and psychology at the university. Originally from the rural plains of Saskatchewan, she lives by herself in Ottawa and hasn’t had sex in more than two years. In order to find relief from her persistent migraines, she visits Declan Farrell, a practitioner of alternative medicine. Declan, married and a father, is somewhat distant and peremptory, his sessions consisting of a combination of massage, acupuncture, and some more esoteric exercises (like biting on the caps of shampoo bottles). Claire doesn’t know what he’s trying to achieve with her, but he has a captivating manner—“When you were a little girl, something made you open your eyes much too wide. You tried to see everything all at once and you ended up seeing not very much. My guess is that you let people push you around”—so she continues to visit him weekly and even learns how to drive so as to see him at his center in the countryside. Much goes on in Claire’s life: her father dies, she has sex again (with a history professor from Carleton University), nearly gets pregnant—and she falls in love with Declan. Though this confuses her, she moves to Toronto eventually. And, at end, something very sad happens, and Claire learns a lot about herself and the world.
Foolishness: a Harlequin romance written by Andrew Weil.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-100894-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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