Good sex scenes in an otherwise run-of -the-mill pseudo-literary romance.
Dying woman finds true love before it’s too late—in a so-so debut.
Blair Clemens lives a semi-bohemian life in San Francisco, working as a chef to support herself and teenaged daughter Amanda. While Blair is something of a free spirit, at least as far as sleeping with men casually is concerned, she and Amanda—whose father was a brief affair during Blair’s hippie youth—are devoted to each other. Amanda doesn’t appear to have or need friends among her peers and displays no typical adolescent ambivalence toward her mother. Shortly after Blair learns she has incurable melanoma, she receives a phone call from Luke Bellingham. Luke is a successful screenwriter who’s been living for three months as a recluse in his mountain cabin since his wife left him without warning. Recruited by his and Blair’s prep-school reunion committee to track “lost souls” (missing alumni), he puts Blair first on his list because, while he never knew her well—he was handsome and popular, she a scholarship student outsider—he based his Academy Award–winning script on the story everyone in their town knew about her rape. Now the chemistry between her and Luke is immediate. Amanda is wary, although she loves his dog, but Luke begins to win her over too. Then Luke’s ex-wife Emily reappears, pregnant, and wants her husband back. Sensitive and responsible man that he is, Luke is torn, but no reader will doubt his choice. Conveniently, he discovers that Emily—actually the most complex character here—is lying about the paternity of her baby, and though he moves in with Blair and Amanda, he and Blair face yet another trial. Amanda reads a short story he’s written about a man’s attraction to a teenaged girl, and she confuses fiction with fact. After Luke proves his innocence, the three settle into his mountain cabin to await Blair’s demise.
Good sex scenes in an otherwise run-of -the-mill pseudo-literary romance.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-446-53141-3
Page Count: 302
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2003
This overlong (946 pages) and rather pretentious first novel concerns itself with the impasse of the modern intellectual, living in a world where everyone wears a false face of one kind or another, wanting to believe in something, and "knowing" too much to have faith in anything. The scene is Spain, Rome and Paris in Europe, New York City (mainly Greenwich Village) and a New England town in the United States, and at moments an unnamed Central American Republic. The characters, and they multiply- since Mr. Gaddis has tried to write a "novel without a hero", range from hipsters and homosexuals to spoiled Catholics and Puritans to aimless pseudo-intellectuals, town drunkards, and religious fanatics. In what is also a novel without a defined plot, the most interesting parts concern Wyatt Gwyon, as his various activities take him from forging old masters in New York to Spain where he attempts to find some kind of truth; and his father, a New England minister who converts himself to Mithraism- sun worship. But the main fault of the novel is a complete lack of discipline. Gaddis writes with ease and vigor about a Greenwich Village gathering, but repeats this sequence many times. He knows many odd facts about ancient religious and he injects them all. He is familiar with many languages, and there are passages in Spanish, Italian, French, German, Latin and even Hungarian. It is a pity that, in his first novel, he did not have stronger editorial guidance than is apparent in the book for he can write very well- even though most of the time he just lets his pen run on.
Pub Date: March 10, 1955
ISBN: 1564786919
Page Count: 976
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1955
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A quick-witted and ultimately hopeful look at what it takes to make a marriage last.
A couple decides to save their relationship by attempting an open marriage.
Jessica and Mitch Butler have a happy marriage. Well, happy enough. Married for years with two children, it’s inevitable that they won’t feel the swells of passion every day, right? But when their three best couple friends get divorced around the same time, Jessica and Mitch start to reevaluate things. They thought their friends’ marriages were fine, but something tore them all apart. And, naturally, Jessica and Mitch start to wonder if the same thing could happen to them. So, to stave off the divorce that now seems inevitable, they try something dramatic: an open marriage. More specifically, an “evolved” marriage, one that allows each of them to have sex with other people, with several rules in place (no repeats, no one they know, etc.). Jessica immediately hits it off with a young, sexy bartender who sweeps her off her feet, but Mitch has more trouble connecting with women. And both of them realize, with help from their divorced friends, that dating is a lot different now that apps are on the scene. Although Jessica and Mitch’s plan may be a bit out of the box, their relationship and feelings are believable. Norman (We’re All Damaged, 2016, etc.) also creates a plethora of rounded, quirky side characters, including Jessica’s teenage therapy patient Scarlett and Mitch’s nerdy student Luke. When all of those characters come together in the story’s climax, the result is a scene worthy of a Shakespearean comedy.
A quick-witted and ultimately hopeful look at what it takes to make a marriage last.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984821-06-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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